Preview

Do Beauty Pageants Serve a Purpose in Today's Sociey?

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1677 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Do Beauty Pageants Serve a Purpose in Today's Sociey?
Do Beauty Pageants Serve a Purpose in Today’s Sociey?

Saundra Dugger

Com 220
Mr. Atkins
May 22,2010

Do beauty contests really serve a purpose in today’s society? There are many different kinds of beauty contests these days. They are for both men and women and range from infants to adults in age. Beauty contests do not serve a purpose in today’s society. The only thing that it is doing is putting in young girls’ minds and a woman’s that they have to be beautiful. We need to teach the younger generations that they are beautiful no matter what their size, or how they look. It is all about what is inside and the person that they are that makes them beautiful. What the media and shows such as beauty contests have done is make everyone think that if they are not super skinny, tan, tall, and have just the right features, then they are not pretty. This is not true! Who is to say what is beautiful and what is not? Who has that right? I know that everyone has their own opinion on what is beautiful, but the truth is, nobody is ever going to be right because there is no definition of beauty. Beauty is what we make it out to be.
While beauty contests may be empowering to the people in them, they have a negative effect on the people in today’s society especially the younger female population. They think that beauty contests are the definition of beautiful, so they develop eating habits in order to be as skinny as them (socyberty, 2008) and sometimes undergo cosmetic surgery in order to fix something they don’t like about themselves. It also doesn’t help that this is also what the media deems beautiful as well. I don’t know where all of this originated from, who deemed skinny, tall, tanned beautiful, but whatever happened to beauty being on the inside that matters? I do not make friends based on who is beautiful on the outside. I have many very pretty friends according to what the media portrays them as, but I don’t care about any of that. The only thing that matters to me
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Beauty Extended Definition Essay
    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Beauty Extended Definition Essay

    One example that proves just how important outer beauty is to society is the rise in beauty products and services that are around today. Surely, once the 21st century initiated, appearance definitely began to play a much bigger part in people’s lives. Interests in salons and day spas were rising generously, and surely, business was not hard to find. More than likely, most salons’ appointment books were filled, nail salon chairs were occupied, and an increase sales in beauty products all hit businesses with full force. Another illustration of our appearance obsessed society is seen in the surrounding woman and men. For instance, there are many events, even on a global scale, that support this shallow idea of exterior perfection, such as Beauty pageants; Miss America and Miss Universe are two of too many examples. These events are taken very seriously by a vast number of contestants who alter their body surgically, wear dentures, and add an, no doubt, unnatural amount of makeup and hair extensions. Furthermore, even more popular, exists pageants for young children with contestants of ages as…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Media sends unhealthy signals to young women
    • 423 Words
    • 1 Page

    Media sends unhealthy signals to young women

    Every girl has seen a woman in the media stick thin, sun kissed, envy of the way she looks “perfect”. Women that are put on television, a magazine or advertisements is ultimately fake with Photoshop, makeup and plastic surgery. This is a dangerous perception of beauty which has resulted in a decline in self-acceptance. Many girls any age struggle with their image believing that they are not thin enough, their hair is not long enough, or even they believe that they are ugly. I believe that the social stereotype of beauty should go back to the 50’s.…

    • 423 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Positives in Pageants
    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Positives in Pageants

    Is it a way of earning money or throwing it away? Is it a way to build a person up or to tear them down? Is it a way to be a role model or a way to be ridiculed? These questions can most commonly be heard when discussing beauty pageants. There is an ongoing controversy about the benefits or harm that beauty pageants can cause to their contestants. There are two-sides to every controversy, but in the matter of pageants the benefits of entering one easily outweighs the negatives.…

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Child Beauty Pageants: Positive or Poisonous?
    • 2645 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Child Beauty Pageants: Positive or Poisonous?

    Child beauty pageants date all the way back to the 1920s. However, the first beauty pageant in the United States took place in the 1960s (Child Beauty Pageants – Pros and Cons 1). Pageants were a gateway for tourism to flourish. To this day, young girls all over America compete in pageants year round. These competitions have progressed tremendously over the decades. For many years, child beauty pageants were considered to be “fairly benign” (When Beauty Becomes A Beast 1). They have transformed from “frilly party dresses and satin ribbons” to “conveniently seduc[ing] the very essence of beauty, confidence and poise to gain its position in the world of…

    • 2645 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Child Beauty Pageants
    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Child Beauty Pageants

