Beauty contest

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A beauty contest, or beauty pageant, is a competition based mainly, though not always entirely, on the physical beauty of its contestants. Almost invariably, competitions for men and women are separate events, and those for men are not referred to as beauty contests. Beauty contests for women are more common, and winners are called beauty queens. Beauty contests for men, like Mr. Universe, are more likely to be "body building" contests—quite unlike the traditional "beauty contest" in which women are judged upon many attributes other than physical. However, in the 1990s, male "beauty contests" began to shift focus. Instead of only considering unnatural muscle mass, the competitions began to judge the natural physical attributes of the contestants as well as their physiques. These include Mr. World and Manhunt International.

There are also beauty contests for children. These events are often controversial, particularly when children are dressed provocatively and described in decidedly adult terms.

1 History of beauty contests
2 Criticisms
3 Selecting a "beauty queen"
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History of beauty contests

Choosing symbolic kings and queens for May Day and other festivities is an ancient custom in Europe in which beautiful young women symbolize their nation's virtues and other abstract ideas. The first modern American pageant was staged by P. T. Barnum in 1854, but his beauty contest was closed down by public protest—he previously held dog, baby, and bird beauty contests. He substituted daguerreotypes for judging, a practice quickly adopted by newspapers. Newspapers held photo beauty contests for many decades: In 1880, the first “Bathing Beauty Pageant" took place as part of a summer festival to promote business in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Contests became a regular part of summer beach life, with the most elaborate contest taking place in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the “Fall Frolic” attracted women from many cities and towns in competition for the title of "Miss America." The modern beauty pageant's origin is traceable to the Miss America pageant, which was first held in Atlantic City in 1921, under the title "Inter-City Beauty Contest." During the 1950s, pageants thrived to promote county fairs and local products . For example, some of Raquel Welch's titles included "Miss Photogenic" and "Miss Contour." The "Miss America" pageant eventually included preliminary eliminations, an evening gown competition, musical variety shows, and judging by panel. Still, the contest was shunned by middle-class society. Pageants did not become respectable until World War II, when "beauty queens" were recruited to sell bonds and to entertain troops. Scholarships and talent competitions evoked even closer scrutiny of contestants’ morals and backgrounds. The following year, the title was renamed "Miss America." Other contests include the yearly Miss World competition (founded by Eric Morley in 1951), Miss Universe (founded in 1952), Miss International and Miss Earth (founded in 2001 with environmental awareness as its concern). These are considered the Big Four pageants, the four largest and most famous international beauty contests]]. Minor contests, such as the Miss Bondi contest in Australia, are common throughout the world in the summer months. Across the world, women from around the world participate each year in local competitions for the chance to represent their country's international title. The organizers of the major beauty contests represent their contests as being events of world importance. A more common view is that beauty contests are simply titillating entertainment events of no great importance.

[edit] Criticisms

Image:Lauren Jones, Miss New York UN 2006.JPG

Many feminists regard beauty contests for women as degrading both to the viewer and to the contestant. A common comparison made by feminists is that beauty contests are like a "cattle market" for women that enforces society's objectification of women. They have particularly objected to swimsuit rounds in competitions, in which the contestants catwalk dressed only in swimsuits and high-heeled shoes. Partly because of this, beauty contests have declined in popularity in many countries since their peak in the 1960s.

In light of the JonBenét Ramsey murder, concerns about the propriety of beauty pageants for children, as well as their psychological effect on the girls, have been raised. Since the "Little Miss..." genre is a possible lure for pedophiles, there has been a surge in more age-appropriate pageants for children, without heavy makeup, provocative costumes, and fancy decór.

The contests can be highly controversial and regularly attract demonstrators. An extreme example is the 2002 Miss World contest, which was originally held in Nigeria, the country of the 2001 winner. Quickly, mass riots killed 200 people and a fatwa against a female journalist soon caused the organizers to move the event to London.

Many national 'Miss' pageants have come under heavy criticism and some have been the subjects of direct action. Miss New Zealand was no longer televised in the early 2000s as a result of falling public interest. Preceding this, high-profile complaints were made against the Miss America contest in the late 1960s. From their advent, "beauty" contests have always been the source of criticism to some degree; however, in some cultures, such as Latin America, pageants have been much more accepted.

In addition, the common view of "beauty" in these pageants as represented exclusively by thin women has been questioned. In retaliation, Mo'Nique's Fat Chance, a beauty pageant for overweight women, has aired on the Oxygen network since 2005.

[edit] Selecting a "beauty queen"

Beauty pageants are generally multi-tiered, with local competitions feeding into the larger competitions. The worldwide pageants, thus, require hundreds, sometimes thousands, of local competitions. In the United States, there is now a commercial beauty pageant industry that organizes thousands of local and regional events for all ages for profit supported by magazines like The Crown Magazine and Pride of Pageantry, the online epiczine.com, Pageant News Bureau, and The Crown Magazine, and a host of retailers of everything from tiaras to cosmetic surgery.