Through this assignment I learned a lot not just about beauty pageants but also about anthropology. We talked in the beginning of the year about how it is important to use your “cultural lenses” when researching a culture that is different from your own.
In the beginning of the assignment I thought that by trying to see beauty pageants from a nonbiased standpoint that I would be able to learn and understand the culture. After the first set of blogs were due I still didn’t understand the culture or why anyone would want to portake in it. After talking with someone who actually is part of this world I changed my feelings about it completely.
In order to understand the way a culture works you have to get a glimpse of it fist-hand. In our book discussion about Silence on the Mountain I talked about how Wilkinson’s ideas about the Guatamalan culture changes dramatically after he visits the home of the family living in poverty. After actually seeing people who live like this he is able to put a face to the culture and sees the people he is researching as actual people and not subjects for one of the first times.
Although it was not on nearly as large of a scale, this is kind of what happened when I talked to my friend. Up until then I had looked at beauty pageant contestants as the same made-up faces after another but after talking to an actual person instead of adhearing to the stereotype I was able to see pageants from a different perspective and realized that they are more connected to my life then I thought.
I am really glad that we were given this assignment because it helped me learn what a true anthropologist has to do in order to learn about the world around them.
Friday, December 5, 2008
This similarity between beauty pageants and dance competitions really got me thinking. Why is it that the public sees pageants as a horrible, superficial activity and not dance competitions. My friend had a great experience with pageants that enabled her to make friends and feel good about herself. I on the other hand think back to competitions and remember crying when I was fourteen because I felt fat next to the rail thin dancers next to me. Even though my teachers were not in it for the gold, I still felt bad about myself when I didn’t do well, even though the whole thing was kind of silly to me.
Why does society view one thing as bad and another as good when they are so similar and both have their ups and downs? I decided to ask my friend what she thought about this.
She basically said what I thought she would: it’s wrong for people to think this way but that’s just the way it is. Judges at both competitions are judging the people on the same thing; being perfect at what they are doing. She remembered once at a pageant doing a “T” (pageant code for walking down a “t” shaped runway) wearing a skirt that flipped in a certain way and thinking of it as choreography. She took steps on certain beats and flipped the skirt on counts. This is the same as doing a routine but the public sees it as shallow because modeling is not recognized as an art the way that dance is.
We talked about how the media focuses on the bad side of pageants like the eating disorders and kids who learn poor messages from them. The thing is, I know plenty of dancers with eating disorders and plenty of dancers who think that they are God’s gift to the world because they are good dancers.
Why does society view one thing as bad and another as good when they are so similar and both have their ups and downs? I decided to ask my friend what she thought about this.
She basically said what I thought she would: it’s wrong for people to think this way but that’s just the way it is. Judges at both competitions are judging the people on the same thing; being perfect at what they are doing. She remembered once at a pageant doing a “T” (pageant code for walking down a “t” shaped runway) wearing a skirt that flipped in a certain way and thinking of it as choreography. She took steps on certain beats and flipped the skirt on counts. This is the same as doing a routine but the public sees it as shallow because modeling is not recognized as an art the way that dance is.
We talked about how the media focuses on the bad side of pageants like the eating disorders and kids who learn poor messages from them. The thing is, I know plenty of dancers with eating disorders and plenty of dancers who think that they are God’s gift to the world because they are good dancers.
Pageants and Dance Competitions
Even after talking to my friend, my feelings about pageants began to change even more. When I was talking to her about how she got started she mentioned that the first modeling contest she entered was through a dance competition. Right when she said this it hit me… dance competitions!
I have been a dancer since I was five years old and although my studio wasn’t extremely competition heavy, I have competed in many dance competitions over the years. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see this! I have actually been participating in something extremely related to beauty pageants my whole life and have not even realized it!
At dance competitions you are being judged in a really similar way to beauty pageants. I want to say that its all about dance ability but it definitely isn’t. The night before competitions I had a checklist of things that I would go over a thousand times before I went to sleep, terrified that I would forget something. I had my costumes, black hair elastics, black tights with seams in the back, tan tights without seams in the back, cubic zirconium stud earings that matched the rest of my team’s and about a million other things like that. I would wake up an hour before I had to leave and put on my stage makeup and spend way to much time slicking my hair into a bun and looking at myself in the mirror to make sure I looked just right.
