Do Beauty Pageants objectify women?

[Anonymous]

Are beauty pageants a way of objectifying women?

This was a debate on T. V

What's you opinion?

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Your*

[Penyair]

Yes and no. At one point the pageants simply focused on beauty, poise, and etiquette. Some early pageants looked at women's ability to curtsy, properly set a table for formal gathering, and even food preparation as well as sewing (of their clothes). They also had to present needle crafts or a short acceptable craft or interest and the list of what that could be was quite short. Back then you didn't really have swimming suit contests or much skin exposure.

Later pageants started to expose skin. But not to objectify women but as a protest. Women's bodies were their own as was their right to their style. This originally still didn't involve a lot of skin exposure but it certainly gave some vs the old long sleeve ankle or floor length, high neck dresses they had worn.

After these contests were influenced by people traveling. Then seeing some blending of indigenous cultures. Who sometimes wore less simply from the heat but took the view a body is a body. They also challenged what might be considered men's only things. So new categories of interests and presentations came up.

From this comes more modern contests. You reveal as much as you want, still have some design choices but you might not make your outfit (and usually it isn't spoken of if you do), you say your interests and if you have career focus. A big change from the original competitions.

At one time the wearing less and showing more was such a novelty that it was seen as risque. It got ratings on the radio or tv. People bought the papers or magazines showing something but sometimes they were partially censored at that time in history. This did lead to some objectification but soon enough equality shown through and pointed out such objectification of men had existed longer as they were shown shirtless, etc far before women wearing bikinis.

Eventually people became used to men in speedo's and women in bikini's. Women would talk of cute men and men of cute women. So I don't think these days it objectifies and there are men's versions of competitions.

[Brokenheartedx]

We don't get them here.. we have miss Scotland.. Nireland Wales and England n miss UK.. but not on the scale Americans have it, and rarely we hear about comps here..
I think the woman who enter know what it's about and if it bothered them they wouldn't enter.. its niche over the top glitz n glamour
they have world strongest man competitions so it evens it up on the genders... I don't think it does objectify women though it's not like they are posing nude, plus you have to have a good moral standard to enter... can't be sleepin about or other things..
The only thing that makes me cringe is the kids beauty pageants to much America... thTs objectifying children to look like women.. adult comps fine but kids comps are not

[ssilver]

Yes. I think they do, regardless if they are willing participants in it, or not. Woman are taught, practically, straight out of the womb, to objectify themselves. Our culture force feeds us, that looks are are most important assest. We learn young, that we can use it to our advantage to navigate through life. It can be both an asset and a curse, but in either case, we LOSE.
These contests are just another way in which our cuture pits us against ourselves, to obtain status based on an ideal beauty standard that we've never really had a chance to define for ourselves.

[Iraqveteran666]

Do men actually watch beauty contests or is it women who do wishing it was them. If you look at the contestant they are all highly accomplished college girls and the win for them is like another string on their bow so they can say I was "ms california" or whatever and that speaks to so many women's fantasy of being an object of attention, it's the same reason girls grow up wanting to be famous to be on that pedestal admired by all kinda like Beyonce is.
A wet T-shirt contest now that is objectification or a male stripper at a bacholrette party.

[ssilver]

Yes, but my point is... that social conditioning is the reason that happens. Girls get the message, very early, that their looks are valued more than anything else. Boys get the same message about the value of girls looks too. They are kind of sold an ideal of beauty (and they feel they must "win" this prize) throughout their entire lives. Media perpetuates it. Girls are sold the idea that marriage is their highest attainable goal. That's why there's like 6 Bridal magazines in any given magazine eisle, next to the 5 lose weight, 4 get in shape 3 Cooking and 2 Good Housekeeping types.

I don't think it's any more of an innate desire for women to want attention, any more than a man does.
I would say to your example of Beyonce, that I see Kanye West craving attention the same way.

[Iraqveteran666]

I don't see it as a matter of social conditioning buy rather a matter of biology. Guys pursue women they are sexually attracted too, while women seeking to attract as many men as possible. Marraige is not about the wedding or the ceremony it's goes back to the foundation of civilization where it was a way of a man committing himself to a woman offering to protect, shelter and feed her and any children they might have, while he did the majority of the heavy labor she cooked, made cloths, cleaned and raised the kids. Women were not liberated by feminism fighting this social conditioning but instead by technology such as labor saving devices that allowed women to earn and more advances in medicine that made child birth safer as well as contraception and safe abortions that allows women to control their sexual rights as before the 60's sex before marraige or having a child with no man to marry you was impossible as there'd was no welfare to support her. Point is for a woman to be...

[Iraqveteran666]

... anything other than a wife and mother was mostly impossible up until the 60's&70's as pregnancy has always been a natural consequence of sex. So rather than it being a matter of fighting social conditioning it's more a matter of fighting 40,000 years of biology. It's like why some guys are blessed with the gift of aggression, it's not social conditioning or toxic masculinity but instead biology.

[COCOCHANEL]

no, i think they celebrate femininity

[COCOCHANEL]

thank you

[BlueCoyote]

Yes, I think they do. One reason I find beauty pageants extremely boring is because the women there all look the same way. It's almost as though somebody had taken taken a cookie cutter and created them from that pre-existing mold. Sure, they might have different hair colors and different eye colors and once in a while, you might even spot a hispanic or a black girl. But the TYPE of beauty is always exactly the same. This strikes me as odd because it's by no means a natural representation of femininity as a whole. When I go out on the street, I see a lot of girls who are very pretty but wouldn't be successful in a beauty pageant. This makes me feel like beauty pageants are essentially made for the average lad to look at some women. The women's individual beauty isn't really important anymore because it's all the same anyway. What matters is the collection of girls that average men would find pretty. It's almost a bit like a soft porn, except that they're not naked and there's no sexual actions going on.
Now, if that objectification is good or bad is something I'll let others decide.

[ovixs90]

Thats really well said they all look the same year by year.

[ElissaDido]

Best answer on here, not surprising from you!

[BlueCoyote]

@ElissaDido Awww thank you :-)

[Anonymous]

anybody who complains about objectification is an idiot.

[Asker]

I agree

[Opinion Owner]

thank you!

[madhatters4]

yes it does. but i have no ill regard for the pageant world. people opt to participate. no one is forced. the winners are afforded great benefits and publicity. but of course an even that picks it's winner's primarily on their looks would seem to objectify women

[OlderAndWiser]

You should provide a definition of what you mean by the word "objectify." It is one of those words with excess emotional baggage and everyone "knows" what it means but it actually means different things to different people.

[SomeGuy37]

EXACTLY what I was going to post, when I saw the headline!!
"OlderAndWiser" not just a 'name' but words for these 'kids' to learn from!!

[ssilver]

LoL, just like words "equality" & "feminist"... mean different things to different people.

[OlderAndWiser]

@ssilver You got it!

[MazeOfLove]

I do relationship coaching and women empowerment for a living, here's my take: It depends.

From the lens of the beauty contestants: They want to do this for a lot of different reasons and being objectified isn't one of them. That said, they are aware that there are some men who believe that they are objects and some women who scold them for objectifying themselves. And yet, they would not give it up for the world.

Believe it or not, there's an analogy to football players. From their lens, they want to play for a lot of different reasons and getting a concussion or long-term brain damage isn't one of them. They are aware that there are some people who believe that they are money making props and entertainers for franchise owners and NFL fans. And yet, they would not give it up for the world.

There are people who believe that beauty pageants objectify women and that is their perception. As such, it is true from their lens. But until the beauty pageant contestants start coming out of the woodworks complaining about how they feel objectified, used, etc. we have to stop calling them objects, which is what we're doing when we label the pageants themselves as functions that objectify women.

[Joti_Harrison]

So what If they are being objectified, those women love it, they also get to do good work to help people.

They become role models for young girls too, not just by their looks, but also the charity work they do as beauty queens.

Besides, asides from beauty a lot of the process of the pageantry also involve showing skills, intelligence and talent in other fields. Those are very deciding factors too.

And in my opion, people who claim anything is objectifying are people who are just sad they can never be up to the standard of whoever their claim such against. Those people probably never get as much attention as they'd like to. The idea of Objectification is simply just BS.

In ither news, the 3 minutes video below shows how real women react to being praised on how attractive they are.

https://youtu.be/SwdoXbxFwuY

[foodfairywins]

Loved the video.
Crowder rocks.
Since when did a male human greeting a female human become assault?

[Joti_Harrison]

I don't understand my generation. They are so sensitive on almost every issue. I have to live with them and love them all the same haha.

And true Crowder is awesome, he doesn't try to go full left or right wing, he is more of an objective factual thinker who seeks the truth. Which is why I love that homie.

[foodfairywins]

I know what you mean.

They don't behave like adults with self esteems.
They just try to make the rest of the world conform to their comfort.

It's like the backwards verison of growing up

[Joti_Harrison]

Yeah, I miss the times when we could just make jokes or have civil discussions about one another's uniqueness without being called racist, or sexist.

Or the times when we didn't have to put up safe spaces to segregate each other from hearing the others opinions. I'm a Law student at Uni and it's hell at times trying to converse with people. Everyone is so sensitive.

[cth96190]

Yes, they do objectify women, but only dried up ugly Feminists have a problem with that.
Good looking young women line up to take part in such events, because it enhances their sexual market value.
Those who oppose beauty pageants are showing their ignorance of both history and human nature.
The history of beauty pageants is that in pre-Christian Europe young women competed to be chosen to represent an aspect of the Goddess (for example Freya, Aphrodite, or Venus). To be chosen as the most beautiful and sexy woman in the clan/tribe/village to represented the youthful aspect of the Goddess as a huge thing for a girl.
The modern beauty pageant is a modern extension of that cultural history.
Pageants are women competing for male attention and men honouring female beauty.
Only hateful bitter Feminists oppose pageants.

[BlueCoyote]

However, you have to admit the gap between those early historical beginnings and these highly artificial, staged shows is pretty massive. There's a lot to criticize about beauty pageants also if we leave the main aspect of parading "beauty" away. For example the whole commercialized nature of beauty pageants is something I find troubling. It makes me feel like TV channels try to get high quotas (a. k. a. earn money) with any rubbish they come across (they same is true for many other shows of course). Another thing I also find a little troubling is that some of these girls get scholarships through these beauty pageants. Getting your studies paid because you happen to look a certain way is pretty idiotic in my opinion.

[Mrwoo99]

The only women who complain about objectification are the ones who can't profit from it. I dont see beautiful women on social media moaning about it while taking selfies with their ass and tits hanging out for every man on here stalker list to drool over and compliment her body.

[RSav4013]

Absolutely they are being objectified. Isn't that the point though? People automatically associate the word objectify as a negative thing. For some people it is a positive thing. Some people want to be objectified. When those women (or men) enter competitions like this they might as well nbe wearing a sign that says "Objectify me, I am here at my own discretion and want you to judge me". Bottom line, whether male or female, if you do not want to be objectified that is perfectly fine, just don't do things to appear sexy or awe inspiring. If you do want to be objectified that is perfectly fine and you have every right to do so.

[America1st]

This is really simple for everyone except the left and feminists. Why can't they let the girls do what they want. It's not anybody else's business. The girls that think it's objectifying don't have to participate. Why can't people believe each individual in America has a brain and can decide for themselves what is good or bad for them. We just don't need the PC police telling us what is good and what is bad. Let us do what Americans have been doing for over 200 years. It seemed to work fine since we became the best country the world has ever had. This is the country everybody wants to come to. Must be a pretty special place. Everybody, Democrats and Republicans as well as the other party's have the same rights. Why does one party need to try to take away the other party's rights? That is not the America we used to have just a short time ago.

[Mrwoo99]

Women need to stop with this objectification bs. The truth about objectification that feminists hate to admit is that a woman's sexual market value is determined by her beauty, fertility, youthfulness and reproduction which are the only aspects that attract a man.

Women only hate objectification if they can't profit from it which are mostly the women who past their sell by date (30+), fat, 'plain janes' and women who are a sexual failure. These women or feminists are jealous and envious of the beautiful women who are stealing all the quality men that they desire.

[oddwaffle]

I don't know. What's the point of beauty competition anyways? I mean if you have it then do you follow the women's standard of beauty or men's standard?

If you follow the women's standard then it would be like one of those women's magazine: none of them would be interested in the women unless it's scandalous. They would all look at the hot guys, who aren't part of the competition.

If you follow the men's standard then you will have this 'objectifying' thing going. I mean just look at how men rate women: boobs, asses, looks. Everything else seems secondary.

If you do this half and half thing like what we have now then... the men would watch it for the bikinis and some women watch it.

[jjthejetplane]

If the winner would win simply based on appearance--I think it could certainly be a way of objectifying women. Yes, the women chose to do that, but the pageant organization/business is always there recruiting... Another important, perhaps related question, is whether pageants, in general, have helped shape society's ideal body figure (for both women and men), thereby contributing to many in the population feeling insecure about themselves and judging their worth on their appearance. This is the superior ethical question for me, personally (knowing that pageants often include non-physical attributes as well). I don't know, though. Good question!

[Anonymous]

Does the Mr. Universe competition objectify men? I never hear women talking about men being objectified, but as soon as a woman is shown in exactly the same situation as a guy, then it becomes objectification.

