Beauty Pageants. Love or Loathe

So a new Miss Universe has just been crowned, and beauty pageants still attract millions of television viewers world-wide. Shallow parade or a crusade for world peace?

Pageants and their contestants are definitely overlooked and stereotyped as pretty faces in bikinis whose only thing bigger than their smiles is their daddy's wallet. I competed in beauty pageants as a child and in no way is it a shallow parade, it teaches poise and posture but also humility and the drive still within me today that teaches me to work for what you strive to achieve, as the reward cannot be reaped if you in turn cannot provide the effort.

Watching the Miss Universe pageant, it is evident that the contestants did not just wake up like that (only Beyoncé can do that), I'm sure the contestants had to work INCREDIBLY hard to get bodies like that and not only that they had to actually use their brain to answer questions and know about other cultures and customs when interacting with other contestants.

Speaking on behalf of beauty queens universally (see what I did there), showing off your body doesn't get you the job, a lot of charity work, research and even showcasing ones talent is included.

In fact 'dressing up' is exactly that, make-up, stylish hairdos and extravagant outfits specifically during pageants. As far as I can conclude, contestants are conservative outside pageants e.g. personally, I never wear make-up outside and therefore feel it is optional, purely for special occasions.

People may think it is a parade for show ponies and dumb high school drop outs but it is a complex, healthy competition, teaching life lessons beyond anything that a teacher or a professor could. Pageants should not be criticised but rather praised for the charity work achieved, the public awareness spread and the countless other acts which pageants have contributed to.

World peace.

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