The Characteristics Of Beauty Pageants

Beauty pageants have been a part of world culture for many years. In recent years, these pageants have lost sight of the original purpose, to empower the women involved. Their focus has shifted from encouraging women to be positive role models to valuing their physical appearance over everything else. Striving to achieve the judges' idea of perfection has taken priority.

Personification as many know is when inanimate objects are given characteristics of humans. In the case of beauty pageants, the contestants are given characteristics or viewed with the same characteristics as objects. An object’s worth is generally determined by what it looks like; a good example of this is diamonds. The size, cut and clarity of a diamond gives it worth

Of these categories, three out of the four could be considered objectifiable, the swimsuit portion being the most offensive. This category is meant to assess the contestant’s overall fitness while they parade around the stage in bathing suits for everyone to see and judge them based on their build and physical appearance. When judging this portion, Miss Universe judges have a guide to help them determine the contestant’s proportional flaws such as square shoulders, wide hips, abnormally prominent collar bones, or simply how symmetrical their faces are (N.d. Hypathie). All of these characteristics are things that people can not control yet are judged for their figure. Many people argue that the interview portion of the pageant makes up for the objectification in the swimsuit portion; however, as seen in countless pageant movies such as “Miss Congeniality” the answers to these questions do not show the intelligence of the contestants. It is an ongoing joke that during the interview portion, contestant’s answers can be summed up as “world peace.” Their answers are usually prescribed and are just what the audience and the judges want to hear instead of their actual opinions ("Debating Beauty Pageants."). When asked questions about controversial topics such as gun rights or legalization of marijuana, it is highly unlikely that a woman would be able to give her actual

This puts a great stress on the women to achieve society’s idea of perfection. By attempting to obtain the perfect body, women develop negative self image and lower self esteem. Perfection is only an idea and cannot be obtained by anyone. By striving to achieve this idea, people develop eating disorders and this can also lead to depression. Society’s idea of perfection can be modeled by the popular children’s toy “Barbie.” Researchers have found that the dimensions of the Barbie doll are unrealistic and unattainable through a healthy manner. Barbie’s waist is so small that when converted to an actual humans size, she would not be able to sit up with the size of her chest being what it is (Ferrell and Frost). Many beauty queens have taken extreme measures to achieve their ideal physical appearance. This is done by having cosmetic surgeries to enhance they symmetry in their faces that is considered desirable or visually pleasing. Other cosmetic surgeries such as breast augmentation and liposuctions are artificial ways to reach their goal of the perfect figure. By changing their natural appearance, beauty contestant’s “bodies become objects of ‘beauty work,’” changed to become more pleasing to others rather than to become confident in themselves (Lasco). No one can be perfect, by trying to please everyone’s idea of perfection and putting themselves in a position to be judged mainly by their looks,