Argument: Beauty pagents are about moral than physical aesthetics

Modern Beauty pageants have mandatory talent portions and are more about establishing and striving for an ‘ideal’ than rating physical beauty. This was specifically made mandatory by Lenora Slaughter in the 1938 Miss America Pageant in order to attract “ladies” to participate in the competitions. The modern form of the beauty pageant was designed by women in order to attract women. [1]

[1] Hilary Levey Friedman, ‘There She Goes: A Trailblazing Feminist Beauty Queen’, Huffington Post, 15 March 2011

Candidate 1: "Beauty contests are part of the system that values women solely on their appearance. It is better to break down that system than seek to work within it.

Beauty contests fail to challenge harmful political attitudes to women. Despite paying lip-service to feminist keywords such as empowerment and self-confidence, they do nothing concrete to aid the liberation of women; indeed, by reinforcing looks as the most important feminine quality, they harm women’s liberation in general. The fact that the organisers of Miss World 2002 had no problem with holding the contest in Nigeria at the same time as a high-profile case in which a woman was due to be stoned for adultery exposes the competition’s hypocrisy. [1]

Assigning scholarship funds based on physical appearance rather than academic merit is unfair because it neuters the aspirations of many regardless of how hard they might work.

[1] Bloom, Alexis and Cassandra Herrman, Frontline World, ‘Nigeria – The Road North’, PBS, January 2003."
Candidate 2: "This is a red herring – beauty pageants are primarily about physical attractiveness. Broadcasting data shows that viewers turn off Miss America for the talent and interview portions of the show while continuing to watch the swimsuit portion. [1]

[1] Peterson, Ivan, ‘A Challenge for Miss America in Reality TV Era’, The New York Times, 9 April 2005"
Candidate 3: "Beauty Pageants do limit the choice of others due to putting pressure on women to conform to this ideal of beauty which is promoted. This is limiting the lifestyle choices of many more women than choose to take part in the pageants."

This is a red herring – beauty pageants are primarily about physical attractiveness. Broadcasting data shows that viewers turn off Miss America for the talent and interview portions of the show while continuing to watch the swimsuit portion. [1]

[1] Peterson, Ivan, ‘A Challenge for Miss America in Reality TV Era’, The New York Times, 9 April 2005
