-
Essay / The Ethics of Beauty Pageants - 1420
Modern beauty pageants began in the United States of America in 1880 with the first Miss United States beauty pageant held in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Since then, beauty pageants have become popular in many parts of the world. Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International, in which more than fifty countries participate each year, constantly attract huge audiences and supporters. The largest competition, the Miss World competition, has been held annually since 1951 and, although it is less popular in the UK today than it was in 1968, when it attracted 27.5 million of viewers, it still attracts a huge global audience of up to 3 million viewers. billion viewers in 120 countries. [1] Although the main goal of these pageants is to empower women, crowned winners also travel around the world to support causes like HIV/AIDS and children's charities. [2] Due to the success of these internationally produced pageants, various beauty pageants for different age, gender and sexuality classes have emerged. However, even with the immense diversity, the content of each competition has almost always been the same: all are composed of the traditional categories like the swimsuit part and the evening dress part. With this content, beauty pageants spread strong messages about the ideal type of woman, thereby undermining the purpose of a beauty pageant: to empower women. Thus, although beauty pageants contribute to the entertainment of the masses, they promote an ideal of female beauty to which only a minority of women can realistically aspire, objectify women, reinforce cultural insensitivity among their contestants, and consume too many resources . should be banned.Beauty, often defined as ...... middle of paper ......WORLD/africa/11/26/riots.obasanjo/index.html?_s=PM:WORLD[5] http : //www.missamerica.org/scholarships/Purpose.aspx[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/09/nyregion/09pageant.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0[7] http:/ / www.huffingtonpost.com/hilary-levey/miss-america_b_834578.html[8] http://www.missworld.com/BeautywithPurpose/[9] http://www.beautywithaPurpose.com/[10] http:/ / www.france24.com/en/20130918-french-senate-votes-ban-sexualised-child-beauty-pageants/[11] http://www.tpmum.com/alicia.html[12] http:// stcommunities.straitstimes.com/tv/2012/12/21/miss-universe-pigs-out-post-win[13] http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/517029/20131026/miss-universe-pageant- more -beauty-contest-Purpose.htm#.UtvGXhDfrIU[14] http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/[15] http://english. chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/10/26/2009102600798.html