Swandt 1 Molly Swandt Lynch 3A English 3 AP 17 May 2011 The Debate Over Beauty Pageants The increasing popularity

of beauty pageants has lead to rigorous debate over whether or not the contests have positive or negative effects. Over the years, pageant coordinators have been focusing on shifting the goals away from solely physical appearance to more wholesome qualities. This gradual shift has caused critics to reevaluate their harsh critiques of beauty pageants, some of those being that they lead to an unattainable standard of beauty. This standard, according to the critics, can often lead to harmful behaviors such as eating disorders and excessive amounts of plastic surgery. On the other hand, the pageants can be extremely beneficial to all those involved, including the participants and those who experience the pageants. The bond between contestants, the growing emphasis on personality over beauty, and the scholarships and humanitarian work that result from beauty pageants are all components of pageants that prove to be extremely valuable to our society. Not only do they promote positive energy in our society, they, contrary to popular belief, help distract from the strange obsession our culture has with focusing solely on a persons appearance. The progressive form of beauty pageants focuses on a more wholesome ideal. Fifty years ago, the effects of beauty pageants would have most definitely been categorized as extremely negative and destructive, but now, with the movement towards a more genuine pageant focal point, the outcomes are, for the most part, extremely favorable.

Swandt 2 As beauty pageants have evolved, they have slowly begun to encompass the concept that brains should be valued over beauty. Beauty pageants, from their beginning, have obviously always placed a large portion of their emphasis on the contestants physical attributes, such as facial beauty and physical fitness. This is simply not the case in the modern world of pageants. Many pageant coordinators are making it crucial for contestants to be well rounded. This does not go to say that the physical beauty of the contestant has been completely diminished from the grading rubric, but its impact on the contestants final score has dramatically decreased. It is now becoming increasingly common for pageant participations to be judged on personality, interview skills, humanitarian work, intelligence, and success in school. Many believe that this new focus benefits our society greatly. A perfect example of this new type of contestant is exemplified in Source B. This excerpt shows a beauty pageant participant that does not fit the usual mold of what people expect from a beauty queen, which is usually pretty and unintelligent. The girl in this article, Kelsey Killeen, has done impressively well in school and is attending a university where she hopes to become a forensic pathologist. Those are not usually phrases associated with beauty pageant contestants. Modern contestants are clearly striving to break the commonly held stereotypes about beauty pageants. Not only are the contestants working towards this goal, but the pageant coordinators have also played a role in the shift. Source C tells us that the interview portion alone of certain pageants comprises fifty percent of the total score. Although this is only one specific pageant, many other pageants across the nation are following in these footsteps and adjusting the rubric on which participants are judged, like the pageant in Source D. This pageant focuses on important items like personality and inner beauty. Beauty pageant critics can no longer say that pageants promote an unrealistic standard of beauty throughout society. Instead,

Swandt 3 they are working to encourage inner beauty and hard work. This revolutionary new idea in the world of beauty pageants has proved extremely influential. Pageants are often thought to be extremely competitive and brutal. It is a commonly held belief that girls who participate in pageants will go to any length to win, even if it means sabotaging their competition or bending their personal moral standards. In the fictional movie Miss Congeniality, rumors fly that one of the previous winners had won her crown by poisoning the girl who actually deserved to win. Although not a frequently documented occurrence, beauty pageant contestants are often accused of cheating or using a method that is less than ethical in order to gain ground over their competition. In reality, the world of beauty pageants is not at all every man for himself, or rather, every girl for herself. In fact, pageants often create lifelong friendships between participants. The author in Source H, says that contrary to popular belief, the pressure and stress that comes along with participating in beauty pageants actually gave the contestants something to bond over and this bond helped to form genuine friendships. Because they are able to relate to what each person is going through, they are able to help relieve stress and create an adequate support system. The web of participants almost seems to possess qualities like that of a close-knit family. Of course there are going to be some that fight and dont get along at all times, but in the end, they love eachother and are always there when someone needs them. Source A displays this ideology perfectly. Not only are the girls genuinely happy for the winner, but they even participate in celebrating her victory. Not one of them seems to be plotting their revenge to steal the crown, like many people would assume. Instead, they smile with her and adorn her with flowers and laughter. This pageant family can provide participants with a genuine family of people they can come to when they need something or when they simply need to feel supported and understood. This can be especially essential to

