What are Beauty Contests?
While beauty and its definitions have undergone a sea change with the turn of the century, so have the reactions of society towards the concept of beauty and the commercialization that has led it promoting ideologies that are controversial as they are interesting. These include the much-maligned usage of beauty that has become the chief focus of societal debates about Beauty Contests, their relevance and subjects of prejudice, ethics and human rights linked with them.
History of Beauty Pageants
The ancient European custom of choosing symbolic kings and queens for May Day and other festivities, wherein attractive young men and women, symbolizing their nation's virtues and other abstract ideas, were picked out laid the foundation for the modern beauty contest. P.T. Bartum was the man behind the first modern American pageant staged in 1854, but public protest did him and his idea in. As early as 1880, the first Bathing Beauty Pageant of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, took on the challenge as a means of promoting business and these beauty contests have now become a regular feature of summer beach life as well as great advertising platforms for beauty and products related to the good life often associated with it.
Beautiful Beginning
A beauty contest or pageant is essentially a competition based mainly, but not entirely, on the physical beauty of its contestants. Most beauty contests for men and women are separate events and for the former, these competitions are not referred to as beauty contests but rather as physical appearance and display of strength pageants. Women winning a beauty contest are given the title of a beauty queen, runner’s up regarded as princesses or equivalent while contests for men are judged as body building competitions. Till about 15 years ago, the main focus of contests for men was on the unnatural muscle mass of the contestants and their physical attributes but now the judges’ look towards other attributes like emotional and intellectual responses as well as awareness on current issues of the male contestants. Some of these include Mr. Universe, Mr. International and Mr. America for men while Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, Miss Earth and Mrs. World (for married women) are some famous beauty pageants.
Current Grouse Against Beauty Contests
The usage of beauty for what is considered crass commercialism is a controversial aspect of the culture wars, wherein women’s organizations and feminist groups alike have taken up cudgels to shatter the beauty myth. They claim their grouse against beauty contests is justified and true since these promote a dogmatic, unrealistic and shallow standard that sets the precedence for future generations to ‘be like beauty contest winners’ if they want to be regarded as beautiful and thus damage the much needed virtuous understanding of beauty. Beauty contests are considered degrading both to the viewer and to the contestant by strong feminist groups that compare them to a cattle market for women, with the swimsuit round drawing significant flak for contestants cat walking dressed only in swimsuits and high-heeled shoes.
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