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Beauty standards in society
Argumentative essays about beauty pageants
Body image and its effects
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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. A large percentage of the TV viewers who tune into watch the Miss America pageant are men. Men increase their standards of women based on the image of Miss America. This is not fair to women because they are then placed in certain categories by men. This results in women degrading themselves to attract the attention of certain men. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, there are 363,912 liposuction procedures annually. Also, there are 313,327 breast procedures done annually. The number of surgical procedures gradually …show more content…
increases every year because more and more women become comfortable with changing their bodies. The Miss America Beauty Pageant requires contestants to spend a huge amount of money to prepare for the pageant. In the article “The High Cost of Beauty Pageants”, by Nadine DeNinno, she explains how contestants may spend up to eight-thousand dollars on their outfits. Plus the contestants must pay a fee to enter the competition. These women could be spending their life saving to compete in a competition that they might not win. Therefore, these women are risking a lot to participate in a competition of this magnitude. Competing is not always a negative thing, but, in this situation it is. America Beauty Pageant only allows women who are of a certain weight and size to participate in the pageant. The women who enter the pageant work their entire lives to even get a chance at competing for the Miss America Scholarship. This pageant teaches women and children that they have to look better than every girl in America. Little girls should not be focused on their appearance, but their education. Women make appearance their priority which will eventually contribute to their want for plastic surgery. People rarely pay attention to the negative of the pageant.
The effect that beauty pageants have on American women is overlooked because of the popularity of the event. I do not blame the pageant completely for the insecurities of women, but, it contributes to their insecurities. It is not fair that women who are 100 pounds are favored over women who are 130 pounds because they are slimmer. If beauty pageants are not banned at least stop televising them to the millions of public viewers. Society can be very influential when it comes to the appearance of women. Women should not feel like they have to reach certain standards or they will not be accepted. A women’s beauty should not be based on their weight, and height. Beauty comes in all sizes, shapes, and
forms.
“A small study published in Eating Disorders the journal of treatment and prevention, that involved 22 women” (Hollandsworth). Girls are choosing unhealthy ways to stay fit and what they call the perfect size just to have a big appeal to the audience when at pageants. The encouragement of this behavior can lead to many body complications and disorders for these girls as they develop, only because they are not truly developing as an average young lady. “A 2007 report issued by the American Psychological Association Task force on the Sexualization of girls claims that parents who put their daughters in beauty pageants can contribute in very direct concrete ways to the precocious sexualization of the daughters” ( Hollandsworth). There has been research to prove that the actions of the young ladies is not all on their own, they have assistance with getting prepared for competitions and what to perform in competitions. Parents add more than what is necessary and can have a negative impact and not even know they are making matters worst than what they have to be. “Kiddie pageants are flourishing. Fueled by a reality TV show, an estimated 250,000 American girls participate in more than 5,000 beauty pageants every year” (Hollandsworth). Exploitation of these young girls is the “NEW BIG THING” to see and enjoy. Adults would rather watch little girls flaunt themselves
Since the Miss America Pageant was established in 1921, conceptions of the beauty of American women have been based, in part, on the winner of this pageant. Sarah Banet-Weiser writes in her book, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, that “the woman selected as Miss America apparently 'represents' the nation” (Banet-Weiser 56). As a result of representing the American nation, the winner of the Miss America pageant is looked up to as a model for style and beauty among women. Since its inception, the Miss America pageant has come under attack from feminist organizations for exploiting women's bodies despite the fact that it is a scholarship program; the pageant rewards contestants a scholarship for continuing education based on their responses in the interview and the talent portions of the pageant as well as their performance in the swimsuit competition. A beauty pageant, such as the Miss USA pageant, is strictly concerned with a woman's outer beauty and does not include the talent or interview portions.
...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.
The Miss America Pageant was a wake-up call for people everywhere. The roles of women were changing, and there was little anyone could do to stop it. New attitudes were showcased in the pageant by young women who were well-educated and ready to take on the world. They inspired people and showed America a different kind of woman, one who was proud of her looks, personality, and intelligence. Not everyone supported the pageant though, and those who did not made their opinions known. The competition had its fair share of scandals as well, but good or bad the Miss America Pageant has enthralled audiences long past the 1920s.
Over the years, what Americans have considered to be “beautiful,” as well as attitudes about how much a woman should display herself have changed drastically. Phineas T. Barnum, a founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, organized the first beauty contest in the 1850s, but was unsuccessful at first because no respectable Victorian woman of that time would be audacious enough to publicly display herself and be judged. Even though they were not asked to showcase their bodies like in modern beauty pageants, it was considered embarrassingly immodest for a woman to draw that much attention to herself (People & Events: Origins of the Beauty Pageant). Then, when beauty pageants did eventually catch on, the expectation of what women and their bodies looked like also changed. In 1930, the average body mass index (BMI) of a beauty pageant co...
Beauty pageants have caused an increase in mental and physical issues in young girls who participate. Participation and competition for a beauty prize where infants and girls are objectified and judged against sexualized ideals can have significant mental health and developmental consequences that impact detrimentally on identity, self-esteem, and body perception ("We must protect our kids from the catwalk of shame."). If young girls don't win, they might take it personally and get hurt feelings. The child might end up feeling unattractive or inadequate ("Child Beauty Pageants Pros and Cons.") which can lead to the development of disorders such as bulimia or anorexia. ("How Do Child Beauty Pageants Affect a Child's Development?") These are both eating disorders girls develop to lose weight excessively. Furthermore, the average BMI of a beauty pageant contestant as of 2010 is 18.3 (Beauty Pageant Statistics), which is classified as underweight...
