Background:
- First-ever beauty pageant in America was conducted in 1854 by entrepreneur Phineas Taylor Barnum. After this, so many beauty events were conducted worldwide. With time, it became an industry in itself and a lot of techniques are used to enhance the beauty of the fellow contestants.
- Beauty pageants face so much criticism worldwide for the impact they have on society.
Yes – Beauty pageants should be banned:
- Such competitions and beauty pageant have a very wrong influence on society as we all quickly follow the media trends. All this is basically sending the wrong message to our younger generation girls where they are made to understand that being perfect and pretty is extremely necessary. This affects their self-esteem and may even cause depression.
- With the influence of beauty pageants, young girls may focus more on their outward appearance instead of building life skills and career. This change of direction can affect their whole life.
- They promote cosmetic surgeries. Women these days, are ready to spend thousands of dollars on getting hair extensions, fake teeth, botox injections, body implants, spray tans, branded outfits and makeup products. This could be extremely expensive to afford and such expenses are never-ending. Cindy Jackson, a known television star. has a world record of 52 plastic surgeries done by her. Some women can even get addicted to such practices and then theirs no look back. This is the direct influence of society’s importance to beauty.
- Beauty pageant can increase the objectification of women.
- Young girls having a budding start to this beauty industry, mostly get too much involved in succeeding their career. With such obsession, they are easy targets of designers and managers at high post that they tend to take advantage of their innocence. Also, nowadays people are obsessed with their career growth that they become a victim of depression and anxiety at an early age.
- American Reality show – Toddlers and Tiaras is a children beauty pageant show having girls aged between 3-10 years of age. Their families get so involved in this that they literally force their child to go for tanning beds and even botox injections for toning up their skin. Involving children in this dreadful custom taught them absolutely nothing and destroys the innocence of their childhood.
No – Beauty pageants should not be banned:
- With contests such as Miss World or Miss Universe, it unites people with similar interests, sharing ideas with each other and providing a platform where they can finally show their talent and even make a career out of it. This field doesn’t necessarily require good physical features but also good intelligence, creative skills and innovation.
- Apart from having flawless skin and a perfect body, contestants running for Miss Universe must have a lot of experience in social work that could be an NGO, orphanage, old age home etc. Miss Universe organization has been making many charitable contributions to society. In order to win the competition, the participants are also judged on the amount of social work done by them and the number of people influenced by it.
- It could be a huge platform for the feminine society to build their confidence in such competitions, crave for excellent public speaking skills and exceptional personality portrayed in front of the judges. Also, it indulges discipline in terms of diet, health, and fitness as they have to be physically perfect.
- Beauty Pageant usually has a great demand for the televisions and have huge cash prices and perks provided to the winner of the competition. For those, who are aspiring higher education in a renowned college or looking for money to support their families or fulfil their dreams, this offers a wonderful opportunity.
Conclusion:-
Some people are big fans of such pageant whereas some others have boycotted such shows right from the beginning. These contests are not only restricted to adults or females but also encouraging small children and men to come forward and participate. We can’t say whether beauty shows are good or bad, because not all will agree on what is good and what is bad. As they are going to stay, it is necessary to reform them in such a way that they do not create insecurities and low self-esteem in young girls. Then beauty shows will turn into harmless and entertaining.
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Your Turn…
Do beauty shows empower women? or Do they degrade society? Express your thoughts through the comment section below.
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