Beauty symbolises the appearance of a person and the kindness of a heart, but it has become synonymous with women and with facial beauty. One of the most popular competitions that are given worldwide attention is the Olympics and the Beauty Pageants. There is no doubt that the Beauty Pageants- Miss Universe, Miss World, and Miss International are the most popular pageants today. Its popularity has only been increasing every year with hardly anyone questioning its credibility. However, this year, the Beauty Pageants came under a lot of fire when Harnaaz Sandhu from India was crowned Miss Universe, becoming India’s third entrant, and almost after 21 years when Lara Dutta was crowned in 2000. India has done seemingly well in beauty pageants, but in an age of social awareness, advocacy, and progressive values, a rigid system like the beauty pageant surviving innately has reduced women’s worth to their external features.
Beauty Pageants, however, in today’s times, objectify women. They are solely based and judged on women’s appearance and the way they carry themselves. The uncanny similarities between all the contestants are unignorable: ideal shape, shimmering gowns, and perfectly done makeup and hair. What is more, striking is the public acceptance in the light of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements despite all the freedom that the world says that they can have and their real value comes from their looks and insane body standards.
Let us not make a fool of ourselves. Beauty Pageants were never about empowerment. All that the pageants do is pit one woman against another, where the less pretty and fat are viewed undesirably, while the ones who do are sexualized. I have never seen a ‘healthy’ woman being crowned as Miss World to date or even a woman who did not fit the standards of beauty that were described by the society. And such a contest where women are rated for their bodies is inherently wrong and is reduced to just numbers on the scoreboard. They are encouraged to be “passive objects” of sexual desire for men, but not as individuals who can make their own choices.
Pageants have a wrong influence on society from affecting the self-esteem of young girls to causing depression because they set insanely unimaginable body standards for women and tell them that having a pretty face is necessary. They also promote cosmetic surgeries to the extent that women have multiple surgeries to fit into society’s standards. They affect social identity so much that even parents encourage and force their children, even kids to get Botox shots and starve them to death, destroying their innocence.
The most regressive of all these is the swimsuit round. Some pageants maintained the swimsuit round, despite the heavy criticism they received. Despite their impressive credentials, women were still paraded in front of the judges in a bikini to be evaluated. Somehow, I feel that the beauty contests try to imply that they give young women a ‘platform’ with opportunities, and that success is impossible without beauty. Furthermore, beauty pageants highlight that men and women have different vocabularies of beauty and judging standards. We do not have male beauty pageants or competitions where men are being evaluated on how they look, how they wear their suits, and their ability to answer a question.
Beauty pageants do have their talent round as well. However, when a competition this big excludes a majority of the women’s section who find them unreliable due to their body sizes and shapes, this competition does more harm than good. Even the criteria for getting selected for the pageants don’t reflect the varied diversities and complexities of human experiences. The male gaze plays a crucial role in villainizing young girls into accepting the one-size body model. Beauty pageants aren’t, in all their glory, at all inclusive of women of all age groups, especially people from the LGBTQ+ community.
Beauty Pageants reek of patriarchy, sexism, and misogyny. The underlying message they portray is that no matter how much ‘empowered’ their contestants are, a woman’s value is naturally linked to her aesthetic worth. This is the most dangerous idea in front of young girls today — essentially, no matter how funny, kind, or intelligent you are, all that doesn’t matter unless you have a pretty face. Beauty pageants create a culture where women are leered at first, after which they are heard. It’s as if men ask for sexual favours to listen to women.
Such contests only embolden the idea that a woman’s bra size nullifies the effervescence of her mind; that the way she walks will always be more important than her intelligence, passion, and talents. Women who are subject to such standards of physical beauty on a score of ten that says nothing about their personalities, interests, or passions, need a therapist, not a number out of ten.
The empowerment that only comes with a tiara and a score, fitting in the 1% type of women, is not empowerment but oppression in different outfits. Why can’t the world believe that women can achieve great things like many female Prime Ministers, Nobel prize winners, and other such brave and fantastic women, without the promise of a shiny crown at the end?
We still have a long way to go, when we speak of equality and rank women on beauty, rather than listening to what they say. Beauty pageants and contests are remnants of misogyny, sexism, and patriarchy which should not be allowed to continue any longer. In an era of women breaking records, shattering glass ceilings, and advocating women’s equality, beauty pageants stand as a testament to an ancient era that clings to a narrow ideal of assessing beauty rather than evolving with time. There is a group of people who support these pageants citing the opportunities that the crown brings with itself to advocate for social causes. However, the same resources can be diverted to education rather than making girls believe that beauty fits into one size. Empowerment is about equal opportunities and that is what every woman demands and deserves.