Judges at the competitions are looking for certain skills and tricks in every dance and perfect execution. In most dance competitions each judge has a microphone that they speak into and record on tapes, saying what mistakes they see and what the team needs to improve on.
After a competition my class would sit in the studio and listen to the tapes. Some of the judges were nice and talked more about the class’s strengths as a group while others were dead honest about not liking a dance. A lot of the times judges would comment more on what the group looked like than the actual dancing. Once I listened to a tape of a girls from my studio’s solo dance and the judge’s comments were “I see a hair elastic around the wrist” and “I would like to see a little more clean of a bun next time”.
My studio didn’t really buy into the whole competition thing and if a judge didn’t like a dance we didn’t really beat ourselves up about it. We didn’t try to rack up points with regulation tricks and choreography and for the most part we went to get more practice performing. There was definitely an overlying feeling of nervousness and trying not to get yelled at for forgetting your thick strapped, v-neck leotard. Even though there is a VERY ugly side to dance competitions, I wouldn’t say they’re all bad news and the public definitely does not have a poor view of them.
I have been a dancer since I was five years old and although my studio wasn’t extremely competition heavy, I have competed in many dance competitions over the years. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see this! I have actually been participating in something extremely related to beauty pageants my whole life and have not even realized it!
At dance competitions you are being judged in a really similar way to beauty pageants. I want to say that its all about dance ability but it definitely isn’t. The night before competitions I had a checklist of things that I would go over a thousand times before I went to sleep, terrified that I would forget something. I had my costumes, black hair elastics, black tights with seams in the back, tan tights without seams in the back, cubic zirconium stud earings that matched the rest of my team’s and about a million other things like that. I would wake up an hour before I had to leave and put on my stage makeup and spend way to much time slicking my hair into a bun and looking at myself in the mirror to make sure I looked just right.
Judges at the competitions are looking for certain skills and tricks in every dance and perfect execution. In most dance competitions each judge has a microphone that they speak into and record on tapes, saying what mistakes they see and what the team needs to improve on.
After a competition my class would sit in the studio and listen to the tapes. Some of the judges were nice and talked more about the class’s strengths as a group while others were dead honest about not liking a dance. A lot of the times judges would comment more on what the group looked like than the actual dancing. Once I listened to a tape of a girls from my studio’s solo dance and the judge’s comments were “I see a hair elastic around the wrist” and “I would like to see a little more clean of a bun next time”.
My studio didn’t really buy into the whole competition thing and if a judge didn’t like a dance we didn’t really beat ourselves up about it. We didn’t try to rack up points with regulation tricks and choreography and for the most part we went to get more practice performing. There was definitely an overlying feeling of nervousness and trying not to get yelled at for forgetting your thick strapped, v-neck leotard. Even though there is a VERY ugly side to dance competitions, I wouldn’t say they’re all bad news and the public definitely does not have a poor view of them.
A New View On Pageants
The first things my friend and I talked about were the basics; how she got involved in pageants, what the competitions are like from a fist-hand standpoint, etc. She basically did her first beauty pageant when she was eight just for the fun of it, kind of a “why not” type of thing. It was a really laid back competition and she ended up loving it because it was fun and it made her “feel like a princess”. She really didn’t care if she won or not, and her mother was completely laid back about it and didn’t care if she continued on with pageants or not.
After the first one, she wanted to do more and whenever there were pageants in the area her mother would let her know and she would decide if she wanted to do it or not. Most of the competitions she entered were pretty relaxed and had a mixture of girls like her who just entered for fun, and girls who were more serious about winning. She ended up doing about one pageant every two months until she was thirteen and kept the “if you had fun you won” attitude.
Next, we talked about what the atmosphere at the pageants was like overall. I asked her if there were a lot of stage moms or girls who sabotaged other girls for the crown like you see when pageants are portrayed in movies and on T.V. She said that she did so many pageants that there were girls who she competed with on a regular basis and actually became friendly with. She also said that the stage moms and hard-core pageant girls do exist but they are in no way the majority of people who entered the contests she went to.
I asked my friend what she thought of the public’s view of pageants and weather or not she thought it was accurate and her answer was interesting. She thought that the public view all wrong because it is taking the worst-case scenarios of something and using them as the only basis for what the entire world of pageants is about. It’s like judging a person you know nothing about just because of one bad thing you heard that they did. Yes there is an ugly side to pageants but there is also the side that my friend experienced, a fun way to make friends.
