The glamour of the beauty industry is just like a camera filter. It looks all perfect and shining when you see through it but once you remove that and see it in natural mode, you will see how many imperfections it contains.
As the world is trying to become more progressive, these beauty pageants have refrained from taking any step forward. Let’s dig deeper into the problematic nature of this industry.
The structure of the competition itself is questionable.
The main concern of beauty pageants is physical beauty. The way your physical features look and how well you carry those are the parameters on which you win the title. To hide this superficial nature of these competitions, the organizers compensate it by adding one or two rounds of questions and answers.
The guidelines of Femina Miss India states that the participant should be between 18 to 25 years of age because of course only the young girls are considered beautiful. Another guideline states that the girl should be at least 5’3 in height. This title is made for the women of India, where the average height of women is 5 feet. It was earlier 5’5 that the organisers reduced, to make this competition “inclusive”. Another questionable requirement is, the girl should be unmarried. This literally put a question mark against the beauty of married women. These specific rules differentiate some girls from others and create an ideal standard of beauty that is clearly not normal.
This enforcement of beauty standards puts people in boxes. Those who fit in this are labeled as beautiful and those who do not as the contrary. Young girls grow up being conscious about their physical attributes and doubting their self-worth.
Even the ones who fit these categories go through so much of mental stress that they feel bad about themselves too. The ideal body shape and size are not easy to get. Only the people who can afford to go to the gym regularly and consult dieticians are able to get that zero-size figure. The make-up and the dresses, everything requires a good investment. In one way, these beauty pageants promote classism. This is the reason Manya Singh, VLCC Femina Miss India 2020 runner-up, got so much appreciation for her victory. She is the daughter of an auto-driver and therefore it came out as such heartwarming news. It was so unexpected for a girl like her because these competitions are not accessible to everyone.
What goes behind all the glam and glitz?
Some participants later confess in their interviews how girls survive on water pills to showcase a great swimsuit body on the stage. Eating disorders like bulimia are not rare diseases among the participants who starve themselves quite often to fit a certain body shape. Few of them also confessed of being asked for sexual favours from their organisers and sponsors.
An article on Channel News Asia featured Janina San Miguel’s, the winner of Miss Philippines 2008, interview with the programme Undercover Asia, specifically targets this point. Last year she confessed about the reality she had to face behind all the glitz. She was offered several sexual advances in return of money. During her training for the crown of miss world, she was isolated from her family and even the death of her grandfather was hidden from her. It was torture on a different level. The journey of getting the tiara and the sachet is not simple and definitely not smooth.
A youtube documentary by Real Stories titled “Backstabbers and Beauty Queens” showed what goes in the training of these individuals. Their training was no less than a military one. Their mornings began early and involved a strict regime of physical exercises. Every pose, walk, and gaze went through scrutiny. They were prepared for the questions and answers round but the shallow structure of the beauty pageant was revealed in the first round only. The girls were adorning swimsuits and walked showing their bodies from every angle. Of course, it helps in building discipline and confidence in the participants but it also makes the people watching them conscious about their own skin. The name of the titles like Miss sparkling eyes fixes only the certain type of eyes that are beautiful and anything else apart from them is not.
Even after they win the title, these beauty queens are under a state of constant surveillance. Alicia Machado, who was crowned Miss Universe 1996, got threatened to be replaced because of her increasing weight. As if, her worth was directly proportional to her weight. This controversy itself depicts how problematic these competitions are.
The legitimacy of Beauty Pageants
These competitions surely give young girls an opportunity to come out of their comfort zones. From fame and popularity to a chance to level up their career and gain monetary rewards, they help in giving a platform to do something for the society. Manushi Chillar, the crown holder of Miss World 2017, initiated Project Shakti to help in spreading awareness about menstruation in rural areas. But this is the aftermath of Beauty pageants. The selection process, the rounds, and the judgement process still consist of multiple faults.
Gradually, they are trying to be more inclusive. In 2014, Miss World Organisation removed the bikini round but it was replaced by a “beachwear” round which did not really make much of a difference. To create a society where every person feels valued, we need to do better than this.
Need of reforms in the age of body positivity
If you will look closely at all the crown winners, one thing that would strike you is how all of them look similar in terms of their body type. Tall and slim-waisted girls get to win the title almost all the time. What message does it give back to the society? Clearly, it implies that only this body type should be called beautiful.
The unreal benchmark that these beauty pageants set for the ideal society are not achievable for everybody. Due to that, people have to go through body shaming that leaves a scar on them and makes them hate themselves. Bodyweight is one of the sensitive issues to deal with for some of us. There are so many factors affecting our weight and putting a certain body type on the pedestal surely makes the other body type inferior.
One thing that you will see trending on every social media is #loveyourself. How do these competitions help in spreading this most important message? Some of the models seem to be indulging in plastic surgeries and getting botox to win the competition. But what about the rest of us who cannot afford this amount of money? And what about those who just don’t want to? Are not those girls beautiful? In 2018, a Netflix original movie “Dumplin’” came out. The plot of the movie revolved around the shallow nature of beauty pageants. The protagonist, Willowdean who was not stereotypically beautiful, participated in the pageant to challenge their authority. This movie surely questions the whole existence and judgement of such competitions lightheartedly. We have a long way to reach that stage where each and every body would be considered beautiful in their own way but it can be done. The pageant organisers should put physical attributes at the back and listen to what the other person has to say. There is a huge need to remove this superficiality and become more accepting towards people. If these pageants are judging girls on the basis of their personality then we need to start respecting their intellects too. The title winners represent their homeland and become a goodwill ambassador for the same. There are so many things we should look at apart from their physical attributes.
