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Are beauty contests harmful?
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Today the resolution is, “ are
beauty contests harmful”. we, on the negative team, strongly support this resolution. Reason 1: Self-esteem
“There is no true beauty without flaws” - James Salter -
However, beauty contests have created stereotypes about women and girls, invisibly creating a
standard of beauty in society. The standard beauty images are heavily advertised by the media,
which affects the way young girls see their appearance as well as the standards of weight, bust,
skin tone.... They try to get back in shape like the beauty queens but forget to pay attention to
their health, using all measures such as weight loss pills, and unhealthy diets. -Also, overweight
girls are insulted by people making them try to lose weight. This makes them vulnerable to
criticism and lack of confidence, even some anxiety disorders such as anorexia nervosa, and
depression tend to want Plastic Surgery. if they fail, they will be even less confident than
before; with adverse effects or even death. Negative
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Today we are debating the
resolution, “ are beauty contests harmful”. we, on the negative
team, strongly oppose this resolution
“There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection,” -James Salter. Society has set certain
stereotypes to girls and women about whatis beautiful which is girl’s focusing more on their
appearances than in their internal selves. Every girldeserves to feel beautiful, but how can girls think
that they are stunning if there is always that constant reminder of what being considered enough is.
Modern beauty contests started in the United States in 1880 with the first Miss United
walk, turn, how their makeup and hair is done and what they are wearing, and obviously their beauty.
Society has set such high standard s of what is considered alluring and girl s are being the victims of
those standards. Girls now fell that they are not beautiful enough because they do not meet the
standard.With an emphasis placed on appearance in beauty contests, contestants become
devastatingly concerned with the way they look. Although the main purpose of these pageants are to
empower women, the crowned winners are also traveling around the world in order to support causes
like HIV/AIDS and children;s charity organizations. Due to the successof these internationally produced
pageants, various beauty contests for different classes of age,sex and sexuality stemmed up. However,
even withthe huge diversity, the content of each pageants have almost always been the same: all of
them are comprised of the main stream categories like swimwear portion and evening gown portion. lOMoARcPSD|46342985
Withthese contents, beauty pageants gives out strong messages regarding what the ideal type of
woman is, hence under mining the purpose if a beauty
pageant: to empower women. Thus, although beauty pageants contribute to the entertainment of the
masses, it promotes an ideal of female beauty that only a minority of women can realistically aspire,
objectifies women, further advances cultural insensitivity among its candidates and uses up too much
resources. All this tremendous effort for what? Hundreds participate in a pageant, with only one going
homewith the title. What effects could this possibly haveon the young children and teen;s mental
state? Does is strengthen them, or consequently cause them to feel inadequate about themselves?Fact
1: Women in beauty pageants are criticized ontheir physical appearance rather then any other
qualities, to achieve this some commit to bad habits.Evidence 1: According Debatewise beauty
pageants encourage extreme dieting. Beauty contests promote an idea of female beauty to which only
a minority of women can realistically implement. Those that are unable to achieve thesestandards end
up taking dieting as a habit. A negative effect that sprouts from dieting are eatingdisorders.Evidence 2:
Based on the facts that Beauty Pageants has stated, in our society more than 50% of women are
dealing with eating disorders(26 kids). The most common age group, adolescents have been following
strict eating habits, nearly staving them to death.
Fact 2: The sexualization of girls is happening at a younger and younger age as children, even toddlers,
are bombarded with adult influences andperceptions.Evidence 1: Beauty pageants (for kids) are
requiring extreme, provocative costumes. According to Desert news French clothing companies are
starting a new line of children’s “lingerie’’ - thin, revealing undergarments, which are marketed for girls
as young as 3 months old. Study done on self-sexualization would like to look and a variation on dolls to
choose from. Aside fromthis, girls are encouraged to wear false eyelashes, fake teeth, wear extreme
amounts of makeup, lipstick, and elaborate hairstyles with hair extensions. Evidence 2: Next, younger
members of pageants are growing up learning inappropriate acts and an inappropriate lifestyle. Little
girls wanting to be sexy, which can interrupt the natural flow of age and social development. “When we
sexualize girls, it has a real detrimental effect. It hurries them along and asks them to grow up and
adhere to a standard that isn’t natural to them - that what’s natural land beautiful is being older than
they are,”said Dr. Robyn Silverman. The effects of sexualizingyoung girls can damage self-esteem and
are often long lasting. Also effecting later stages of child and adulthood. Pageants impact their lifestyles
in multiple ways. Contests set them up with futures where they believe success, prizes and positive
attention will only come if they are the prettiest and act in unmannerly ways. At is core its teachinggirls
that the best thing they can achieve, and the most attention they can get is to view themselves as an
assemblage of body parts. Focusing in drawing attention to those body parts sets themselves up for all
manner of problems in their lives self-esteem, eating disorders, relationships they enter
Evidence 3: Pageants contestants enjoy the fact they are appeasing their audience rather than the
activity themselves. Audience or older viewers implicit suggestive ideas from the child’s appearance
and postures more appropriate for adult models. Beauty pageants blur the line between cute and
being sensual. ”Some critics contend that the child beauty pageant culture fails to acknowledge that
“sexualized images of little girls may have dangerous implication in a world where 450,000
American children were reported as victims of sexual abuse in 1993.”Fact 3: Lastly, Beauty Pageants are
degrading and objectifying contestants. Evidence 1: Audience judge contestants on their appearance to an
extent, which were taught is wrong, and that were supposed to appreciate personality, and lOMoARcPSD|46342985
intelligence, gifts that are obtained by effort and good will. Beauty Pageants focus society on displaying
an arrow slide of what constitutes human beauty, and fail to affirm, the fundamental dignity that every
contestant has. They are also demeaning by giving the impression that those that aren’t attractive, but
it also teachescontestants that the only way to succeed is to compete against others for the benefit of
those judging you. This type of confining behavior limits members potential to be viewed