I am not going to sugar coat this: beauty pageants are disgraceful. The majority of men and women don't think there is anything wrong with pageants and fully support them. But how can this be? How can it be socially acceptable to judge a woman's worth based on her looks?
Myth: Beauty pageants are actually scholarship pageants, and pageant organizations give away millions of dollars a year in scholarship money. Helping women fund their college education is a positive thing, and really helps women of normal intelligence be able to go to school if they can't earn an academic scholarship.
Truth: Money for college should never be rewarded for looking good. Period. Nobody should get money for college just for being attractive and winning a beauty competition. It doesn't even make sense. It's a nice idea that they give women money for school, but come on! If our society is so concerned with helping people fund their college education, we should be looking at criteria that is based on more than physical appearance. Being attractive has nothing to do with academics, and therefore should not be rewarded with scholarship money.
Not to mention, the women that compete in pageants spend money to do so. Most of the women you see on TV winning the big scholarships, like Miss America, have been involved in pageants since they were young girls. They have likely spent more on entry fees, gowns, coaches, dietitians, personal trainers, dance and/or vocal lessons, professional hair and make-up, fake teeth, hair extensions, fake nails, tanning, etc., then they will ever see returned to them in the form of a scholarship. The gowns alone average $2,000! And even more disturbing is the fact that the entry fees alone are sometimes more than they would actually get if they won first place. So, they would actually lose money, even if they won the grand prize. If these women were so concerned with going to college, why not save that money and pay for it?
Women that win the big bucks for school don't just wake up one day, realize they are poor, and enter a very prestigious beauty pageant with no experience and win the grand prize of full-tuition scholarship to the college of their choice. These women are groomed to compete from a young age, and spend a lot of money to get to the prestigious pageants.
Myth: Pageants are good for a young woman's self-esteem. Being able to present themselves positively in front an audience helps them gain confidence.
Truth: I can't believe I am actually dignifying this with a response, but here it goes- I can't think of anything more detrimental to a woman's self-esteem than to constantly judge her by her looks, compare her to other women, and make her feel like she has to be beautiful to be worth anything. If a woman needs to spend all of her time and energy into looking like a Barbie to have self-esteem, she needs therapy. And is that really self-esteem, or a lack of it? Going to endless lengths to be accepted and adored? Developing an eating disorder so you are as thin as you can possibly be? Getting plastic surgery to look like someone you think you are supposed to look like? Wearing so much make-up you are barely recognizable? I know not all pageant contestants do these things, but they do happen, and it's because a lot of pageant contestants will do whatever they can, healthy or not, just to be as "pretty" as they can possibly be.
Myth: Pageants get women involved in community service.
Truth: Well, that's because community service is required for pageants. I don't hear any accolades for juvenile delinquents who are also required to perform community service. If community service was not required, how many women would actually do it? If they are just there because "they have to be," what kind of hero are they? And if they actually wanted to be there volunteering their time, then they would do it regardless.
Myth: Pageants are not just based on looks. They also require talent and good interviewing skills.
Truth: Excuse me while I laugh my ass off. I challenge anyone who has ever watched a beauty pageant to say this to me with a straight face. Some of the women competing do have actual talent, but these usually aren't the women that advance in the competition. And interviewing "skills" is a stretch. The women are just told to memorize a handful of generic responses, and then just regurgitate whatever answer seems to most appropriately fit the question they were asked. I have seen so many horrible answers and horrible talents go on to win "Miss America." Why is this? Because talent and interviews are just a formality and don't mean anything.
Truth: Excuse me while I laugh my ass off. I challenge anyone who has ever watched a beauty pageant to say this to me with a straight face. Some of the women competing do have actual talent, but these usually aren't the women that advance in the competition. And interviewing "skills" is a stretch. The women are just told to memorize a handful of generic responses, and then just regurgitate whatever answer seems to most appropriately fit the question they were asked. I have seen so many horrible answers and horrible talents go on to win "Miss America." Why is this? Because talent and interviews are just a formality and don't mean anything.
I am actually starting to wonder whether bad talents and answers actually get higher scores. I saw a woman win a televised pageant who said that a woman's role in society is to get married, stay home and raise children. I also saw a woman win a pageant dressed in a 60's outfit, singing "I like to cook and clean for my man." So either the judges reward ignorant, (or as they call them, 'traditional') contestants, or the entire thing is rigged from the beginning.
Bottom Line: Society needs to stop judging women on their looks. It just reinforces the idea that women need to be beautiful. This is not a good message to send to a woman of any age.
And it was recently confirmed that the Miss California pageant paid for Miss California's breast implants weeks before the competition. The pageants idea of beauty is fake breasts? Going under the knife to transform your body? The asshole that confirmed it said she had a better chance of winning the swimsuit competition because she would be more "proportionate." Um, ok. Seeing is that she is skinny as hell, I am thinking a flat chest would look proportionate. And since the pageant paid for the surgery, they must have been pretty confident that the implants were necessary for her success. (What a great self-esteem booster! You need to get plastic surgery to look good enough to win! Sorry, you aren't good enough the way you are!) The rep said that the pageant in no way encouraged the surgery choice, and that the contestant insisted. Of course they are going to say this, otherwise they would look bad. If they didn't agree, they wouldn't have paid for it. And they wouldn't have admitted that it would help her chances of winning.
Last but no least, women walking on a stage in a bathing suit, getting scored on their bodies, is sickening. This doesn't even require an explanation. It's obviously wrong.