Beauty pageants are no help to the cause either. Miss America has become a job for women that represent their country from the way their face looks, rather than their ideas and vocal capabilities. We have become a nation centered around beauty and appearance and this annual television show has followed in this trend’s wake.
...t matter if you can't breathe. It matters if it looks good", says the mother of a beauty pagent child. This shows that the children are not at the best intention and its all about the prizes and publicity for some parents. Encouraging young girls to dress scandalously can lead to child pedophilia and also small mesasures of child pornography. Who would want to bring their beautiful children into such repulsive difficulties?. Beauty pageants have shown to cause serious effects on children such as, psychological issues,depression and eatting disorders. Children should not be entered in beauty pagents until they are old enough to make their own decisons about wethier it's what they want to do or not. The object of beauty contests is to win the nobel prize; a huge sum of money and the parents of these entering coach their kids to win,no matter how much it takes.
Now let us know the other side of the story. Others argued that beauty pageants promote self-esteem. Facing other people is not easy. Only few are capable enough that can face the crowd with great confidence. It is indeed in beauty pageants that women gain confidence. It is in beauty pageants that allow women to be empowered. They are given the chance to meet other people. Meeting those new faces will boosts their confidence. It is in meeting those new faces and seeing people happy and proud on what they are doing on stage that they feel that they are given importance and they are idolize. It is also their time to show to others their hidden talents. It is in beauty pageants also that they want to prove to all that they can overcome their shyness in facing different types of people.
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.
Beauty pageants are interwoven into the everyday lives of Americans. Citizens grow up watching pageants on television, idolizing pageant girls, and comparing themselves to those girls that they see. While it is normal for American society, it is not healthy. Idolizing and comparing themselves to these perfect people can give girls body complexes about appearance and issues that could be prevented with the abolishment of beauty pageants in the United States. Pageants not only give girls unrealistic expectations for beauty, they also change the relationships between parents and children. High-pressure situations are never good for young kids, but beauty pageants take stress to the next level. Pageants should be prohibited in the United States
In today’s society, childhood beauty pageants are spreading across the nation. Little girls put on fake teeth and shinny dresses and walk across the stage with a sometimes painful looking smile all to impress judges that determine whether they are smart, pretty, and talented enough to be crowned a beauty queen. They show the judges exactly what they are not and get rewarded for such actions. Because of this, young girls who take part in these pageants are suffering from distorted body images, and the number keeps growing and growing. More and more girls who participate in these contests have shown greater signs of depression, lack of self-esteem, and eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa. As a whole, young girls and women alike are highly affected by participating in such events. Women of beauty pageants have been known to act out or commit crimes such as drunk driving, sexting, and more. Even women that do not participate in these pageants, but had in the past, struggle with distorted body image problems due to their previous experience with the world of beauty pageants. Women of all ages that participate in beauty pageant show a vastly higher number of psychological problems, causing them to act upon these thoughts. Many Americans have started to notice the trend and have start to propose that the United States needs to lay down guidelines and such for these contests, others say that they should just be banned for certain age groups. Because of the increasing number of women who suffer self-image and psychological problems related to the world of pageantry, young women and mothers alike should consider whether pageants are worth the confidence and happiness of themselves or ...
The history of pageants has dated back to the 1920s, when the first Miss America, Margaret Gorman, was crowned. According to research, The United States has traced back its roots of pageantry where it even dates back when the Women’s Liberation and Civil Rights Movement started. In the early 1920s, also known as the “Roaring Twenties,” women did not have any rights in the United States. Society during this time saw women having the role of being married and staying at home while taking care of their kids and tending to their homely duties. Women in the 1920s were in the process of fighting for their right to vote as well as having equal rights in America and being able to work in the workforce. On August 18, 1920, the change for women’s rights had just begun, the 19th amendment passed by congress granted women the right to vote in the United States. The labor force for women was beginning to change as well. Women were once seen having the role of “feminine” jobs. Society saw women taking jobs like nursing and teaching. Men did not like the fact that the w...
Statistics show that 6% of girls in beauty pageants record having suffered from long-term depression, 9 out of 10 girls in pageants ages 14-16 admitted to feeling suicidal tendencies or depression, and it is largely caused by the desire to be thin. (Facts/Statistics-Child Beauty Pageants) The question is, is this a proper place for young girls where they are encouraged to act and look as mature as adults? “These pageants force kids to grow up too quickly. The pint-size stars pile on fake hair, heavy makeup, and even false teeth before taking the stage. Many kids wear revealing clothing that critics say aren’t age appropriate.” (Anastasia, Laura) Pageant participants range from ages six months to sixteen years, depending on what competition section they are a part of, and participate in categories of swimsuits, talent, evening wear, and themed costumes. Most girls at these young ages wear overalls and pigtails rather than slinky ensembles and fake hair that overwhelms their features. Not many young girls have the opportunity to dress up in fancy clothes and flaunt what they can do, but there are other pains that come with such moments that can be uncomfortable and confusing to these children, yet to look good they are compelled to grin and bear it. “Four-year-old Karley stands in her
Can anyone actually justify judging someone by their physical appearance? Although parents enjoy seeing their little girls in the spotlight all dolled up, most children don’t enjoy the pageant experience as much as the parents, and this vicarious living is dangerous, and the pageants have the capability of exploiting the children. Beauty pageants have a background of treating women disrespectfully and as if they are not equal. Women’s bodies are seen as objects of beauty as if we are just here to parade around for others. Today’s pageants are still set up in the same direction even for the youngest contests. They are dressed up to look like adults and sometimes dressed provocative. “Beauty pageants are a reflection of a culture in which women are not equal. Women’s bodies are not their own but are seen as objects of beauty for others.” (Nasso).