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Timeless Beauty – a critical analysis of beauty competitions. sample essay
Chapter 3
1. “I just love it… It’s beautiful!” Everybody says this phrase quite often (hopefully), while the meaning of the notion beauty is something taken for granted. The false idea that beauty is something absolute, an absolute characteristic of something all people like, must be argued upon. People have so got used this word that in general its meaning is not discussed, and nearly everyone believes that he or she (as well as every single person on the planet) knows the exact meaning, and that beauty needs no definition. In reality, however, beauty is a very relative and even vague notion, which only exists within a person.
Concepts of beauty vary across cultures. While definition of beauty may stay the same, cultural, historical, and religious aspects mold our perception of beautiful objects, and human body (and apparel) appeared to be the most affected. Hence, Western image of a beautiful woman is distinct from Eastern one. While in the Western world a slim, slender, women with brilliant lipstick is considered beautiful, Eastern image of a beautiful woman is a plump white blond. And although some believe that the ideal of beauty in the Western world is a white girl, in reality this white girl must be sun-burnt to be a beauty role model.
The complete answers about our perception of beauty go deep into psychology and physiology. But on the top, every person describes and defines beauty for him/herself. Numerous studies have shown that the same object looked beautiful for one person, while it left the other person indifferent. Same way people, who look beautiful for person A, might not be person B’s type. As the saying goes, “tastes differ,” and it is exactly the same with the perception of the beautiful. However, one might counter-argue that there are several things that are beautiful for all people on the planet, something like Niagara waterfall for instance. This phenomenon is completely logical because after all we all are one species, and there must be some things that we all consider beautiful (first smile of our firstborn, or a red dusk over a plain). These things are natural, and identify with special part within us, which I will not touch upon in the study.
Generally, beauty refers to characteristic (or characteristics) of an object (or objects) that entail pleasure to one or more humans senses. Beauty cannot be negative or ugly, rather is associates with positive and joyful emotions. Most of the time, we associate beauty with something that we see, or hear as a last option. One can also claim that a particular odor is beautiful, but in such case this odor would possess the same beauty as touch, for example. We call beautiful objects that physically cannot be beautiful, like solutions, outcomes, or ideas. What we do in such cases is only give these objects characteristic of something, which gives pleasure. A taste may give pleasure to gustation, but it cannot be beautiful because we cannot see taste.
Interestingly, deep in our minds we expect this physical beauty of an object, human body as the most prominent example, to possess some other positive qualities behind this shell. We think the painting looks even more beautiful when we find out that it is worth millions, however a girl would probably dislike a handsome guy for his impudent and rude behavior. Therefore, beauty is an extremely relative notion, which goes much deeper than physical looks. However, Western capitalists try to eliminate this idea since 1950’s by arranging events aimed at standardization and calibration of perception of body of a woman. These events are kindly named beauty pageants and contests.
2. Although beauty competitions, such as Miss World and Miss Universe, attempt to reward girls for their inner qualities and achievements, the primary criterion upon which they are judged is the shape and physical body, preferably in a swimsuit. This attitude toward participants has provoked many protests in different places of the world from America to India. The primary concern of those protestors is that male judges, as well as other men involved in the event, are treating females like a senseless material object. The girls, the protesters claim, become things, such as a diamond ring, and men assess how these “diamond rings” shine. As mentioned above, judging only looks would be too banal and even rude, and so there are some parts of the show, which require participant to demonstrate their major interest, concerns, their ability to communicate easily, and list their achievements and goals. However, no matter how many business deals a participant might have managed, and no matter how many languages she may know, she would never win if she is not pretty and sexy.
Another disadvantage of beauty pageants is that they distort the perception of beauty among regular women. Most women start considering themselves not-so-cute (or even ugly) when they see all these half-naked, tall, long-legged gals marching around the stage. Studies have shown that much more American women are not satisfied with their looks now than twenty years ago, when beauty competitions were not that popular. And now with the help of modern technology and medicine women turn to plastic and cosmetic surgery, liposuption, face-lifting, let alone running and going in for sports. The most desperate types of women end up with anorexia, which has become a great problem in the U.S.
