Pradeep's

“Beauty contests are degrading." | | I agree with the statement that beauty contests are degrading. They degrade women to mere objects. The sponsors exploit women by requiring them to parade in swimsuits or even lingerie. They are judged mainly on their physical appearance rather than on any other qualities they may possess.When the women parade themselves on stage, the judges will look at a number of things, but the most important criteria will probably be poise. To achieve proper poise, a woman's body should be well proportioned - having a neck proportionate to her height, lanky legs and so on. This process of evaluating poise can be compared to dog shows where golden retrievers of the wrong bodily proportions are kicked out of the competition. I feel judging women primarily on their looks degrade womanhood.Moreover, beauty contests project an unrealistically thin image of the ideal woman in the eyes of the public. As it is, we are already bombarded with such silly standards by the mass media. Do we really need a beauty pageant to further aggravate the situation? A John Hopkins study has shown that more than half of the Miss America pageant winners are underweight, with a Body Mass Index of about 18.5, well below the normal BMI of 20 -- 25. Insecure women who watch the pageants are bound to develop a false body image and may even become anorexic or even bulimic just to look like beauty queens.Being a Muslim, I feel beauty contests violate some religious or cultural practices. I consider western style beauty contests as immoral, because the female participants are typically not dressed modestly. This really degrades women in the eyes of a conservative society. Lastly, when the winner wears a crown and reigns for a year, she is actually being exploited to do cheap promotions for the sponsors who make use of her to promote their products until they see it fit to replace her with some other beauties. This is cold and mercenary.For all the reasons given, I find