As the sparkling crown is placed upon her head, she smiles. Fernanda has just won the Miss Costa Rica beauty pageant. Because Fernanda comes from the same canton as I do, I felt proud and represented at the time; however, I began to wonder about the power these types of competitions hold over women. As a college student, I have witnessed how beauty conceptions influence women from a fairly early age. This has led me to think of beauty pageants in a broader way, where beauty represents the value and worth of a person. On one hand, many people perceive beauty pageants as the foundation of the stereotypes depicting how women should look and behave. On the other hand, the sponsors of these contests proclaim that beauty pageants represent the culture, tradition and values to which the contestants belong. Because of this, beauty pageants transcend from merely physical representations of beauty features to intangible characteristics that shape social awareness. Considering this, I plan to present both perspectives to impel reflection upon the following questions: are beauty pageants contributing to improving women’s conditions throughout the globe? Is beauty itself required to create awareness to obtain social justice?
When defining beauty, it becomes unavoidable to separate it from the ugly. Regardless, beauty definitions tend to be subjective depending on the people who evaluate the standards. At first glance, spectators might say that watching the show is purely entertainment. But on closer inspection, it represents a set of beauty rules that influence women’s perception of themselves. Aside from how beauty queens look physically, they are also prompted to behave in a way that aligns with the grace of their exuberant bodies. Although these competitions show the most beautiful girls in a city, country or world, just one of them will be able to carry the crown. Is this woman carrying the crown the perfect reflection of all women? Do all of them look alike? Not all women look the same. Besides that, not all women live in the same conditions. Based on the vast differences between ordinary women and beauty queens, I concede that beauty should not enclose a person’s worth; still, I believe that these refined, elated faces can raise awareness about the issues that exist in the places and people they represent. Beauty contests are known internationally, and from any side of the globe, they present the universal definition of beauty.
Thanks to the media, beauty contests are known world-wide. Television and social networks assume a considerable portion of how beauty pageants are presented. In her essay On Beauty and Protest, Vanessa Pérez-Rosario, managing director of Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, wrote about the Miss Peru beauty contest in October 2017, where the contestants held a manifestation throughout the pageant. They used the contest to make known the treatments Peruvian women received because of domestic, sexual and gender violence. Consequently, the hashtag “my measurements are” (#mymesearumentsare) appeared on social media and rapidly spread out. The pageant in Peru serves as an example of the power that beauty contests have on their own. To analyze if that power is used correctly, Pérez-Rosario argues, “[t]he unexpected focus on ending violence against women in the context of a popular culture spectacle like a beauty pageant that traditionally aims to define the ideal woman was unsettling and disruptive, creating the strange experience of a beauty that has the power to destabilize.”
Pérez-Rosario is undoubtedly right about beauty conceptions and their power because it sheds light on the complex problem of ignoring social issues unless an eye-catching figure doesn’t bring awareness. I agree that it is strange to see beauty pageants arguing for justice because social problems might not be related to pageantry. If justice centers on a pretty face, social causes will be shaded for an unreal look instead of the real one. While it is true that calling for social awareness can be reached faster when people’s attention is caught, it does not necessarily mean that showing a well-worked out body is the only way to bring awareness to issues that involve both the beauty pageant community and the spectators.
Beauty can indeed take on different faces of different colors and backgrounds. Nonetheless, women are attached to the ideals of a look that fits the glowing standards of a beauty queen’s face. Beauty standards are indeed artificial and almost impossible to reach, but when those standards take place with a crown accompanied by shiny high heels, the impossibility changes to a reachable dream. Anne Anlin Cheng, English Professor at Princeton University, expresses that “beauty has been mostly conceived of as a judgment that objectifies the other; it has often been discussed in terms of what it does to someone or something that is the object of perception.” Indeed, beauty queens are not spared from criticism. Still, if we move from this perspective to the one that makes beauty queens as examples for others, their objectification involves self-criticism that endorses false ideas of self-value and worth. Retrospectively, I define beauty in terms of the tangible and the visible. Based on that, I cannot agree more with Dr. Cheng. Often beauty may lead to actions such as the ones contestants[MC1] in Miss Peru took, or it can also lead to pointing out what others lack in beauty.
A larger pageant than Miss Peru is Miss USA. It represents a country that has disparities between races and cultures. As the academic professor at the Annenberg School of Communication Sarah Banet-Weiser puts it in her book The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, “In fact, though pageants are important sites for the construction and maintenance of the white, middle-class American “ideal,” they are also, and equally as powerfully, sites for the construction of female liberal subjects” (207) In this case, Miss USA does more than representing the ideal woman in the American society. It also functions as a space where, as Banet-Weiser also mentioned in her book, “[m]iss America is the face that is simultaneously the face of America, the beginning of womanhood, and the face of diversity. The presence of black and brown female bodies on the stage does not dismantle the privilege of whiteness that frames the pageant. On the contrary, this presence, harmoniously situated alongside white female bodies, works to include whiteness as a critical player in the diversity game.”
This is a case when beauty pageants are not just the unreachable image of beauty; they are also spaces that create an inclusive sense within the community. The Miss USA pageant challenges the common assumptions surrounding beauty standards. Beauty is represented in different faces despite the beliefs of how beauty should be in the United States. Thus, beauty pageants can challenge the spectators’ perspective to provoke consciousness over their actions when influenced by the radiance of beautiful figures.
Miss Peru and Miss USA demonstrate that beauty pageants can promote awareness of social issues in each country where they are presented. Indeed, beauty can be used to overcome social breaches or problems, Pérez-Rosario and Dr. Cheng’s perspectives regarding beauty implications for women and the people who conform to society convince me of the deep analysis needed to answer the questions I posed at the beginning. Although women are the most affected for the beauty standards set in pageants, their personal and social conditions can be influenced depending on the contest; likewise, the requirements established to capture people’s attention may or may not be subject to beauty. The beauty search is subject to factors that, when surrounding us, can go unnoticed. However, it is essential to detail that their presence can overshadow the issues outside of beauty that seek to be noticed.
Written by Deily Alpizar