Unrealistic Beauty Contests

Improved Essays
Today, women are constantly told that they have to look a certain way in order to be considered beautiful. The unrealistic beauty standards set by society have led women to believe that they are not beautiful if they do not meet these standards. One of the biggest contributing factors of these unrealistic beauty standards are beauty contests. Over time, beauty contests have led to the objectification of women and the use of women for marketing purposes. Overall, beauty contests have had more of a harmful impact than a helpful impact on women in today’s society. Therefore, beauty contests should no longer exist because they objectify women, exist mainly for marketing purposes, and negatively affect the way women feel about themselves. To begin, …show more content…
By using a beautiful girl to advertise their products, companies send out the message that women must look like beauty pageant contestants in order to be beautiful. These companies lead women to believe that they need to use their products in order to look as beautiful as the girls in beauty contests. It is repulsive way for companies to fulfill their desires and financial profits. In addition, beauty contests are a way for companies to use the winner’s skills to their advantage. The author of an article that talks about the marketing behind beauty contests states, “... the winners of Miss Universe usually become a certain product’s ambassador such as You C 1000 or Avon Cosmetics.” (Sungkar) The negative impact of using the winner’s skills for advertising purposes is that the winner could be using her public speaking skills to raise awareness for serious world issues such as poverty. However, most businesses are more concerned about raising awareness for serious world issues. Although beauty contests may help some of the contestants develop good public speaking skills, the reality of the situation is that those skills will go to waste in helping large corporations earn a fortune. Therefore, beauty contests exist for marketing purposes because businesses use the contestants’ looks and skills for their own selfish

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