Read these words: “You are worthless and fat, you won’t make it unless you’re skinny”. I know it’s horrifying and cruel, but believe it or not, this is a sentence that is constantly heard around the world in the beauty/modeling industry. Every day people struggle with their body image because of what “society” wants them to look like. And what do beauty contests do? They not only objectify and degrade women but also want them to push their bodies beyond the breaking point. If you ask me, I think it’s pathetic. The body standards are past the realistic point of looking “effortlessly beautiful”. Women go through low self-esteem, insane workouts, and dieting plans, plastic surgery, and eating disorders. Beyoncé said it herself “Pretty hurts”.
Punishing your body just to have clear and radiant skin, to be slim, to have the “perfect” breast and figure size, and if you aren’t tall enough then don’t even try. If you felt a type of way reading the previous sentence, then that’s how most women feel inside and out. A team called Glamour did an experiment where they asked women of all different sizes if they had at least one “I hate my body” moment over one day. The results were shocking, 97% admitted to having one of those moments. Judging a beauty contest is purely based on looks appearance and expectations. Unrealistic. According to Runtastic the healthy amount of times you’re meant to work out is three to five times a week. On the other hand, models or people competing in beauty contests work more than two times a day which is completely corrupt. Women go through an extreme workout and diet plans that are considered unhealthy just to compete because the skinner you are the closer you are to winning.
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Have you heard of Toddlers and Tiaras? If you haven’t then you are lucky. It’s a reality TV show where children are forced to compete against each other in hopes of getting prize money and a crown at the end. I know it sounds silly, but beauty contests have been happening since the 1850s, and the beauty standards since then are cruel. In addition to this, the free price of competing in a beauty contest is having low confidence and low self-esteem. According to the website Ultius, young girls who competed in a beauty contest have a 55% chance of experiencing low self-esteem and depression in the future. Young girls who even watch beauty contests online or in real life look up to these models and think “I want to look like that”. But it shouldn’t be that way, these young girls should already feel beautiful in their bodies and how they look. And society isn’t doing that job. In 2017 I competed against six other girls to win a crown, money, and the title of “Miss Laos”. Even though I won, it still wasn’t a great feeling. Girls learn beauty equals success, and when these girls are adults they have a chance of facing an eating disorder, body dissatisfaction, and depression.
Studies show that women who have participated in a beauty contest face a higher risk of developing an eating disorder. Having that feeling of waking up and wanting to change your body because of what the media portrays is gut-wrenching and I can’t imagine what women with eating disorders think when they wake up. Having unrealistic and unnatural body goals is never healthy. Consequently, it’s so easy for a young girl to do an excessive amount of damage to her body in hopes that one day she will potentially have a body like a model. In 2003 a survey was done asking women if they want to be thinner. Half of those women want to be thinner and 26% of them had or have an eating disorder. There is a difference between wanting to get healthy and wanting to get skinny.
Some so many people don’t believe that there is anything wrong with beauty pageants. Being on stage is a lot of pressure because these women want to have the “perfect body” that is seen in magazines, social media, and television, and everyone wants to win but only one person can win. Leaving everyone but one person feeling blue. Yet again when you’re over the age of 18 you make your own decisions to be in skimpy bathing suits and fake tans, but when a child is in a tiny bathing suit and fake tan it is seen as cute? But this child is going to grow up potentially facing an eating disorder or depression.
References
- Debate.org. (2020). Do you believe beauty contests cause eating disorders? [online] Available at: https://www.debate.org/opinions/do-you-believe-beauty-contests-cause-eating-disorders [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
- Dreisbach, S. (2020). Shocking Body-Image News: 97% of Women Will Be Cruel to Their Bodies Today. [online] Glamour. Available at: https://www.glamour.com/story/shocking-body-image-news-97-percent-of-women-will-be-cruel-to-their-bodies-today [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
- K, T. (2020). Beauty is as beauty does: body image and self-esteem of pageant contestants. - PubMed - NCBI. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14649788 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
- Taylor & Francis. (2020). Childhood Beauty Pageant Contestants: Associations with Adult Disordered Eating and Mental Health. [online] Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10640260590932896?src=recsys&journalCode=uedi20 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
- Urbo. (2020). Beauty Pageants And Body Image: Why A Pageant Winner Turned In Her Crown. [online] Available at: https://www.urbo.com/content/body-image-and-beauty-pageants-why-a-pageant-winner-turned-in-her-crown/ [Accessed 5 Feb. 2020].
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