Essay Sample on Beauty Beyond Miss America: Empowering Women to Embrace Their Unique Identity

Introduction

Media remains the center of the people's social domain. The press continually convinces individuals on ways that they can use to alter or adorn their bodies to improve the qualities of their lives. Miss America is frequently known as the princess, given that she embodies grace and beauty. Miss America has typically the power of creating the ideal womanhood which many girls attempt to conform to. Many women who find themselves not conforming to the princess mold usually feel as if they are outsiders and they become mentally scarred by the idea that the society is pushing the Miss America ideal on them as well as holding them more accountable in a situation that they fail measuring up. The myth of the perfect woman usually demands that women should be blonde, passive and innocent. In the culture today, beauty contests are regarded as one of the significant human forums whereby women become a true-to-life princess.

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The first Miss America contest held resulted in the presentation of the concept involving female idealism to the United States. Most of the people in the society were introduced to the new definition of beauty as being determinant of female perfectionism. After the first introduction of the Miss America contest, the pageant started growing tremendously in terms of popularity through becoming an essential civic ritual an essential source of knowledge for many people. The Miss America contest led to manipulation of women in a way that they began viewing beauty as being the only quality that was required to attain success.

Most of the adolescent girls strive with the perceptions regarding the ideal body image, and this usually affects them with their educational development and self-esteem. Today, several reality shows of the television demonstrate influence and change one's ideas, opinions as well as overall outlook regarding life (Tice 149). In specific, the beauty pageants represent a pervasive element of public entertainment within the landscape of American media especially that of the Miss America contest. Beauty contests typically possess detrimental implications on the popular culture of America. The medial impacts, which are widespread on the media, usually have unrelenting, has consequences on the girls' mind. The Miss America contest contributes typically mainly to this kind of distortion along with the family, society, and peers. In some instances, the distorted body images usually make the adolescent females adopt extreme eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia nervosa.

The media, together with the cultural forces, has led to highlighting of the role of promoting the thin ideal which is found being unattainable for the majority of the women. Media usually delivers the thin ideal in its advertisements. Given that beautiful, lightweight, fashion models and television personalities are found being dissatisfied with their looks and weights; then the ordinary women should be highly concerned. Most of the research usually portray that magazines frequently play an essential role in the body image as well as the disordered eating that occurs in the majority of the adolescent girls. Magazines like Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Seventeen offer teenage girls with the information that regard the available new tips about makeup, the updated fad diets, and the latest cosmetic surgery.

The cultural ideal entailing the body size of women has remained thin for a long time. There is a further decrease in the body size that occurs among the contestants in Miss America. The reduction in the contestant's thinness is demonstrated by the decrease of the percent of the average weight, hip size, and the body measurements ratio. In the last few years, the notion of combining exercise and diet in one program of weight loss has acquired popularity.

Even if many women are found striving to attain the beauty ideals presented by the media, they understand that the presented beauty ideals are unrealistic as well as being mostly unattainable by most of the women. Most of the women usually critique the images and beauty standards that are presented by the media but still feel being bound to these standards (Engeln-Maddox 259). Having the media being associated with significant impact on the body images that are distorted of the female adolescents, it may also be an essential factor for the adults. The influences of the media to change weight are usually higher among females. Parents frequently appear to play a crucial role in transmitting the socio-cultural messages concerning the adolescents' ideal body. Miss America contest led to manipulation of women in a way that they began viewing beauty as being the only quality that was required to attain success. Given that mothers mostly have a substantial impact on the females' behaviors and attitude; many parents do not differ in the kind of dieting encouragement that is given to their children.

The Miss America contest is viewed as being problematic because it usually concentrates on the bodies of women as being objects that need to be judged and scrutinized. Consequently, many women see their bodies as requiring alterations r repair thereby resulting to plastic surgery as well as other products of cosmetics for them to fit in a better manner in the presented mould of beauty by the contest. The rules of the Miss America contest hesitantly allow plastic surgery, although the organization usually encourages the contestants not to change their natural beauty. There are several myths that develop within the Miss America beauty contest, which generally cast the passive women as being the ideal through putting emphasize that beauty, should be viewed as a vital tool. In several instances, the myths regarding the Miss America beauty contest usually teaches that women should be restricted to a given gender role which leads the women in setting given expectations and characteristics through inhibiting progress in the equality movement.

