The Contest

winning thousands of dollars in scholarships towards schools of my choice. The Miss Alaska’s Outstanding Teen Pageant had four portions: fitness, talent, platform, and beauty. Fitness was a more age appropriate adaptation of the ever-popular “swimsuit contest,” in which each girl proved…

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? Contests to determine "who is the fairest of them all" have been in the world since ancient Greece and the Judgment of Paris. A glitz pageant is where girls have to have big and sometimes fake hair, perfect makeup, spray tans, fake teeth, and fake nails in a pageant. Toddlers & Tiaras is a reality television series that followed the personal lives of families of contestants in a child beauty pageant. This show ended up generating…

Waking up early to get ready, after weeks of rehearsal and spray tans, hours spent and hundreds of dollars on a short, sparkling dress and heels and at times revealing outfits. Kids are seated for hours to do hair and makeup, and last minute preparation, parents making sure they do not become impatient hand them a juice box to calm them down, however this is for a 5 year child is being forced to participate in pageants in order to make her parents happy and boastful that their child has won the…

From the ancient Greek mythology of the “Judgment of Paris” to the selection of the May Day Queen in the United States, it is clear that the narrative of “beauty contests” amongst women is not a recent human construction; rather, its long history may in fact partially explain how we have come to normalize the judgment of female bodies. Nevertheless, the issue is even more problematic when we extend this practice to the bodies of extremely young girls. Three-year-old Paisley Dickey made headline…

Beauty pageants originated a long time ago, and over the years they have evolved tremendously. Today, the use of spray tans, false eyelashes, fake teeth, layers of makeup, and over-sexed outfits are the norm of child pageants. Just over the course of a few decades, the pageant world has changed from simple church dresses to expensive glitzy outfits. Most little girls would relish at the thought of being treated like a princess, even if just for a few days out of the year; however, some parents…

Many women who married around the 60s, most of their husbands would expect their wives to have a stereotypical model body: Twiggy, Donyale Luna, Patti Boyd and Linda Morand were some of the top 1960s models according to Supermodels of the 1960s by Lauren Valenti. These were some of the most famous models in the 60s in which men would expect their wives to maintain their bodies as these models. From a curvy waist to a flat stomach and a well size butt to please men of an ideal “perfect” body. Not…

Coshocton Tribune reported on Aug. 13, 1926” (Weeks). The face kissing fad is exactly what it sounds like, kissing someone for an extended amount of time. “...A young couple continued to kiss for three hours and two minutes at a national marathon kissing contest on Coney Island in New York” (Weeks). Although these activities sound completely pointless, back in the twenties everyone was attempting these feats and while few succeeded, many had fun…

Every year countless women compete in a barbaric and outdated tradition where they prance around in two piece bathing suits costing more than an average person gets in their pay check all while potentially harming the self-image of anyone who watches them including themselves. Ever since the introduction of mainstream beauty pageants in the late 50’s they seem to lack variety among their contestants. This is due to the judge’s grading standards, walking around with rulers ranking women based…

Beauty pageants have been a part of history. They are events in which the participants, usually females, of all ages are being judged based on their talent, physical beauty, and an interview portion. In which the contestants all dolled up in outfits, makeup, and excessive amounts of hair products. Some people regard beauty competitions as eye catching, harmless entertainment, but often the rigors of this pageantry inhibit the normal development of children, socially, and psychologically.…

Beauty pageants are essentially a form of child abuse. Forcing children to continue to participate in pageants even though it is evident that they are not enjoying it for the sake of gratification for the parents or financial gain is ethically immoral and a form of abuse. Some parents believe that they are providing healthy competition for their children and that since it is not physically harming them, then it is not a form of abuse. However, when parents coax children to do something the…