Pageants

[TripThruUreWires]

Beauty pageants (and let's face it, that's what they are)...how can they possibly exist in this day and age?! Tonight i turned on the television and came across the "Miss Teen USA" pageant. It literally makes me sick to my stomache to watch this crap. By no means am i a feminist, but these contests are truly a blow to any gains women have made in past years. Why are there still swimsuit competitions--how degrading is that to these women? 3/4 of the contestents there appeared anorexic or underweight. Can you just imagine what some of them do to attain that look--knowing beforehand that they are going to be judged and scrutinized by millions of people? And of course the one female contestant that actually did appear "womanly" and carried some curves obtained the lowest score from the judges...go figure. Furthermore, after the competition, they plastered the average vital statistics of the contestants across the screen...that being: the average height--5'8 with the average weight at 110 pounds. give or take, that doesn't sound right. And what the hell the is the point of even doing that--simply to make the majority of female viewers feel inadequate i suppose?
...You know, it's not just pagents that give a girl with a relatively healthy self-esteem doubts about her own self worth...it's everything out there it seems. Just flip through the pages and advertisements of any woman's magazine...you can't help but compare yourself to these images, and in doing so, feel somewhat worthless. You do this enough and the outcome is sure to be devastating. Seriously, that's why I avoid these sort of magazines at all costs. It's as if their sole purpose is to make you feel that you are inadequate in some way or another.

...Rant Over...I'm too weary to complete my train of thought.

 

[baker6621]

Yeah, it sucked. I saw the last 5 minutes. Many Moore looked hot though, heh

 

[popkidu2]

and we wonder why our kids are so fucked up, divorce rates are so high, and eating disorders are so common place.....

beauty is in the eye of the beholder

------------------
All is quiet on New Year's Day
Think I'll try and impress my mates
So I jumped into the lake
I won't do that again
Here we go again - A

IM me at popkidu2

 

[The Wanderer]

I saw about 1 minute of it, they all looked the same to me, I'm not sure how they justify those pangeants??? They wouldn't even call them by their names, they'd say "New Jersey looks good" or "California rocked the house!"

 

[Saracene]

Well, you may think that those women are being degraded, but I think that many of them might be very excited at the opportunity to show off their supposedly "perfect" bodies in front of a big audience.

Personally, I never get upset about not matching up to the images of "perfect beauty" in the women's magazines, because I know that most of them have been airbrushed and fixed up in Photoshop, hehe,

 

[Spiral_Staircase]

I totally agree. I'm a conservative male, not the exactly the definition of a femminist, but I think it is so ridiculous that people are still doing this stuff. I saw a couple minutes as my wife watched the last 10 minutes and I thought the exact same thing as Wanderer. It was like "Hey Oklahoma, come here and turn around for us" Not even Ms. Oklahoma. Just Oklahoma. It just seems weird to me. Saracene, I realize that most of these girls are thrilled to be there and to be able to show off their bodies, but do we have to affirm them? Think about what we're saying....Ms. Teen USA. "You're the best teenage girl in the country." Why do we have to pick the best teen in the USA? Its just ridiculous to me. I realize I'm rambling....

[This message has been edited by Spiral_Staircase (edited 08-23-2001).]

 

[Cathy]

What is even more disgusting is parents that make their little girls participate in "Little Miss" pageants so that mommy and daddy can win a new car,vacation,cash, etc...
I think those sort of pageants should be outlawed. To me it is exploitation and abuse.


[This message has been edited by Cathy (edited 08-23-2001).]

 

[Saracene]

I agree that beauty pageants are pointless and ridiculous, but I don't think they're supposed to be taken seriously. If any girl that wins this sort of competition REALLY thinks that she is "the best teenage girl in the country", then she must be really stupid. But yes, I agree that it would be better if the beauty pageants with little children and teenage girls participating didn't exist at all.

And unfortunately, even if the pageants were nixed, there are still many ways selfish parents exploit their children's talents for their own gain. Even worse, they often believe sincerely that they are doing it for their children's best,

 

[sulawesigirl4]

I completely agree with you, trip. I can't watch one of those without getting angry. It's like...ok, we're going to hold a contest. It has nothing to do with any talent you have whatsoever, how well you play an instrument, educate your mind, or help your fellow man. The criteria are what genes you were born with and how well you can starve yourself.

uh huh. yay.

It's damn hard to be a woman in America. And I can say that having lived elsewhere for a good part of my life. There is an un-natural obsession here with beauty and sexual attraction that just makes me ill. Even if you have a healthy image of yourself (which isn't easy in the first place) every day you are bombarded by images of what you 'should' look like, how you 'should' eat, what kind of clothes you 'should' wear. ARRRG!

Puts me in mind of the words to Playboy Mansion... "If beauty is truth, and surgery the fountain of youth..." Anyways, yeah, I avoid the beauty mags too. They're pointless and silly. If other people want to fritter their lives away fussing over their hair and losing that extra pound, then I feel sorry for them. True beauty is within. And having an intelligent mind, a heart for people, and a desire to learn about the world around you is what really counts, imho.

btw, Spiral... on a local note.... I'm just dying to be judged the queen of whatever it is they do at the MN State Fair. Having my likeness carved in butter for time and memoriam seems so terribly moving.

-sula

 

[Anthony]

Did anybody see 'DROP DEAD GORGEOUS'?!
Enough said.

Ant.