Are Pageants the Future of Beauty?

This essay won a bronze award at the Queens Commonwealth Essay competition, and the third place at the Girl’s who Write essay competition

Beauty pageants are an age-old concept that gained popularity in the 1920s, but of late, people are beginning to question its relevance. Some say that these pageants serve as a means to empower women while connecting opinions argue that it is a patriarchal concept that is the ‘epitome of objectification’. Though pageants can be used as a way for women to escape poverty and gain access to various opportunities, this system is flawed, as it judges women based on their beauty, rather than their merit.

Every pageant has restrictions for its participants, such as - age, height, weight, marital status, etc. These criteria display a blatant lack of inclusivity, encouraging ideal and stereotypical qualities. They give weightage to euro-centric features, promoting the ideology that a certain body type, skin colour, etc. is the benchmark and anything different is considered mediocre. They promote unrealistic beauty standards, forcing people to take unhealthy measures to ensure conformity.

Under pressure to fit into the mould of “beauty”, women push themselves into dangerous practices like plastic surgery, and eating disorders and completely sacrifice their sense of self-worth at the beauty pageant altar.

Further, to imply that the face of women’s empowerment is superficially beautiful also takes away from the depth of the concept of empowerment itself. How can the extent of a person's beauty impact their ability to make a change in society?

Not only are these outlandish beauty standards detrimental to the participants themselves, but they also severely impact the population at large. Children’s minds are easily susceptible to external influence, especially from the media they consume.

Presenting young kids with this unattainable goal, that is - the ‘perfect body’, is only serving to raise a generation of people with dangerously low self-esteem.

Beauty pageants often have their roots set in patriarchy, which is contradictory to its so-called message of ‘women’s empowerment’. Women are pitted against each other, paraded around like slabs of meat to be ordered on a menu, and evaluated from a highly critical male vantage point. These pageants are designed to serve the male gaze and women are viewed through the patriarchal lens of long-outdated beauty standards. Even though male pageants exist, they are not as popular as women’s and are based on their strength, not just their looks. This again implies that women exist only to be picture viewed, while men are the ones who have real-life talents, perpetuating stereotypical notions of the position of men and women in society.

Supporters of these pageants argue that they can also be beneficial to women. They raise financial resources for social causes, as well as grant various scholarships to women in need. There is indeed merit in this, but the same end can be achieved by a system that does not validate the idea that your worth is tied to your looks (and the narrow definition of what is considered beautiful). Although pageants do require women to showcase their talents, a majority of the importance is given to looks. Talents like singing, dancing and gymnastics are common as they are ‘feminine’ and participants with such talents have the upper hand.

That being said, we must still acknowledge the advantages that beauty pageants offer. These pageants are marketed as “beauty with a purpose” and they do serve the purpose of uplifting weaker sections of society. A lot of money is made through pageants in the form of sponsorships and entry fees. This money goes towards various charities, as well as to the winners themselves as scholarships. Thus, women who come from underprivileged backgrounds are granted opportunities that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. They are also provided with a platform to voice their opinions and to make themselves heard by the masses. They can also teach young women certain essential qualities such as - self-condense, discipline, drive, communication skills and good sportsmanship. They motivate girls to improve both internally and externally.

In the words of the poet Maya Angelou:

“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”

We are built to be unique and we must not only accept but celebrate our diversity and all our imperfections that make us perfectly human. Though the idea behind beauty pageants could potentially champion the cause of women’s empowerment, the portrayal of pageants in the media and their overall execution is highly flawed and needs to be changed, before these pageants become completely redundant in our society.