Pageants and Underlying Misogyny

 

Do you like Beauty Pageants? 

Pageantries or Beauty Pageants like the four major international beauty pageants for women–Miss Universe, Miss Earth, Miss International, and Miss World, are commonly idealized as the battle of beauty and wits. Moreover, it is defined by Britannica as "An outlet for expressing national, communal, religious, or other kinds of group purpose or identity.” On a similar note, PBS.org shared that beauty pageants are primarily about using femininity to represent other issues. This is why every candidate has an advocacy that they give attention to and would like for the people of the world, universe, earth, and all the people internationally to see and be aware of too. However, now, pageants, starting as a way to use beauty to uplift communities and spread awareness of global issues, are being used to put women against each other so much that their original purpose is being tarnished by misogyny. 

The annual Fiesta in my small little town is slowly taking its rise, and fiestas here are not taken ever so lightly. I'm talking about closed main roads, celebrity guests, street performers, street decorations, week-long celebrations, and of course, the anticipated Mr/Ms. Pageants. 

Whilst chilling on a bench near the lake one morning, I accidentally (totally not on purpose; they were talking loudly) overheard a conversation between two people beside me, one whom I know is a gay man (It’s a small town).

Here are some of the excerpts I can remember:

A: “I heard [a girl’s name] is joining this year’s pageant” 

B: “Oh yeah? Did she solve that acne problem? Last time I saw her face is like full of–[both started laughing]”

A: “Yeah, I think it’s better if she sits this one out, she used to be beautiful when she didn’t have all those pimples”

B: “And I remember she’s soooo hard to teach (pageantry skills I guess)”

A: “[another girl’s name] could totally outperform her, to be honest”

–In lighter terms, that’s what I overheard. I know it’s not right to be nosy and act as if I’m perfect. But I only used that conversation to prove my claim, that the real meaning of pageants is being shrouded by nasty misogyny. 

It was unnecessary to emphasize that one of the people is a gay man, but I chose to include it to add that a huge percentage of the audience of pageants belongs to the LGBTQ+ community. As the world progresses and innovates, these pageants that date back from the year 1920s are being open to people of different countries, genders, and sexualities now. For instance, in 2018, Miss Universe had the first transgender contestant from Spain, named Angela Ponce. And now, the owner of the said pageantry is a transgender entrepreneur from Thailand named Anne Jakrajutatip.

This is not to say that people in the LGBTQ+ community are the only ones that scrutinize candidates but a lot of people actually. As a form of support, my friends would belittle other candidates in a school pageant to uplift our class’ representative; On some occasions, these pageants go online and the more likes a candidate has the more chances that they would win. 

Pageants could be entertaining...who am I kidding? They ARE entertaining, especially if you are being represented. It is a simple annual celebration of beauty and the world is composed of a myriad of these, thus scrutinizing and belittling candidates or in general, women, is utterly nonsense and takes away the meaning of the competition; they are not horses, nor is the pageant a betting place. These are women who have something to say and are women who want a platform where they can be heard.

This month is Women’s month and with this, we should celebrate women and what they have done for the world– the universe rather, for this month and every day rather than putting them against each other like crabs getting out of the bin, we should start rekindling the old meaning of pageantry, to celebrate beauty, wits, and advocacy. 

Happy Women’s Month to all the beautiful ladies out there! 

Read my other works on Women's Month: SHE HAS FACIAL HAIR, BIG DEAL?

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Thank you for reading!