{"id":21183,"date":"2021-06-24T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=21183"},"modified":"2021-06-18T11:49:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T18:49:19","slug":"lets-talk-2-0-are-beauty-pageants-empowering-or-degrading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/06\/24\/lets-talk-2-0-are-beauty-pageants-empowering-or-degrading\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Talk 2.0<\/em>: Are beauty pageants empowering or degrading?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A beauty pageant is a competition that judges the participants by their physical attributes, personality traits, intelligence, talent, and ability to answer difficult questions under pressure. There are thousands of pageants happening every year, and they draw a huge amount of attention from both the press and the general public. As fun as they can be to watch, beauty pageants are a heavily debated topic: are they empowering or are they degrading?<\/p>\n

Critics argue that these contests reinforce the idea that girls and women should be evaluated solely on their physical appearance; critics are also quick to emphasize that beauty pageants dehumanize women by subjecting them to objectification. Both points here are absolutely valid: in the beginning, pageants relied solely on appearance and had little to do with anything else.<\/p>\n

That said, competitions have changed dramatically over the years.<\/p>\n

As society began to understand that beauty isn’t everything, pageants became more inclusive. While most beauty pageants do cater strictly to girls, there are a growing number that include boys as well. Diversity in the programming of these contests has also improved over the years. Modern beauty pageants rely less on traditional beauty and more on the practical skills and talents presented by the competitors. Research also suggests that these events can strengthen skills like interpersonal communications, self-assurance, and public speaking.<\/p>\n

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Let’s Talk 2.0<\/em> is a column exploring feminist issues (graphic by Celina Lessard\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But why would anyone want to walk around in a bikini and answer questions about serious topics? Well, aside from feeling sexy while doing it, there is incentive to compete. Winning major competitions opens doors to modelling jobs, university scholarships, and apprenticeship opportunities that may not be available otherwise. Winning a pageant can provide a jumpstart for success in the competitor\u2019s chosen field.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a lot of work that needs to be done with beauty pageants, and there\u2019s no denying that. Behind the scenes, things aren\u2019t always glamorous or positive. We see awful videos of mothers forcing their young daughters to put on ridiculous outfits, or hear whispers of how pageants negatively impact the beauty standards of young women. It leaves us wondering if pageants are really worth all the drama. Is there enough benefit to justify keeping them around?<\/p>\n

Everyone who competes has a different experience with beauty pageants. Sashaying about in a cute maxi dress can be totally thrilling and fun to one person but dehumanizing and demeaning to another. Whether they are empowering or degrading can change from person to person and pageant to pageant, so there\u2019s no definitive way to say they\u2019re good or bad.<\/p>\n

In our society, beauty pageants are both famous and infamous. They can have great benefits and opportunities, but can also be detrimental and toxic. Like most things in life, beauty pageants are different for every person, and whether you\u2019re in favour of them or not depends on your morals and beliefs.<\/p>\n

Are beauty pageants a horrible creation meant to push unhealthy beauty standards or are they a place for creative minds to be expressive and learn? Or maybe they\u2019re somewhere in between, existing in a murky middle ground that, like most things in life, everyone must navigate for themselves.<\/p>\n

Got something to say? Write a letter to the editor at editor@nexusnewspaper.com<\/a>. Letters may be edited for clarity and printed.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A beauty pageant is a competition that judges the participants by their physical attributes, personality traits, intelligence, talent, and ability to answer difficult questions under pressure. There are thousands of pageants happening every year, and they draw a huge amount of attention from both the press and the general public. As fun as they can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21190,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21183\/revisions\/21190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}