    Beauty pageants focus a lot on appearance and on how you present yourself. I believe that everyone is beautiful and I strongly believe that beauty comes within and not from the outside. However, children who grow up in the pageant industry, start to learn that a big part of the competition has to do with your physical attraction. Now, there are little girls wearing fake eyelashes with cakey faces because excessive makeup will make you look “prettier”. However, why change the concept when beauty pageants did not require any makeup when they first started. What happens when the child is older and gets acne or needs braces. Since the perception of perfection and beauty has already been painted to them, they no longer think of themselves as beautiful. What happens when they gain a little weight and get points deducted for not complimenting the outfit they…

    • 1451 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Negative Side to Beauty Pageants in Children's Lives
    • 1817 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Negative Side to Beauty Pageants in Children's Lives

    Two hours before the pageant, in a crowded hotel room, a mother and her two daughters are rushing to accomplish all of the last minute tasks. The stressed mother is doing her best to keep the youngest child calm and in her seat while she gets her extensions put in and her hair plastered into the style of the day. The little girl is screaming because her head hurts from her hair being yanked on and she is sick of sitting in the same spot for so long. The older sister is trying to bring the little girl back to a calm state of mind so she can finish caking her face with make-up and fix what has been smeared from the constant tears. Once the hair and make-up is finished, they bring out the outfits that resemble those of a professional belly dancer, and the little one gets dressed for the pageant. After wrestling with the little girl to get her dressed, the time-crunched mother runs through the lines and moves over and over again with her daughter, making sure she has them imprinted in her brain. The last part of the costume is put on as they are getting ready to leave, and the little girl cries as the tight dentures are forced into her mouth. The small child wipes her tears, smiles, and says “I want that crown!” as she walks out the door.…

    • 1817 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pros and Cons of Beauty Pageants
    • 1168 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Pros and Cons of Beauty Pageants

    We live in a society in which demands for equality abound. At some point, the rights and privileges associated with the “perfect” life. At the same time, it seemed that a trend began. Hyphenated Americans began their quest for the apparently ideal lifestyle that had been withheld from them. Women, gays, and lesbians began their own efforts to achieve this same equality outside of gender and sexual preference. And yet, despite it all, the beauty pageant survives.…

    • 1168 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Beauty Pageants
    • 1464 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Beauty Pageants

    An anonymous survey that was given in 43 states to female pageant contestants concluded that over one fourth of the women who’ve competed before the age of 13 had been told that they had an eating disorder, with a high rise of eating disorders in young girls today do you believe that child beauty pageants are more harmful to children than good?…

    • 1464 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Controversial Topics- Beauty Pageants
    • 1746 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Controversial Topics- Beauty Pageants

    Her eyes glimmer with the latest layer of eyeliner. Her cheeks, a wind-bitten pink, ache from constant smiles. She combs her hair, unaware of the damage she is inflicting on herself. She looks around. Some wear false hair, others false teeth. Every participant there is driven by the same potential outcome of beauty: meticulous hair, white smile, bright eyes, and a thin figure. Everybody strives for that same superficial facade – not the average values for a 5-year-old-girl. Since 1921 beauty pageants have been the roots of society's delusive portrayal of beauty and until they are stopped, they will continue to cause detrimental impacts on a female's perception of her self worth.…

    • 1746 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Beauty Contests Are Bad for Body Image
    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Beauty Contests Are Bad for Body Image

    Is beauty not enduring thing? Or does it lasts only a year? Beauty contests are well promoted by the media, with television and images, which influence young women’s opinions on appearance. The participants of these contests are poor role models for these girls as they set impractical body weight, breast size and clear skin standards. This is another way of saying you have to be perfect in order to even compete in these competitions. This sets an ideal female body, which only a minority of women can then become incredibly harmful to young women by encouraging dieting eating disorders and cosmetic surgery, or simply making them feel inadequate and ugly. For instance, when young girls see these models on television they automatically think that throwing up, over exercising, and getting plastic surgery is a good thing to do. The models are showing them that this is the way to fit in. Every woman is beautiful, if she can just be herself. The moment women flaunt themselves, as in beauty pageants, they become an object to be degraded and exploited sex object for a year.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Inside the Living Dolls’ World: the Ugly Truth About Child Beauty Pageants
    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Inside the Living Dolls’ World: the Ugly Truth About Child Beauty Pageants

