People have different opinions on whether or not beauty contests, or pageants, serve a purpose in today’s society. Some opinions may be that beauty contests serve no purpose in society; they may think beauty contests just cause young girls and women to think that they have to reach society’s description of beauty, they may think that what makes a person beautiful is just what is on the inside, they may even think they are degrading to women. Other opinions may be along the lines of saying it does serve a purpose to society because the queens of these pageants do a lot of community service and other honorable work throughout the year she is “queen”. Beauty contests do serve a purpose in today’s society they can help young women, teenagers, children, and even men to gain confidence, learn lessons, and make new friendships. They can open one up to an extensive amount of opportunities, get one involved in their community, and one may even become a “new” person. After watching shows on television such as Miss America or Toddlers and Tiaras one may make the assumption that beauty pageants are ineffective and serve no purpose rather than to show off young women’s bodies and to sexualize toddler girls; however that notion is far from the truth which is that they do serve a purpose, they can help the part of mankind whom chooses to participate in these competitions to gain confidence. Take Pinky Guerrero as an example, she showed her admirance toward pageants by stating: “the number one of a million reasons to enter a beauty pageant is to build self-confidence. Take me, for example... You would never catch me talking in front of large crowds, or being social at all... until my Mom entered me in my first pageant amongst 213 girls! Talk abou... ... middle of paper ... ...n is based on a solid commitment to uphold the standards of fairness and integrity. It prides itself in providing an avenue for each young woman to give a voice to those needing to be heard, lend a hand to those less fortunate, and be a compass for those daring to dream. At the local, state, and national level the Miss United States Organization gives women the opportunity to promote a platform of community service. The pageant system allows young women all over the country to interact and discuss their achievements in service and volunteerism. It promotes the intellect, moral character and personal engagement of its outstanding participants as they pursue success in achievement. (Miss Georgia United States)” Teaching young women, and children communication skills is contributing to society because the people participating in these competitions are part of society.
The judges of the Miss America pageant have changed through the years to reflect the changing ideals of the pageant itself. “In the early years of the pageant, the judges were primarily artists and illustrators, in part because such men – and they were all men – were considered to have the best eye for the beautiful feminine form. In more recent years, efforts have been made to attract judges who represent the various facets of the pageant” (Banet-Weiser 54). The selection of judges from the fields represented in the pageant show that the Miss America pageant is more than just a strictly beauty pageant. “Defining beauty is an elusive, if not impossible task. No single definition fits because as culture evolves, so does the...
...as Miss USA and Miss Universe are competitions intended for mature, self-assured women who are capable of making their own decisions. Child beauty pageants, however, ruin childhoods and force them to grow up believing in their looks, rather than in themselves. It is no surprise, that emotional distress plagues the contestants that participate in beauty long after stepping off of the stage; subjecting young girls of any age to judgment and ridicule is not only humiliating but horrific to think that we are sitting back being entertained by their competitive nature. Rather than raising strong, confident girls who want to achieve the best in life; the parents and the hosts of these competitions provide a platform on which little girls are dressed up as skimpy Barbie dolls and paraded around, trying to achieve some form of perfection that shouldn’t exist in little girls.
Fake hair, false teeth, spray tans, and waxed eyebrows are just a few things that some of these girls have when preparing to compete. The competition consists of young girls competing for the crown of beauty. Attention starved moms put their daughters in older aged attire and layer them up with makeup and glam to compete for the winning title. The judges pick for the most beautiful girl wins the title, a sparkly crown, a trophy, and cash. Even though beauty pageants teach children to compete, child pageants are affecting children’s childhood because the children grow up faster than they should and it teaches young girls that their true beauty doesn’t exist and they should dress and act older to make people think they are beautiful.
