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

My Findings

I have to admit that while I do have a much better understanding of why people participate in beauty pageants after doing the research that I have done for this blog, I still do not completely agree with everything they stand for. I do think that the intentions behind pageants are good and are very important. The scholarship opportunities offered through these organizations are great and teaching young women to be well rounded in talent and intelligence is also positive. However, the way that pageants are set up is contradictory to these values. The higher level pageants like Miss America give young girls another size zero perfect model to look up to and in a society where girls are taught to hate their bodies at such a young age, this is the last thing that we need. Pageants for girls as young as two might be a fun outlet if the girls do not focus on doing whatever it takes to win and try to have fun. However, for a lot of girls this is not the case. Someone has to win and make it to the USA and World pageants and this means that not all of the girls are taking pageants lightly. Telling a girl of two years old that in order to be a winner she has to be not only pretty but the prettiest is not the way to instill confidence in a child. True, the aesthetics of a contestant might be only 30% of her total value in the competition, but it is an important 30%. I would like to see pageant officials make changes in the way they judge or how they hold to competition in order to show women and young girls alike that beauty is not the most important thing and that perfection is unattainable. I don’t know if this is possible but it would be interesting to see an effort put in to this.

The media’s role in the public’s view of Pageants

When I think of pageants the first thing that comes to mind is a scene from Miss Congeniality a popular movie made in 2000 about an FBI agent who goes undercover at a Miss America Pageant. In one unforgettable scene from the movie, the contestants are all asked the same on stage interview question and one by one they all say the exact same answer… “world piece”. This is just one example of how movies and other media sources shape our image of what beauty pageants are really all about. In the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageants, Katie Coble turned into an infamous youtube star overnight when she was asked about lack of geographical knowledge in the United States and answered with broken sentences, poor grammar and points that were completely off topic. The 2006 Miss USA title holder, Tara Conner, also became a tabloid scandal when she was ordered by the organization to go to rehab because of excessive partying and possible cocaine use. These are just some of the things that the media has used to give pageant girls a reputation for being pretty, dumb and hypocritical. The media never focuses on any of the positive things that pageants bring to the young women who partake in them like the millions of dollars spent each year on scholarships and the work that title holders do to support their platforms.

Children's Beauty Pageants

The child beauty pageant world is extremely popular in all parts of the United Sates and is very fast growing. There are over 100,000 competitions every year with millions of entered contestants across the country. In recent media child pageants have been portrayed by showing little girls caked with make-up and stage moms who will not accept losing as an option. However, in a lot of local pageants there is a variety of reasons for parents entering their children in pageants. Many parents see it as a way to bring their shy children out of their shells, some want to give their overactive child a fun outlet and at the teen level there can be scholarship money involved. Anyone can enter in local pageants as long as they have made the extensive preparations for the big day. All contestants must have a portfolio with pictures that can be taken professionally or candidly and a composite which is a collage of photos on one piece of photo paper. Most pageants have day one dedicated to registration, orientation and sometimes the interview portion and the events take place on day two. The common pageant has categories in evening wear, casual wear, swimwear, and sometimes a model search where scouts from agencies come to look for talent. Aside from the overall winners in a lot of pageants there are side categories girls can win like best dressed or best personality. At the local level heavy make up and complicated hair dos are not required so if a parent wants to enter their child just as a fun thing to do they do not have to feel pressure to make their child look perfect. All pageants are different and have a variety of girls who show up so some are more intense than others but for the most part if a parent wants to enter their child and not worry about winning the crown, their daughter can have a fun experience without the pressure.

Works Cited

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/54786/what_to_expect_from_a_childrens_beauty.html?page=2&cat=25

Professional Pageants

Every year in the United State, millions of people tune in to watch the Miss Universe, Miss USA, Miss America and Miss Teen USA pageants to see who will take the coveted crown that year. To much of the general public sees these pageants as silly, outdated rituals that are fun to poke fun at with friends over a bowl of popcorn. However, the Miss USA Organization, the group that produces all of these pageants, sees them in a completely different way. The official Miss USA website talks about "redefining" the organization in recent years and the goals of the company and the women who are crowned. The organization started as a tiny bathing beauty contest in Atlantic City and has now become a multi million dollar project that strives to provide opportunities for young women. On the Miss America official website the 2001 crown holder, Angela Perez Baraquio is quoted saying "The Miss America program has enabled me to do things I never dreamed of doing... It is a vehicle to make your mark on this world". It is interesting to me that the Miss America Pageant that I watched with my family when I was little holds these values. The only thing I can remember about watching them was that my mother would tell me how unimportant physical appearances are after I watched them. How then, can an organization based on giving opportunities and chances to women still make people think of anti feminist values? It seems as though the public walks away from these pageants with the exact opposite views on them than the organization is trying to provide.

work cited:

Miss USA Organization

[2008] Corporate Information

http://missusa.com/corpinfo/index.html