Swandt 4 girls who grew up without a solid family and who feel like they do not have anyone to turn to. Pageants can provide a network of security for many different types of people. Not only does this concept benefit participants, it can also benefit those who watch beauty pageants by exemplifying the mechanics of a family. It shows them that there will inevitably be disagreements and disturbances amongst family members, but in the end that family will always love and support one another. In a society where countless families have been broken up by events like death and divorce, it is increasingly important that beauty pageants continue to exemplify the utopian concept of a family. Community service is a component of our society that helps keep everything running smoothly. It benefits those who have not been as blessed as others by assisting them with various activities, such as working a soup kitchen to feed those who do not have enough money for food. Without people who donate their time, countless amounts of people in our nation would suffer greatly. Beauty pageants have made humanitarian work a requirement in order to be able to participate in pageants. Not only does this promote community service to the contestants, it also promotes it amongst the citizens in a society. Because pageant contestants are often glamorized and made out to be role models, their active involvement in their community will encourage others who look up to them to go out and get involved in helping their society. This promotion substantially benefits our nation by increasing the amount of volunteers that are willing to assist in any way needed. By making community service a requirement, pageants officials are creating a waterfall effect that endorses being involved in your community. On top of encouraging volunteer work, pageants also raise money for various charities. This is achieved through various methods, some of those being collecting entrance fees or accepting donations from pageant viewers.

Swandt 5 Another area that pageants have begun to highlight is intelligence. Pageant girls are often characterized as clueless, brain-dead girls who are not educated in current events or really anything for that matter. This perception branches from the stereotype that all hot girls are smart, which is simply not the case. The recent shift in the central focus of beauty pageants has altered this unsupported idea. Instead of being categorized as unintelligent, contestants are beginning to flaunt their intelligence as much as they have their beauty. Source C even exhibits a case where a pageant has a minimum grade point average. This clearly displays the pageant coordinators determination to break commonly held negative beliefs about pageants and the qualities of the people who participate in them. How does this benefit anyone besides the contestants? This shifting standard reflects the parallel shift in societys focus. This clearly shows that beauty is being pushed to the side as intelligence takes a more important role in how people are judged. It shows an advancement and maturity in our society. Part of this change in our society can be attributed to the change in pageantry operation and enforcement. Although the author of Source G disagrees with the claim that pageants are extremely beneficial and essential to our society, they do agree that pageants reflect ideas and patterns within a nation. Thus, the shift in the emphasis of pageants is representational of an evolving standard in our nation. The shift being the change from focusing solely on physical beauty to making intelligence and inner beauty a central focus. This benefits our society in many ways, one of them being the decrease in the likeliness of people to go to extremes in order to attempt to obtain an unrealistic idea of beauty. Now, people are able to focus more on attaining desirable qualities that will lead to a reduction in the superficial and selfish qualities that exist in our society. Because of the new focus on inner beauty and intelligence, the promotion of community service, and the camaraderie formed through participation in pageants, many are led to believe

Swandt 6 that beauty pageants benefit our society in more than one way. First off, they contribute to the rise of those who actively volunteer in their community. This is important in helping reduce the poverty rate and simply assisting those who are in need of it. They also celebrate inner beauty, which is essential in a society that idolizes physical beauty. Beauty pageants have ironically begun to emphasize ones personality rather than merely exploiting them for their appearance. Beauty pageants also exemplify the ideal functioning family while creating lifelong bonds amongst the participants. Despite the constant criticism that pageants encourage eating disorders and continuous plastic surgery, that is not the case, at least not in recent years. With the new developments in the pageant world, people are beginning to realize that beauty pageants are actually doing the exact opposite of what they were thought to do. Beauty pageants have, and will continue to considerably profit our society.