    A stage full of dolled-up or Barbie-like little girls who with their fabulous mini gowns or dresses, or tiny swimsuits being worn, walk that stage flashing a million dollar smile on their little faces with all the poise and projection, judges eyeing them, an audience applauding and with their pushy parents cheering for them at the corner. That would be a typical child beauty pageant scene. Basically, a beauty pageant is an assemblage of girls or women at which judges select the most beautiful (Cartwright, 2011). Beauty pageants mainly are divided into categories such as the talent portion, the modeling portion and the personal interview or the question and answer portion. Beauty pageant winners are so-called beauty queens and awards for these beauty contests include titles, tiaras or crowns, sashes, and cash prizes. Indeed today, beauty pageants for young girls are gaining more and more popularity. However, it has not only attracted popularity, but howls of criticisms too. I truly believe that beauty pageants are exploitative and detrimental to the child’s overall well-being in a way that it damages the child’s health, it exposes the child to the danger of pedophiles/being in public eye and lastly it instills a message to the child that physical beauty is the primary judge of one’s character therefore reducing one’s self-worth to appearances.…

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Child Beauty Pageants: Are They Moral?
    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Child Beauty Pageants: Are They Moral?

    They say that beauty comes from within but if this is true why do parents parade their young children around and make their five-year-olds dress, look, and act like they are 18 years old. Child beauty pageants are very upsetting. “It aggravates the average viewer because how can a parent put their child through that emotional roller coaster and get upset when they do not win; make up excuses on why their child did not win because heaven forbid their child has a flaw. Child beauty pageants are upsetting to the child also because if they do not win it is like the end of the world. They through fits act like complete brats, and they think that maybe their parents are lying to them because their parents tell them that they are beautiful but now the judges and other people who did not vote for them to win are saying in not so many words that they are ugly.” (Becky Adams, personal communication, March 12, 2011.) Something is wrong with this society that is absolutely frantic to the point of obsession about pedophilia so much so that it is to the point of parents passing their beliefs on to their children who most likely have no notion of it whatsoever and would rather be outside playing. Over half the population accepts this form of pedophilia as morally correct. They allow these children to prance around in barely anything at all and think that is cute. They think that it is cute when the child “flaunts” their body but yet the child is forced to in a way. An adult has the choice of wearing that provocative/reveling outfit and flaunt their body, but the child is “forced” to. They are only children and do not know any better. Why should they be paraded around like fools?…

    • 1643 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Beauty Contest
    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Beauty Contest

    A beauty pageant is a competition that is based solely on physical attributes but often includes talent, personality and question and answer portions. Most beauty pageants are made for women especially young girls at the age of five. Although beauty pageants are seemingly harmless and just provokes the competitive side of women, it should not be welcomed to young girls at age ten and below because (a) beauty pageants set their own definition of what is beautiful, (b) it may affect their future outlook in life, and (c) it is a form of abuse to young girls.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Toddlers And Tiaras Research Paper
    • 1702 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Toddlers And Tiaras Research Paper

    With influences everywhere to be this “perfect” and “beautiful” woman all she can think about is how she compares to the others. Trying to always be just as perfect as the models who are fake impacts women in negative ways which can lead to tough situations later down the road. Parents that try to put their kids into beauty pageants need to realize that you are only hurting your child in the long run because they aren’t always going to look like that. They will see their true beauty and hate it because they are so used to being fake beautiful. Society needs a reality check because beauty does not depend on if you have flawless skin, if you have great eyelashes or even if you are a size zero. Beauty depends on who a person is inside and out. The most beautiful thing of all is to be a strong, confident, daring, and loving young woman not to be a cranky, angry, starving, and fake…

    • 1702 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stereotypes In Beauty Pageants
    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stereotypes In Beauty Pageants

    In the article “Child Beauty Pageants ‘About Parents Feeling Good, Not Kids’”, a registered dietician named Martina M. Cartwright was interviewed about her pageant experience and she said, “”Everything was based on what these kids look like and the way that children were displayed or dressed. They were fully made up; they looked like adult women, pint-size. They were judged on personality, but none spoke a word.” The statement that these girls are being judged on their personalities, but never speak a single word, truly shows how corrupt these pageants are. Pageants show kids that a person can be beautiful on the outside, but hideous on the inside, and still succeed in life. If kids grow up with the mentality that they can get everything just because they have a pretty face, they will not get very far. Children should be taught that a great personality, and intelligence will help them get what they need, because one day when they’re old, and can’t rely on their looks to get the job done, what will they do? How can people just sit back while these little girls are taught such poor…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics