At the end of January 2015, we celebrated the winner, Paulina Vega, Miss Colombia who was named Miss Universe. While the Miss Universe pageants have carried on for over 63 years, it is time that we addressed some issues that have crossed many people’s minds.
While the pageant prides itself on promoting natural beauty and intelligence, these pageants often have negative effects on the way females view each other and themselves. Do these women actually achieve these body standards in a healthy and safe way, or are they subjecting themselves to multiple, hazardous diets?
For instance, this year’s Miss Venezuela, Migbelis Castellanos made headlines when viewers called her out for looking “fat.” While I recognize that it may not have been the most figure-flattering look on her, it doesn’t give the right for viewers to call out a women who works hard at the gym everyday and follows a strict diet.
(I think we all would like to be this “fat”)
If you take her body out of the pageants “standards,” all we see is a healthy woman with a fit and enviable body. Yet this somehow doesn’t line up with the requirements of the Miss Universe pageant standards. This leads us to question if these contestants and pageant winners project the positive message they are trying to sell to the young viewers, or is it the complete opposite?
When heard, these contestants promote health, confidence and equality, but when the situation is studied it is almost impossible for the young girls not to follow the strict methods they use to maintain their “slender” figures.
Sadly, we live in a society that criticizes the smallest defect that has led a lot of the young female population to feel self conscious when referring to their physical appearance. Although a beauty pageant is not the only factor that contributes to this problem, it still does have a small influence on how young females view themselves. Of course, it can’t go unmentioned that the overall goal of the pageant is to help unite countries, promote peace and responsibility as well as working with organizations to help the less fortunate.
These women do go through great amounts of work to look like they do, which is why we mustn’t compare ourselves. We should stop paying attention to the small stuff and start empowering ourselves in the best way possible. Never comparing ourselves to those around us and much less to women, be it models, actresses or beauty pageant contestants that go through measures we would never endure to be where they are when we see them on screen. The point is that we have the power to embody what we want to represent, and it is in our hands to show of our greatest attributes to the world, don’t ever listen to the bad things, accept the compliments and remember, you are your own worst enemy or best friend, choose wisely!