Often these beauty contests claim to create a platform where woman can enhance their inner beauty and gain the exterior confidence needed in life but fail miserably to do so. Disguised in the name of women’s empowerment, these shows are not only making women feel weak about themselves but also doing a business of producing appealing faces needed for advertisements. These contests or platforms are considered to be a safe space created for women but often turn out to be the worst nightmares for them. Organizers do assure that they will forever cherish those memories but contestants claim to be regretting so.
To deeply understand the history of beauty contests, we travel back to the 18th century. The owner of a circus and museum MR. PT Barnum organized a beauty contest for the first time to attract tourists. Later in the 1920s, due to the decreasing sales of the Monticello Hotel in New Jersey, the shareholders came up with the idea of taking out a parade of 350 women to attract customers. And to nobody’s surprise, a huge mass of men gathered. And boom, it was the birth of an international showcase of women’s bodies. Since the very start, these contests have been a medium of business and enjoyment for a patriarchal society.
Afterward, these so-called beauty products started their campaign of sponsorships to bring their products into the limelight through the contestants. The companies saw a lucrative scope in this beauty market. Then they started their filthy game of making women feel insecure about themselves and marketing their product in the name of business. Today, beauty contests produce women with appealing facial structures to advertise those beauty products.
Beauty Pageants set unrealistic beauty standards for women. They opine the thought that to look beautiful, you need to have a certain height, clean and fair skin, silky hair, and a certain body type. These beauty industries convince women to adorn themselves with their products to look appealing enough to participate in these contests. Beauty contests are organized in the name of women’s empowerment, advocating feminism but even after 200 years, the main motto of these contests remains the same; to attract customers for business houses as if we women are objects to do so. Beauty pageants pose a challenge to women as they are subject to change themselves to judgments based on their physical appearances. Women consider themselves not appealing enough and go through the process of body transformation.
Body transformation often is the result of inferior complexity. The feeling of not being adequate. In the quest to win titles like Miss Beauty and Miss Beautiful Smile contestants undergo significant body transformations. The pressure to conform to an idealized body image is intense, and contestants may adopt extreme dieting, rigorous exercise regimens, and even dedicate themselves to cosmetic procedures to achieve the desired look.
While talking about body transformations we must not forget about the surgeries that have come out in the market these days. The media, advertisements, and social norms often project narrow definitions of beauty, promoting certain physical attributes as ideal. Procedures like laser hair removal, rhinoplasty, lip fillers, botox, etc. consistently remind us how our natural appearance is not enough to look attractive. These transformations provide the desired look for the moment but leave indelible scars inside the body. We are unaware of how these beauty industries make money out of our fear of getting that ideal look.
The constant scrutiny, comparison, and pressure to conform to unrealistic standards can lead to anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia. Additionally, youths who do not conform to the rigid expectations of these shows and societies face major struggles in embracing themselves the way they are. This later reinforces long-term mental health issues persisting to adulthood too.
Criteria of things like height, body type, weight, and skin type are impeding women to their physical appearances and focusing on external attributes rather than intelligence, skills, or character. And this negatively impacts the self-esteem and body images of those who don’t fit into these standards. This objectification can reinforce gender stereotypes and contribute to the marginalization of women. If these contests focused on women’s empowerment, why are these criteria set based on a woman’s physical appearance?
Only non-profit organizations like Miss World and Miss Universe work for the welfare of women and voluntarily work to benefit underprivileged ones around the globe. But Miss World still has certain criteria for a contestant to participate restricting the true beauty of women that lies within herself. Miss Universe, on the other hand, has removed certain things and allowed women to embrace themselves the way they are. Recently, Miss Universe Nepal Ms. Jane Deepika Garett promoted body positivity on a huge platform and empowered thousands of women like her.
But the truth is no matter how much we preach about beauty pageants being frivolous, outdated, and scorned they will continue to remain a part of our society. So, how can we protect our youths from its wrong impact? The answer is: that these beauty contests need to be more accepting towards all the gender, height, weight, and color type participants. Contestants should understand that beauty standards society upholds are illusions and be impervious to the judgments passed on them. Everyone has a beauty within them. All of us are different in different unique ways. Beauty contests need to focus on boosting confidence, women empowerment, and the interior beauty of a woman rather than their external features. Youths need to love themselves the way they are. You do not need to be considered beautiful by others but when you look yourself in the mirror you better love what you see. I have some news for you… if you believe you’re perfect, then you’re probably the queen. Always remember, “YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!”
