Every year thousands of pageants are held around the world. Many of these pageants are about empowerment and celebrating femininity. But in an ever-changing world, where many traditional roles of women continue to evolve, is femininity mainly defined by a woman’s physical beauty and grace as pageants often perpetuate? Do pageants encourage the fetishisation of women’s bodies? Are male bodies fetishised in the male pageants? Do pageants promote unity along with personal development?
In Guyana many pageants are held throughout the year. There are children’s pageants, male pageants, gay pageants, but most pageants feature young women. We also have pageants like the Mother and Daughter pageant which is held around Mother’s Day and Ms. Renaissance which features older women. However, most local pageant contestants are judged on physical appearance, talent and intelligence. Pageants are often held during festivals, anniversaries, to celebrate pride and culture or to select a representative for regional or international pageants.
The earliest beginnings of pageants I found were in ancient Greece, where the King of Arcadia ordered beauty pageants during Eleusinian Diana, which was an annual festival. There were also pageants for men to determine who was most handsome. The history is also linked to the Greek mythology titled ‘Judgement of Paris’. A goat herder called Alexandros was said to have been summoned to settle a dispute among Goddesses to determine who was more beautiful. I could not find any information on whether earlier civilisations engaged in pageantry though I would not be surprised if they did. I know in some cultures young women were paraded to be chosen for marriage.
There are records of beauty pageants in the 1800s. However, the modern-day beauty pageants really began in 1921 in the United States of America with the Atlantic City’s Inter-City Beauty Contest, which later became the Miss America Pageant. Since then the culture of pageantry has evolved. Internationally the major pageants are Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss Earth and Miss International.
I have never been a fan of pageants. I’ve never had the desire to compete in or even attend them. While many pageants have evolved into celebrating culture and championing women’s empowerment, there is no denying that the history of modern pageantry is rooted in sexism, racism and the standards of beauty that are promoted are unrealistic for most women. In the United States of America, Black women were not allowed to compete in pageants for many years. The first Black winner of a state pageant was in 1970. It was Caucasian women who were celebrated, and still international pageants largely perpetuate the Caucasian standard of beauty. However, there is no doubt that pageants have become more diverse. But still, they do not celebrate all women’s natural beauty. The contestants are mainly of a slim body type in international pageants and are mostly tall. There are hardly ever any plus sized women in those pageants. Are there ever any? Most women are not naturally as skinny as most pageant contestants. Women who enter those pageants sometimes must lose weight to fit in. In the earlier years of modern pageantry there seemed to have been were more variations in body types. So, though there may be mantras about every woman being beautiful and to celebrate all types of beauty, often our actions say otherwise and there is a plethora of evidence to support this as it relates to beauty pageants. A woman who weighs over two hundred pounds or a woman who is very short will most likely never become an international pageant winner or even given the opportunity to compete.
In Guyana, we have had issues with colourism in our beauty pageants. On more than one occasion when darker skinned women were selected to represent us in international pageants, many comments were made about the colour of their skin being too dark. There have also been instances where people have voiced their preference for one ethnicity over another.
Generally, Guyanese continue to perpetuate colourism. We know the history of it, which is rooted slavery and colonialism. Even though there are more efforts to celebrate darker skin and embracing natural beauty, the way of thinking has not changed for many. Skin bleaching, for example, is a prime example of this.
If beauty pageants were abolished today, would the abolition have any great effect on the affairs of the word? The organisers of the international pageants will suffer financials losses; it might have an effect on the billion-dollar beauty industry, and young women who dreamed of being on the international stages may grieve, but the affairs of the world would continue.
What is good about pageants today is the focus on empowerment and there is much more diversity. Young women and men are given the opportunity to travel to further their education, to stand for causes and establish organisations. The Miss World pageant’s ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ initiative, where each country chooses a humanitarian project and contestants pledge to help the cause and establish organisations, is a most impressive initiative. Local Ms. Guyana World pageants have tackled issues such as mental illness.
The majority of women will never get validation from a pageant and they do not need to. Beauty is diverse. Most women are not between a size 1 and 4 and there is nothing wrong with that. In our local pageants, women of all sizes compete, which is good. But behind many of the beautiful smiles of pageant contestants are sleepless nights in preparation, starvation to lose weight and depression when they do not excel or when they have to compare themselves to the others. Women do not need a stage to show the world that they are empowered or beautiful, especially when that stage does not celebrate all. While pageants do help to promote self-confidence and contestants are given opportunities to develop themselves, it also encourages self-hate in women who do not fit the beauty standards.
Young girls who observe the international pageants, especially, may believe that in order to be considered attractive they need to be slim and perfectly toned and based on the applause they receive for parading themselves for the world they would know if they are worthy. It matters not how much we say beauty starts from within, a culture of pageantry can negate that and perhaps does for many.
