Disclaimer: I don’t necessarily agree with what I’ve written in this review, but since 23 reviews have already dissected the beauty myth, I want to act as the spokesperson of what the contestants of these pageants might say…
Men always contradict themselves.they write a million poems and love songs on the beauty of a woman, about her thousand different smiles, the way her hips sway, or her eyes sparkle or her luscious lips beckon them…about her raven tresses, slender body that just begs to be handled with care, eyes that they constantly drown in, and then to justify it all, to make them sound less superficial than they are, they bring it all back to how all her beauty reflects on how innocent, pure and precious she is(all recurring underlying themes of some of our famous poems). This is where the contradiction comes in…they want to justify their attachment to outer beauty, they somehow link it all to inner beauty(goddammit, she’s looks like such an angel, she HAS to be one!) and then they write 20 reviews on how they all believe in inner beauty. They sit and make fun of women who slam on two tons of make up, and think only about their body or their clothes. Do you blame us? You write a thousand poems, you put us on a pedestal, you go on and on about beauty in your movies, your books, your plays and conversations, you talk about our vital statistics, how well endowed we are, or heaven forbid, aren’t…you judge everything, and then, when we try and live upto the standards set by you, when we try to inspire a man to write yet another poem on OUR beauty, you pick on how artificial we are? How superficial WE are? When we parade up and down a ramp, to be judged solely on what you deem to be the most important, you call us dumb blondes? When we try and use our physical beauty to land us one year contracts to travel around the world, money and a nice car, and chances of making it to good ol’ Bollywood, you pick on us? Why? Because it took away the romance of it all? Because we woke up and decided to use it as a tool? When men use their strength to feed the mouths at home, it is honorable. When women use their beauty to gain fame and fortune, it is not?
Yes, beauty is not a quantifiable value, it is a matter of opinion…but why be hypocrites and say it doesn’t matter? Why cant men just come out and say, yes I lust after Ashwariya and not the nun next door who’s a beautiful person. At least stand up for what you started…you set the ball rolling, women just smartened up halfway and decided to use it as a tool to manipulate the world…deal with it. It is ridiculous to ask whether beauty pageants bring out the beauty of a person…that is not what they’re even trying to do. Beauty pageants are not trying to say its about inner beauty, you don’t see a single flabby, pimple faced, frizzy haired woman on that ramp. Each country sends a woman they consider to be relatively pretty and intelligent to go and compete and then one of them wins. Why squabble over beauty pageants? What about Mr. Universe? Are they about anything other than physical beauty? Why say that beauty pageants focus on outer beauty? Duh – that’s what the name suggests, and that’s what you get. So, they ask a few dumb questions and the women give a few dumb answers and everyone goes home happy. It is not trying to be anything else BUT a platform for one girl, who is smarter than the rest(not because she answered the questions right, but because of her country’s pull and her networking skills) to travel and have an amazing year. At the same time, viewers get entertained by the parade of women in skimpy clothes, who are desperately trying to look sexy and virginal at the same time(because that REALLY gets the men going), women laugh their head off at the silliness of it all, while pretending not to turn green because the contestants don’t have a single ounce of fat on their thighs, and men cajole their girlfriends with a ‘honey, you definitely look better than her’, in spite of their eyes popping out at the display of flesh(and my my, what flesh that is!)
So, do they bring out the beauty of the person? No. Because thats not what they are meant to do. I believe every person is beautiful on the inside - the outside is an entirely different matter! Blessed are those who have both, because though our hypocritical men may die before they admit it, outer beauty is something they all admire. And why shouldnt they? Why diss outer beauty so much? It is meant to be treasured. When have we ever had ugly heroines in our movies? Yes, some may have been better than others, but they were never ugly. We all flock to the theaters to admire their ethereal beauty.and if the super stars on our screen can use it, then why cant the poor girls parading for just ONE SINGLE DAY of their life on that stupid ramp just because it will give them enough money to live happily for a while?
And I think its high time people stopped saying that these women are dumb. Because i’d say they are a whole lot smarter than a lot of us. Why cant people accept that these beautiful women can be intelligent as well? So intelligent that they purposely give inane, dumb answers over and over again, like world peace being what they want, because they know saying’everlasting beauty or brad pitt’ sure wont get them that crown. They know that that one dumb answer secures them for a long time! It takes care of them financially. These women are out there, strutting their stuff, using their assets, confident of who they are and what they’re about, and they’re independent. It is just our insecurity which makes us label them as inferior silly little things! Maybe its time to quit working on erasing these beauty pageants, its time we started working on our esteem levels, and erasing our harsh judgemental selves which allow us to label everyone.
recommended:
-an interesting article on beauty pageants- https://alumni.eecs.berkeley.edu/~manish/hum/gendrgap.html