What is beauty? It seems like a simple enough question, yet it has an extremely elusive, ever-changing answer according to American society. What is “popular” or “stylish” at the moment could be completely obsolete the next. This question has plagued societies for ages and continues to motivate women all over the world go to drastic lengths in their search for beauty. As women in remote Asian villages search to attain beauty by stretching their necks with heavy metal coils (Anitei) and women in America lie in enclosed melanoma-inducing tunnels of light so they can emerge gloriously tanned (Is Indoor Tanning Safe?), God has another, far more fulfilling plan for true beauty. Beauty in American society is so fluid, elusive, and superficial that it doesn’t possibly equate to the plan that God has for women to view themselves. Real beauty comes from character, confidence, and an identity in Christ. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/basic_info/indoor_tanning.htm>. Jett, Bethany. The Cinderella Rule: A Young Woman's Guide to Happily Ever After. Ventura: Regal, 2013. Print. Lucado, Jenna. Redefining Beautiful: What God Sees When God Sees You. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2009. Print. "People & Events: Origins of the Beauty Pageant." Public Broadcasting System. Public Broadcasting System. Web. 13 Apr 2014. . Rey, Jessica. “The Evolution of the Swim Suit.” YouTube. YouTube, LLC. 17 June 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. Schultz, Kristen, and Ann Pleshette Murphy. " Home> GMA Beauty Pageants Draw Children and Criticism." ABC News. ABC News Network, 26 Feb 2014. Web. 13 Apr 2014. . Stephens, Andrea. Glamour Girls. Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 2006. Print.
Watson, Elwood, and Darcy Martin. “The Miss America Pageant: Pluralism, Femininity, and Cinderella All in One.” The Journal of Popular Culture 34.1 (2000): 105-126. Print.
Children beauty pageants encourage young girl’s to wear make-up, dress in fancy, expensive clothes, and prove to the judges they have what it takes to beat the other contestants. Jessica Bennett states in Tales of a Modern Diva “But this, my friends, is the new normal: a generation that primps and dyes and pulls and shapes, younger and with more vigor. Girls today are salon vets before they enter elementa...
Laeng, B. Vermeer, O., Sulutvedt U. “Is Beauty in the Face of the Beholder?” Plos One. (2013): 6-7 Ebscohost. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
Throughout the centuries, notions about the female body have created and recreated the human form. This has resulted in many varieties of depictions of the female body and thoughts of what “beauty” is and how to represent the female body in different
"Effects of Beauty Pageants - Writing.Com." The Online Community for Writers. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. .
Child Beauty Pageant Statistics. Occupy Theory. N.p., 20 Dec. 2013. Web. The Web.
“We Define Beauty!” New Moon Girls 17.5 (2010): 20. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 20. Nov. 2013.
In American society the promotion of beauty pageants and the like, are in direct relation to the physical and emotional issues arising within women. Like such television shows encouraging and persuading young girls to participate in these activities. Society supports the notion of giving females opportunities to experience and put the act of perfection out. Society puts these females out as role models when they are a complete opposite of how a normal teenage being and young ladies should appear to society on an everyday basis. The display of body figures and facial appearances lead to unhealthy decisions and eating disorders. An appearance, motive, goal, image whether it’s a personality call or look wise; society has taken an overstate view of an actual human being.
As the clock steadily ticks down the minutes until show time, the dressing rooms grow chaotic as last minute preparations are performed. Final gusts of hair spray are generously applied to the girls’ hair, and extra bobby pins are securely fastened to their heads to prevent a single hair from falling out of place. While the girls apprehensively await their moments to shine, their stylists and mothers hastily finish applying their makeup and adjusting their glitzy outfits. Aside from a few shed tears, the girls are soon ready to begin. When the announcer calls for the girls to assemble into their performance order, the fluttering of the butterflies in their stomachs intensifies, and their parents offer words of advice such as, “Don’t forget you step, step, turn!” and “Smile big, baby!” After they perform their routines, the girls swiftly run into the warm embrace of their parents because, contrary to typical beauty pageant contestants, these girls are younger than thirteen years old, and a few are too young to even walk on their own. Ever since the 1960’s, beauty pageants have entered the world of children’s activities, thus drawing obvious controversy over the issue (Nussbaum 1). With mutual goals of winning the top honor of Grand Supreme, the young beauties are judged on, “individuality in looks, capability, poise, perfection and confidence. As the judges call it, ‘the complete package’” (Nussbaum 1). Because of these seemingly harsh stipulations, numerous people have developed negative viewpoints about child beauty pageants; however, others believe there are positive aspects found in the competitions.
As stated by ‘The Duchess’, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford’s famous quote “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” As a result, beauty can describe as an inspiring view present in everything that can be seen. To begin, beauty can be viewed in a building as large and extravagant as the white house to the small hometown market or even in the sight of a single flower to a field filled with a million flowers. Also, beauty can be seen in the sunrise over the peaks of the mountains and also in the sunset glowing across a calm lake surrounded by the bright colors of the fall trees. Furthermore, people have physical beauty, which can be found in a person’s features, figure, or complexion. In the poem “Beauty & Dress” by Robert Herrick he explains the beauty he sees in his wife. Herrick states,
Still to this day, the words “You are the winner of this year’s Miss American Pageant,” sounds through this nations ears as they witness another “perfect” woman crowned into the face of American beauty. We witness these winners enter into the stereotypical ideal of what a women should ultimately look and aspire to be. This image, who many still feel exists in modern day, however was amplified in the mid-1900s. Along with beauty pageants winners, women were put up against the image of unrealistic characters like Barbie dolls and exposed to Hollywood icons like Marilyn Monroe. All of which were a part of further creating that time period’s idea of how women should look and act and contributing to potential needed changes for the future.
Throughout history there have been many claims about what is beautiful and what is not on the face and body. America’s idea of beauty in the past changed many times from the fragileness of the Steel-engraving lady to the voluptuousness of the Greek slave. The ideal beauty in America is not so different from the ideal beauty of cultures around the world and follows many of the traditions practiced throughout history. The widespread of advertisement and technology is something that’s said to be the contributing problem to the ideal women phenomenon, but I believe history and trend plays the bigger role.
I would like to begin with the fact that women have always been known to dedicate their time to beauty. Those who are devoted to their appearance most often believe that beauty brings power, popularity, and success. Women believe this, because they grow up reading magazines that picture beautiful women in successful environments; not to mention they are popular models and world famous individuals. Beautiful women are no longer just a priority for most advertising, but we have become a walking target for the working class employers. It is documented that better-looking attorneys earn more than others after five years of practice, which was an effect that grew with experience (Biddle, 172). We cannot overlook the fact that it is always the most popular and most beautiful girl who becomes homecoming-queen or prom-queen. While these are possible positive effects of the "beauty myth," the negative results of female devotion to beauty undercut this value. These effects are that it costs a lot of money, it costs a lot of time, and in the long run, it costs a lot of pain.
Cromie, William J. “The Whys and Woes of Beauty Pageants.” News.harvard.edu. 2000-2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Today there are many new extracurricular activities that occupy a lot of young Americans minds. One trending activity is beauty pageants. It is more common in children where the ages may vary between eight months and even older. The trending debate is whether or not beauty contest serve any purpose in society. While many Americans feel as though pageants are helpful to a child’s self esteem, many feel that the effects of the contest have a very harsh effect on child development by devaluing a child. Researchers have found that beauty contests are effective for women to help make platforms for their careers and also create new jobs for women to create like mentoring children.