American Beauty Pageants

Introduction
Beauty Pageants are a relic of an old era- where objectifying women was the norm.
Pageants would struggle to pull off a delicate balancing act -- objectifying women while providing them with real opportunities; promoting traditional roles while encouraging women's independence; glorifying feminine modesty while trading on female sexuality.
Along the way, it would come to be a barometer of the nation's shifting ideas about
American womanhood.
With the advent of feminist movement in 20th century and general empowerment of women, it is surprising that these pageants are alive and kicking even today. Sure, they have done away with breakdown of points based on body features- “five for construction of the head, five for the limbs, three

I mean, we could say politically correct that the look doesn't matter, but the look obviously matters, like you wouldn't have your job if you weren't beautiful”
Not only that, it has spawned a whole new genre of Reality television. Reality television discovered the theme of Miss America as a driving narrative in the form of a new genre, the cosmetic surgery makeover show. At the same time that Miss America was losing its television audience, the cosmetic surgery makeover show made its debut on network television, and became an immediate hit. These shows offer personal narratives of individuals (both women and men) as they undergo extensive cosmetic surgery as a way to ‘make over’ their lives; the surgical procedures are positioned as effective means through which one can achieve a more general life transformation. Reality makeover shows clearly and uncritically legitimate the increasing normalization of the cultural practice of cosmetic surgery in US culture, and transparently conflate personal fulfilment and individual achievement with the attainment of aphysically ideal body
Miss America