There was a controversy about a drawing of spider-woman, because of the way you could see her butt in that picture and feminists were really upset over it. They had pictures of spider man in the exact same pose showing his butt, and these feminists never had a problem with it. Why do you think that is?

It is because this idea of women being objectified are really just a slam against male sexuality. Since feminists have no problem with female sexuality, they have huge double standards calling one objectification, and pretending like the other doesn't exist, or at the very least isn't as important of an issue so can be ignored when it happens.

Humans like looking at attractive people. There is nothing objectifying about that.

[Poppykate]

By not allowing a spider women isn't that refusing us sexual freedom and expression? 🤔

[Opinion Owner]

@Poppykate The more active feminists have a huge problem with male sexuality, and don't even want men to be able to say "good morning" without it being considered cat calling.

There are lots of girls that don't think they are pretty because men are not allowed to compliment them. Active feminists don't care about women as much as they care about finding a reason to attack men. These aren't the types of feminists that care about equality. These are the feminazis that hate men and need to invent reasons to show how men are victimizing women, to justify anti-male laws.

[Opinion Owner]

@Poppykate Keep in mind not having a beauty competition, would also refuse women their sexual freedom and expression.

[Poppykate]

I Agree. I also think that by stopping women by walking down the street naked is also refusing sexual freedom.

[Opinion Owner]

@Poppykate I agree, but they accuse me of the objectification of women, if I support that freedom. My thoughts are the moment someone says a body part can't be shown, they are the ones that just declared those body parts to be sex objects. Otherwise those body parts would not need to be hidden.

[foodfairywins]

No.

The women choose to participate in those pageants, and they also enjoy being looked at and judged based on their looks, otherwise they wouldn't enter those pageants to begin with.

I don't think it's possible to objectify the willing.

Now children beauty pageants - that is something different because they are not of legal consenting adult age to make a decision like that. The discretion in that case is up to the parents of said child.

[Iraqveteran666]

I think of anytime I watched or went to a beauty pageant and I don't know any other men that has. I think this is really a woman’s thing, they watch and look at the clothes and whatever else goes on wishing it was them up there taking the winners crown and having their pussy put on a pedestal. It's kinda like modelling shows, men have no intrest. As for objectification you will find that it's women who objectifyou themselves for many reasons that are related to getting attention of some sort from a man's to the media.

[Iraqveteran666]

*I can't think of*

[KeiranByrne]

They are revolting. They have disgusted me ever since childhood.
i also disapprove of other forms of judging competition whether athletic or artistic, from figure skating to synchronised swimming to classical music and ballet.
Every instinct I have screams that beauty is marred by the competitive element. It is pure and to be loved for its own sake.

[asheslee]

Yes and no. The women who are participating want to be objectified and to me, there is nothing wrong with that. They worked hard to get into good shape and at least they have to have some kind of talent to show.

[natured]

They never made sense to me honestly... like what sort pf example are they supposed to give us?
media.giphy.com/media/l2SpRtCXiEiqs5ZG8/giphy.gif

[chrissykerdock]

of course they do but they also showcase women so it's like catch 22 yes we're sexual objects and yes we get attention from both sexes in a way... when i wear a nice dress i get probably 1/2 of the looks from women versus men... meaning most men will give me a look while only 1/2 of the women will... not to say it's all sexual but to look at me as an object... so i think it's good and bad... and it's a tradition if you ever been to the south beauty pagents, being a cheerleader is a tradition.

[Sami365]

I think they do, but the women in them enjoy it so I have mixed feelings about them. One of my close friends used to do them and her sister still does. They enjoy it.

To me though, its just women proving to each other who is more beautiful and interesting of a person. Beauty pageants aren't solely about looks, but if an average or below looking person tried out, they'd never win.

[CyberKnight]

if women want to objectify themselves, sure. but you don't see men forcing women into beauty pageants, nor are a majority of the viewers men. men generally don't care about beauty pageants. they are there to allow women to feel better about themselves.

[Anonymous]

I asked similar things several weeks ago and some people said no because the own women are the ones who chooses to participate and they aren't forces so for some that is not objectifying a woman. For me those peagants are boring and lame and I dont even know the reason of what they do exist in the first place, what is so educational about a beauty pageant and compete with women just like you to see who is the most beautiful among all the participants? What do I learn from those pageants? What do they exist anyway?

[Iraqveteran666]

Women are also the biggest supporters of them.

[Opinion Owner]

@Iraqveteran666 Not me anyway

[Iraqveteran666]

Apart from the swimsuit competition they are pretty boring. No man will sit through these things.