McDowell, Kayla. “Child beauty pageants: big no-no.” Comp Blog. N.p., 21 Mar. 2013. Web. 31
Besides the attractive women in half-naked outfits, what does the Miss America Beauty Pageant really represent? This pageant lowers the self-esteem of women who don’t feel like they meet the standards of what society thinks is a beautiful woman. The pageant alone requires contestants to spend a huge amount of money. The message that this pageant is sending is that all women should compete against each other. The Miss America pageant gains millions of viewers, but people fail to notice the population of women who are not happy with themselves. This pageant has many issues regarding women’s image and the definition of beauty that people need to pay attention to.
"How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?" Everyday Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014
American’s unneeded celebration of beauty in the pageantry world is digging a hole for the country and has been the contributing factor to the downward spiral we are presently in. The system of this pageant needs to change tremendously in order for it to become a beneficial contest in the future. Beauty pageants to...
" In the end, children’s beauty pageants are essentially harmful to both young girls safety and minds. It may not happen to some, but most of the young girls that compete in beauty pageants seem to have a bit of an attitude towards their parents and other people who will not cooperate with them.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Even though during this time Miss America Corporation had tried to changed their idea of pageants to be more of a prestigious and empowering competition, they still created false hope. The hope that one day a young girl: a daughter, a friend or relative would amount to Miss America; however kept families watching. Popular culture wanted people to t...
Issues regarding the purpose of beauty pageants alarm women since majority of the beauty pageants are for them. Let us look at the good side of beauty pageants. First, allows the use...
Modern beauty contests started in the United States of America in 1880 with the first Miss United States bathing beauty contest held at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Since then, beauty pageants had been popular in many parts of the world. Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International, participated in every year by more than fifty countries, ceaselessly attracts huge audiences and supporters. The biggest, the Miss World competition, had been running annually since 1951, and although it is less popular in the UK now than it was in 1968, when it attracted 27.5 million TV viewers, it still attracts an enormous worldwide audience of up to 3 billion viewers in 120 countries. [1] Although the main purpose of these pageants are to empower women, the crowned winners are also traveling around the world in order to support causes like HIV/AIDS and children's charity organizations. [2] Due to the success of these internationally produced pageants, various beauty contests for different classes of age, sex and sexuality stemmed up. However, even with the huge diversity, the content of each pageants have almost always been the same: all of them are comprised of the mainstream categories like swimwear portion and evening gown portion. With these content, beauty pageants gives out strong messages regarding what the ideal type of woman is, hence undermining the purpose of a beauty pageant: to empower women. Thus, although beauty pageants contribute to the entertainment of the masses, it promotes an ideal of female beauty that only a minority of women can realistically aspire, objectifies women, further advances cultural insensitivity among its candidates and uses up too much resources which is why it should be banned.
...le do thing that they do is a good way to prepare for such a career.” In the end, pageants have their good ways and their bad ways. Some parents put their kids in pageants to prove that they are better than others, but other parents do it for their kids to make lifelong friends. (Cromie, 2000)
Cromie, William J. “The Whys and Woes of Beauty Pageants.” News.harvard.edu. 2000-2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
...e becoming available for women. Women are now using their platforms in their pageants and making them now careers. Some beauty contest winners are looking into careers in politics as well as mentoring positions for younger women. Even though some feel that the pageant industry is devaluing children and their self esteem, hindering their development, and expensive, some feel that the pageant industry is now becoming a center for bonding and creating lifelong relationships. Some may even feel that social media is also a source for the negative effects of the pageant industry. America can now see how the simple things like beauty contest could affect a whole nation and change the way the people of society view one another, and we also see how positive the changes have our nation become stronger and created new extracurricular activities for the average American child.
Beauty pageants have long been a form of entertainment, exhibiting beautiful women with ideal bodies competing for their talent and looks. Many pageant moms involve their daughters in children’s pageants to help them improve their social skills, exercise their talents, and boost their self-esteem. Although the pageants may seem like harmless competition with benefits, research shows that they may be doing the young beauty queens more harm than good. “.the girls are receiving conflicting messages: In order to win, the girls must show a unique personality, but they must also act and dress in a hyper feminine manner and conform to the pageant world's ideal standard of beauty and narrow set of conventions.”