Opinion: Beauty Pageants

 Recently the 70th Miss Universe beauty pageant took place, and the world went ga-ga as Harnaaz Sandhu from India was crowned winner. She has quite an inspiring story. Her mother , having fought patriarchy, became a successful gynaceologist . Sandhu stands for womens' rights and menstrual hygiene. This is truly inspirational and she would be a wonderful role model. Except for the fact that the only reason I know about her is because she participated in a  pageant that stands for an archaic system of ranking and comparing women that should not exist today. 

Beauty pageants in general are  horrifyingly degrading and outmoded in ideologies. A group of women stand around in minimal clothing, awaiting judgement from a panel of people, rating their bodies, their chest sizes, their waists and deciding who the 'most beautiful' girl in the universe is. How can this still be a thing? And a popular thing, at that?

One can argue that nowadays pageants give more importance to the Questions and Answers part of the contest. It is said that only the smartest girls , the most confident girls are chosen for this. That all of these contestants are indeed very smart. 

I am not debating their intelligence. The contestants are all very intelligent. But they all also, just accidentally of course,  happen to fit into the typical formula for 'beauty'. So, why is it that we don't see plus-sized Miss Universe winners? Women who don't fit into this fixed idea of beauty are smart too!  Why doesn't that fit into our definition of a role model? 

If what was argued was true, Miss Universe would be a contest of academic intelligence! Wonderful!

Except that is not what Miss Universe is! I watched some clips and I went through their website and this pageant happens to include a bathing suit contest and an evening gown contest! The website justifies it saying that this is to judge the contestants' dedication to a 'healthy lifestlye' and how 'confidently she presents herself'. After these rounds, they are scored and the Top 6  progress to a question round. 

Now, I am not one who can read between the lines very easily, but how exactly are they going to grade a woman's dedication to a 'healthy lifestlye' without looking at her body and giving it a rating? 

I find it horrific that something as popular as this contest appears to be against body positivity. There is no single type of 'healthy body'. Different body sizes can have healthy lifestyles without looking the same. Secondly, this system treats women like objects, to be displayed and graded by the world. 

'Nice hair, little flab, short in height'

'Are you talking about my toy?'

'No. You. '

There is simply no room for these contests in the 21st century. 

I would like to  live in a world in which people are given attention and credit based on their actions, their intelligence, their impact on the world and not on the size of the waists. But , clearly, this is not the world I live in.