Additionally, the Miss America beauty contest has led to several issues about diversity and race. Throughout the history, many people, especially the women, have attempted to change their bodies to a manner that they conform to a given image of beauty ordinary in a particular era. One way that may be used for tracing trends of the ideal beauty involves examining different beauty depictions that are presented in the media (Wiseman 85). For many years, the Miss America beauty contest was seen to have excluded women of color and in the time when they are included, most of the Miss Americans are white. Despite the race, the winner always seems to have similar characteristics whether it is circular eyes, thin small nose or smooth hair. Therefore, the winner of the Miss America contest usually possesses stereotypical white physical features. As a result of the repetition of white as being beautiful in the Miss America beauty contest often hurt the level of self-esteem of the women of color, and it possesses further-reaching repercussions. On the international level, other nations have started adapting the concept of the Miss America beauty contestants, and several countries are found competing with one another in the international contests (Engeln-Maddox 261). Consequently, one woman is found reigning as the beauty of the entire world, setting a given standard to be endorsed by all women, regardless of the culture, race, or religion to follow. As many people expect, having of only one winner usually causes cultures to start informing their ideals of beauty to the dominant one.

The Miss America beauty contest usually presents the objectified women as being role models having specific platforms who usually perpetuate different myths as well as the white ideals of beauty which appear to homogenize the non-western beauties. Even if there is a lot to look at within the preparation and construction of the Miss America beauty contest, there are many problems which seem to be most crucial to address. The first issue entails ways in which the beauty contestants appear being simultaneously objectified by the beauty contest while many women start idolizing them. Many women who find themselves not conforming to the princess mold usually feel as if they are outsiders and they become mentally scarred by the idea that the society is pushing the Miss America ideal on them The Miss America beauty contest winners are usually those women who least resemble flappers. The Miss America beauty contest also contribute to the objectification of the bodies of women through convincing women that their bodies include their most marketable assets (Tice 152). The beauty contestants in the Miss America pageant uphold several myths that emphasize on passivity and beauty. The beauty globalization has resulted in a broad scope of the diverse beauty to begin narrowing rapidly.

The body image may be described as how people view themselves during the continual process involving physical change. People usually tend to relate their self-concept or self-image by considering the physical characteristics of their bodies. Many women believe that appearance is everything. The overwhelming pressures that become acceptable in the community usually cause women to start developing the emotional, physical, and psychological illness. In 2018, it was declared that the contestants of Miss America would no longer become judged according to their physical appearance and the national event of the Miss America would be rendered as being a competition rather than being a pageant ("The 2019 Miss America Competition"). The Miss America contest has evolved in the community, just as many women in society have changed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the media and society have the most significant implication on contributing to the warped perceptions of women about their body images. The Miss America contest is involved in the advertisement of the ideal female images. Majority of women have had a lot of struggles with their body images. Those women who are found having distorted body images usually experience depression, low self-esteem, and guilt. Most of the women usually critique the images and beauty standards that are presented by the media but still feel being bound to these standards. The myth of the perfect woman usually demands that women should be blonde, passive and innocent. , the beauty pageants represent a pervasive element of public entertainment within the landscape of American media especially that of the Miss America contest.

Works Cited

"The 2019 Miss America Competition." YouTube, YouTube, 13 Sept. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkNO1i7qMk.

Engeln-Maddox, Renee. "Buying a beauty standard or dreaming of a new life? Expectations associated with media ideals." Psychology of Women Quarterly 30.3 (2006): 258-266.

Tice, Karen Whitney. "For appearance's sake: beauty, bodies, spectacle, and consumption." Journal of Women's History18.4 (2006): 147-156.

Wiseman, Claire V., et al. "Cultural expectations of thinness in women: An update." International Journal of Eating Disorders11.1 (1992): 85-89.