The Hypocrisy of Miss America and Beauty Pageants

Beauty Pageants are moving from selecting the "ideal" woman to empowering women. The idea that women are empowered by participating in such an objectifying contest seems backward. To break down this confusion, starting at the beginning, when beauty pageants arose, gives us insight on this topic. In the mid-1800s, beauty pageants became a new phenomenon where women would compete in beauty, as the name suggests, and this event became a new form of commercial entertainment. The key phrase is commercial entertainment. Women were being used to make money. Now, as we travel to modern-day and look at the state of beauty pageants, we see that these beauty pageants are used to "empower" women and boost self-esteem and provide scholarships, but that doesn't seem to be the case. In an interview, Gretchen Carlson, a commentator for Miss America, said that they (Miss America) is no longer a pageant, but now it is a competition that will not judge on the contestants "outward appearance". Continuing, Miss America saw a decrease in viewership (17%) from 2018 to 2019 and a 61% decrease from 2015. The steady decline shows the appeal of Miss America disappearing with all the new changes such as the feminist wave passing over along with the Me-Too movement. Understanding all of this, we come to the conclusion that feminism opposes capitalism because people want to see women in bathing suits and pay to watch that instead of an intellectual discussion between women. This notion suggests that women's empowerment is in fact discouraged because people don't want to see it. When the woman in the interview in the video said, its a great moment to feel empowered, in fact, they are being neglected. Obviously, they are not being neglected entirely, but as the fourth-wave of feminism began, around 2012, Miss America began to see a steady decrease in viewership because of it. This decline in viewership means less money made which leads to fewer scholarships that are able to be paid out to the participants. So, by "empowering" women, Miss America has devolved an event that put women at the spotlight into something that is watched by the casual viewer. An article written by fox news said that a single NFL game had more viewers than Miss America, which has not happened in a long time. In conclusion, by changing the beauty pageant to fit the far left's ideal women's empowerment movement, they have, in fact, deterred people from even paying attention to these women. The question is now, would these organizers rather have 61% more people watch their pageant or are they really serious about providing an environment where women can feel empowered?