beauty pageants: good or bad?

Miss America, widely recognized as the world biggest beauty pageant, has been forced to change its guidelines for judging its contestant under progressive pressures. While they claim to provide 45 million USD for women’s educational programs, John Oliver exposed that in reality they provided less than 500k. With its Miss America 2.0 makeover, chairwoman Gretchen Carlson announced the new Miss America program will aim to be empowering and inclusive. Others, such as 2018 Miss Universe Great  Britain Dee-Ann Kentish-Rogers, also believe Miss America is empowering. 

One obvious negative about beauty pageants is that they put undue emphasis on being beautiful. They cultivate an image of feminine beauty only a handful of people can actually achieve, but this image is set as the standard for all women to strive to reach. It may be detrimental to women by having them feel inadequate. Another issue I have with beauty contests is that they are culturally specific and western. Asian women can theoretically win Miss World, but they can only do that if they partake in the swimsuit competition, which is considered inappropriate dress in many asian cultures. In 1996, demonstrations were held against Miss World by feminists and Hindu nationalists in Bangalore. And in 2002, riots in Kaduna in northern Nigeria over Miss World left more than 200 dead and led to the contest being moved to London.

Although the beauty pageants blatantly objectify women, are they fundamentally more objectifying than ranking students based on academics? The SAT is taken by millions worldwide, and essentially allows colleges to numerically rank students based on their academics. The numerical objectification of students is done on a much greater scale than the objectification of women who enter in beauty pageants; at least beauty pageants contestants enter willingly. Students who take entrance exams or standardized tests don’t really have a choice. Well they technically do, but not really. Some can argue that for colleges to reduce students to mere numbers and ranking them is more dehumanizing than rating their appearance.