On the other hand, however, beauty contests remain very popular. First, beauty pageants are sources of great profits, and are wonderful mediums between potential consumers of make up and producers. From a strictly capitalistic point of view, they are wonderful and productive. Secondly, they still remain popular among the populace (or at least some segments of it), because beauty contests give pretty girls a chance of their lives. A winner or at least a finalist of a beauty competition is a prestigious award, and with the help of it girls that have never been noticed before may become public figures (although for only fifteen minutes). With the help of these public platforms, producers notice a girl, and once a regular college girl from a suburb may become another Sharon Stone, who by the way followed this very pattern. In addition, winners and finalists of such pageants become proud, as well as their relatives and even compatriots. If a girl takes the crown home, the country’s self-esteem grows and the entire country is proud of the title, as if every citizen got it.
Beauty contests are adored for the opportunity to look at the most beautiful girls from all over the world. After all, physical appearance is one of the characteristics all humans possess, and beauty contests are aimed at judging it just like dancing competition is aimed at determining the best dancers. In this regard beauty pageants are misunderstood, and it is obvious that those who misinterpret them for abuse and exploitation are simply envious and jealous for they cannot participate themselves. Arranging Miss World while there is drought in the country is another issue, and in such case riots are logical, and protesters are more concerned with country’s economic condition.
3. As we have seen above, beauty is not only a physical characteristic for humans, but also something deeper and more profound. In other words, different qualities and traits of people shape our perception of whether they are beautiful or not, and the degree of their beauty. What is interesting is that the internal and personal life of a person is represented by this person’s looks. In other words, once we experience troubles, we look depressed and worried, and we do not pay that much attention to our look because of this trouble. On the other hand, when our life is great, and business, personal, and other various needs are satisfied, we shine, and beam this energy of light and beauty. Thus, our appearance depends primarily on our life, and this phenomenon plays an important role in our selection of a sexual partner.
As mentioned above, in order to fully investigate the origin and properties of beauty and our perception of it, we have to go deep down to the roots of physiology and psychology. The little part I need to demonstrate the theory is the following. Down in our subconscious, we choose (or at least attempt to choose) a beautiful sexual partner not only because his or her looks gives pleasure to eyesight, but also because we subconsciously search for a mate, with whom to multiply. The correlation between look and life behind it explained above guides us through this search: if a person looks good, then he or she is doing great, and manages his life well, has no major problems, hence he or she is an eligible potential sexual partner. Contrarily, not only ugly people do not provoke pleasure in sight, their appearance indicates that they have problems in their lives, and that they cannot control their life completely, hence this person is not the most appropriate object with whom to multiply. What is even more important, is that we do not actually think these things; they are stored in the back of our brain, and we cannot control them, but they are there. That is why beauty is extremely important to sex and sexuality.
Looking good is also important for people in high positions. If a person occupies a position of power, this person can afford many things. Logically, if a person can afford many things, this person must pay much attention to his or her looks. You would not expect a hobo to become a president, the same way, you would not expect a president to speak publicly in rags. Therefore, there is direct correlation of beauty and power. Beauty is one of compounds of power. If a really powerful mogul looks ugly, then naturally his or her appearance would reduce his or her power before the public. This is a matter of business communication, and physical appearance speaks much about the person before this person even said a word or acted.
4. While there are many protests against beauty contests for various reasons, some young women utilize beauty pageants to improve their lives. The first and most obvious benefit participants derive from beauty competitions is the monetary reward and the title they receive. These two bring much material privileges to the girl. Not only she can spend the money received from the competition, she can also attend luxurious beauty saloons and restaurants for free. In addition to this benefit, the girl gets notices by the public, and (what is much more important) by big figures of how business. From this point, great path opens for her, which may lead her to becoming a movie star, or other wealthy public figure. This way, for a regular girl a beauty contest may become an opportunity of her life. There are truly some cases in highest level show business when beauty contests winners became world known movie stars, the most famous of which is Sharon Stone.
Bibliography
1. HAMILTON, T. 2003. Beauty contests. From Database at2. PRASHAD. V. 2000. Beauty queens and the capitalist beast. From Znet dailt commentaries at
3. SONES. M. 2004. About beauty. From Beauty Worlds at
4. WEST. K. 2003. Beauty and imitation: the theory of Rene Girard. From Beauty Worlds at
5. Questionable queens. 2005. From Indian Express at
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