I was really surprised at what I learned from this conversation with my friend. I thought that it would give me a little more knowledge and information on the subject but it actually really changed my views on pageants. I personally wouldn’t find a pageant fun just because I don’t like people looking at me in bathing suits and talking in front of people I don’t know makes me really uncomfortable, but if that’s fun for you and makes you feel good about yourself then go for it.
After the first one, she wanted to do more and whenever there were pageants in the area her mother would let her know and she would decide if she wanted to do it or not. Most of the competitions she entered were pretty relaxed and had a mixture of girls like her who just entered for fun, and girls who were more serious about winning. She ended up doing about one pageant every two months until she was thirteen and kept the “if you had fun you won” attitude.
Next, we talked about what the atmosphere at the pageants was like overall. I asked her if there were a lot of stage moms or girls who sabotaged other girls for the crown like you see when pageants are portrayed in movies and on T.V. She said that she did so many pageants that there were girls who she competed with on a regular basis and actually became friendly with. She also said that the stage moms and hard-core pageant girls do exist but they are in no way the majority of people who entered the contests she went to.
I asked my friend what she thought of the public’s view of pageants and weather or not she thought it was accurate and her answer was interesting. She thought that the public view all wrong because it is taking the worst-case scenarios of something and using them as the only basis for what the entire world of pageants is about. It’s like judging a person you know nothing about just because of one bad thing you heard that they did. Yes there is an ugly side to pageants but there is also the side that my friend experienced, a fun way to make friends.
I was really surprised at what I learned from this conversation with my friend. I thought that it would give me a little more knowledge and information on the subject but it actually really changed my views on pageants. I personally wouldn’t find a pageant fun just because I don’t like people looking at me in bathing suits and talking in front of people I don’t know makes me really uncomfortable, but if that’s fun for you and makes you feel good about yourself then go for it.
Introduction
Over the past few weeks I have been struggling thinking about what I should write about next. I chose beauty pageants for my topic because I felt that they were something that I did not understand and had no personal connection to and therefore I could learn a lot about a topic that I knew little about. Well, after writing five blog entries I panicked because I felt like I had nothing left to write about, like I wasn’t making as much progress as I would have liked.
However, a couple of weeks ago I was talking with a friend and the subject of my blog assignment came up. It turns out that she has been competing in beauty pageants since she was eight. This shocked me because I didn’t see her at all as the type of person who would participate in beauty pageants. I didn’t see her as the “type” who would be involved in something that, I’ll have to admit, I see as pretty superficial.
I decided to sit down and talk to her about her experiences with beauty pageants because I thought that this might give me some helpful information to use in my entries and I just wanted to know more about why she did them and what she liked about them.
After talking to my friend I felt completely different about the whole angle that I was approaching the assignment from and I realized that I have a lot more personal connection to the subject than I thought. Since talking to her I have changed the way that I have been investigating my topic and I am seeing beauty pageants from a perspective that I never in a million years thought I would.
So, the following blogs are based around the conversations that I have had with my friend about her pageant days and I think that they are a lot different from my previous blogs that are more based on research that I did online from articles and websites.Over the past few weeks I have been struggling thinking about what I should write about next. I chose beauty pageants for my topic because I felt that they were something that I did not understand and had no personal connection to and therefore I could learn a lot about a topic that I knew little about. Well, after writing five blog entries I panicked because I felt like I had nothing left to write about, like I wasn’t making as much progress as I would have liked.
However, a couple of weeks ago I was talking with a friend and the subject of my blog assignment came up. It turns out that she has been competing in beauty pageants since she was eight. This shocked me because I didn’t see her at all as the type of person who would participate in beauty pageants. I didn’t see her as the “type” who would be involved in something that, I’ll have to admit, I see as pretty superficial.
I decided to sit down and talk to her about her experiences with beauty pageants because I thought that this might give me some helpful information to use in my entries and I just wanted to know more about why she did them and what she liked about them.
After talking to my friend I felt completely different about the whole angle that I was approaching the assignment from and I realized that I have a lot more personal connection to the subject than I thought. Since talking to her I have changed the way that I have been investigating my topic and I am seeing beauty pageants from a perspective that I never in a million years thought I would.
