Every year, millions of people around the world unite to watch a contest that crowns the world’s most beautiful and glamorous woman.
And every year, news of it makes me gag. It’s not that I don’t appreciate glamour or love sparkly gowns; I actually love makeup and tiaras and glitter.
No, my problem with the Miss Universe pageant isn’t the glitz. It’s the fact that it’s a beauty pageant.
The Miss Universe supposedly seeks an ambassador who can do good in the world. However, there are many people who are ambassadors for good around the world but not all of them look like a Miss Universe contestant. The pageant ignores this fact that instead bases personal monetary value and intrinsic worth on good looks. But we all know beauty is in the eye of the beholder; I may deem someone more physically beautiful than someone else, but that doesn’t mean I can judge how great of a person someone is based on their features.
It’s great that the Miss Universe Organization strives to help others. As the website says, “During their reign, our winners are given the tools to personally and professionally enrich others by providing humanitarian efforts to affect positive change, all while developing their personal career goals.” Pageant winners get to make a difference in others’ lives by being an ambassador. However, the website also states that the contest is a “beauty pageant,” and inherent in the idea of a beauty pageant is the sexist notion that women have to fit a certain brand of beauty to be of worth. It’s the literal embodiment of the false notion that no matter how successful a woman is, she must also be beautiful to be noticed. The contest tells these women, “Sure, you can go around the world helping people and we’ll give you a modeling contract and free beauty products and a luxury apartment. But, oh wait, here’s the catch. You only got all this because we think you’re beautiful.”
But we do here about the contestants personal lives during the telecast, so it can’t all be about looks right? Wrong. In a recent interview with the “Today” show, billionaire Donald Trump, who owns the Miss Universe Organization said, “The Miss Universe pageant is known to have the most beautiful women in the world. Whether it’s politically correct or not, who cares? It’s a formula that will never die.”
Trump doesn’t realize that the problem with the Miss Universe pageant isn’t that it’s not politically correct. In one statement, the owner of the pageant is telling people that the whole thing is about beautiful women, not what these women contribute to the world and not the charity work that the winner participates in.
Obviously, these women can use their pageant fame to reach their goals. Plus, there’s nothing wrong with using fame to bring attention to a cause you think people should know about. But the only thing the telecast pageant does to make these women famous is emphasize how important it is for them women to be attractive.
Before the pageant telecast, the finalists are chosen by preliminary judges. Preliminary judge Scott Lazerson, who interviewed 89 contestants for the 2011 pageant, revealed in an interview for Forbes that he looks for “beauty, intelligence and poise.” But then, the interviewer asked for “the real answer.” His response? “Beauty, beauty, beauty. It’s all about beauty.” He noted that the contestants were also smart though “maybe not every single one of them.” He named a few intelligent standouts, then admitted with a laugh that none of made it to the final round.
The telecast judges are the ones who determine who makes it into the final round, based on the swimsuit and evening gown portions. What do they look for? According to one telecast judge this year, “Overall personality. The way you present yourself. Just be natural with it and look forward to being the next Miss Universe.” It makes sense that the judges can probably perceive how the contestants present themselves. Scrutinizing how they present themselves is a subjective and demeaning process. The amount of scrutiny their physical appearances are under, not just from the judges but from the audience, is simply ridiculous and unnecessary. While global ambassadors should have poise, no one needs to know how they walk in a bikini. Their inherent worth as human beings and their passion for helping others should be enough.
The only somewhat redeeming part of the pageant is the question and answer portion. I get that it’s important to be able to think on your feet and give educated answers on the spot. But a system that gives people a difficult question and only allows them 30 seconds to answer would only be understandable if the competition was based purely on intelligence and rhetorical eloquence. But it’s not of course. After their bodies are sized up, these women are judged if they don’t give a great answer in front of millions of people. And if they choose not to use an interpreter, answering just gets harder for some of them.
The question and answer portion is a popular topic of conversation the day after the pageants. But in these conversations, including ones I’ve heard in person, it all goes back to whether or not they’re beautiful. Case in point: many of the comments on Miss Universe’s Facebook page photos are about how beautiful the women are or how a contestant has a snooty look on her face or how another’s legs are too skinny. There are next to no comments about what they want to accomplish and the work that they are passionate about.
Obviously, the Internet’s comments sections are not known for its kindness and fairness. People will always judge people. But the competition does the world no favors by bombarding viewers with photos of the women in bathing suits and images of them promotion beauty products while showing less than five minutes of the charity work Miss Universe did during her reign.
Ultimately, the Miss Universe competition places the women of the world on a pedestal not to celebrate them but to judge them and tear them down when they don’t reach an arbitrary standard. This is not the way to live our lives or treat other people. We can do better.
Photo Credit: missuniverse.com
