The evolution of beauty pageants Miss universe was founded in the early 1950s. The pageant was initiated to empower women and the winners will travel around the world to fulfill their societal duties. However, with time the fact of empowerment was shadowed by the beauty standards and ideal woman body type.
In this beauty completion, more than 100 countries participate. There are 3 segments the participants present themselves in firstly, the swimsuit round, secondly the gown round, and thirdly the question-answer sessions. Recently, the beauty pageant has introduced a new segment where people showcase their culture and traditional outfits. However, it is told that the winners are chosen based on their intellect which is judged in the question-answer session.
But controversies lie as in the statement as one of the judges has told in an interview that no matter how talented a contestant is the one with the best physical feature gets the crown. It is told that appearance matters the most and due to that the participants need to follow a strict diet and work out in order to look skinny because in the bikini round they need to flaunt their perfectly ideal body.
If you take a look at the earlier miss universe swimsuit rounds then you will see a glimpse of modesty which was relatable to an average woman but as time goes by this modesty is disappearing and young women are falling into depression because of not matching up the ideal beauty standard. From the graph, MBI above you can see that most of the miss universe winners are underweight. They also are taller because short women cannot even enroll in the contest.
Are these Pageants actually made for empowering women or making them feel that they are not capable enough and give them major body insecurity issues? The Pageant should accept a woman on the basis of their intellect, not outer appearance so that all women even divorcee’s can participate because they too deserve to be a part of empowering women.