So, the following blogs are based around the conversations that I have had with my friend about her pageant days and I think that they are a lot different from my previous blogs that are more based on research that I did online from articles and websites.
However, a couple of weeks ago I was talking with a friend and the subject of my blog assignment came up. It turns out that she has been competing in beauty pageants since she was eight. This shocked me because I didn’t see her at all as the type of person who would participate in beauty pageants. I didn’t see her as the “type” who would be involved in something that, I’ll have to admit, I see as pretty superficial.
I decided to sit down and talk to her about her experiences with beauty pageants because I thought that this might give me some helpful information to use in my entries and I just wanted to know more about why she did them and what she liked about them.
After talking to my friend I felt completely different about the whole angle that I was approaching the assignment from and I realized that I have a lot more personal connection to the subject than I thought. Since talking to her I have changed the way that I have been investigating my topic and I am seeing beauty pageants from a perspective that I never in a million years thought I would.
So, the following blogs are based around the conversations that I have had with my friend about her pageant days and I think that they are a lot different from my previous blogs that are more based on research that I did online from articles and websites.Over the past few weeks I have been struggling thinking about what I should write about next. I chose beauty pageants for my topic because I felt that they were something that I did not understand and had no personal connection to and therefore I could learn a lot about a topic that I knew little about. Well, after writing five blog entries I panicked because I felt like I had nothing left to write about, like I wasn’t making as much progress as I would have liked.
However, a couple of weeks ago I was talking with a friend and the subject of my blog assignment came up. It turns out that she has been competing in beauty pageants since she was eight. This shocked me because I didn’t see her at all as the type of person who would participate in beauty pageants. I didn’t see her as the “type” who would be involved in something that, I’ll have to admit, I see as pretty superficial.
I decided to sit down and talk to her about her experiences with beauty pageants because I thought that this might give me some helpful information to use in my entries and I just wanted to know more about why she did them and what she liked about them.
After talking to my friend I felt completely different about the whole angle that I was approaching the assignment from and I realized that I have a lot more personal connection to the subject than I thought. Since talking to her I have changed the way that I have been investigating my topic and I am seeing beauty pageants from a perspective that I never in a million years thought I would.
So, the following blogs are based around the conversations that I have had with my friend about her pageant days and I think that they are a lot different from my previous blogs that are more based on research that I did online from articles and websites.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Smart Beauties
Beauty Pageants. The name itself suggests that the contest is primarily based on judging women’s bodies and picking the prettiest one in a group of say 50 to 100 other pretty girls. In other words the way that beauty pageants are presented makes it seem like a bunch of judges look at the contestants like pieces of meat and crown the one they like the best. There are many different portions to the pageants themselves but the interview and talent sections are usually overlooked by the public and the modeling categories are what people associate pageants with. Judges are looking for beautiful, talented and intelligent women who are good role models for young girls but the rail thin girls walking down a runway in bikinis get more media attention than talented and intelligent part. The way that the Miss America Pageant scores its contestant actually holds less weight in the superficial aspect of the contest than one might think. The scoring system is roughly as follows:
Interview- 40%
Talent-30%
Evening gown and onstage interview- 20%
Swimsuit- 10%
So, in theory, the judges are really looking for a smart, talented girl who just happens to look good in a gown and has a 23 inch waist. The contestants pick a platform before the pageant that concentrates on a national or world issue and if they win then they spend their reigning year promoting that platform. Although the media chooses to focus on the negative aspects of pageants (i.e. the body image promoted to young girls through the contestants) the motives behind it are really to give women a role model who is well rounded.
http://media.www.dailynebraskan.com/media/storage/paper857/news/2004/02/23/News/Beauty.Pageants.Subsist.On.Talent.Intelligence-1740851.shtml
Interview- 40%
Talent-30%
Evening gown and onstage interview- 20%
Swimsuit- 10%
So, in theory, the judges are really looking for a smart, talented girl who just happens to look good in a gown and has a 23 inch waist. The contestants pick a platform before the pageant that concentrates on a national or world issue and if they win then they spend their reigning year promoting that platform. Although the media chooses to focus on the negative aspects of pageants (i.e. the body image promoted to young girls through the contestants) the motives behind it are really to give women a role model who is well rounded.
http://media.www.dailynebraskan.com/media/storage/paper857/news/2004/02/23/News/Beauty.Pageants.Subsist.On.Talent.Intelligence-1740851.shtml
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