Timeless Beauty – Critical Analysis of Beauty Competitions sample essay

William Shakespeare said that “beauty is bought by judgement of the eye” (Adelaide, 2004). The majority of definitions of beauty found on the web claim that beauty refers to “qualities that give pleasure to senses” (Princeton). However, most of the time, people associate beauty with something that we see, not taste, or smell. Therefore, more precise definition of beauty would sound like, beauty is the quality or set of qualities that give pleasure to eyesight.

Geoffrey Cowley in his essay The Biology of Beauty has extended this definition and based on studies of insects, animals, and humans suggested that the physiological side of beauty looks for symmetry in the opposite sex (Newsweek, 1996). Just like jungle birds choose a mate with brightly colored feathers, which is an indication of strong immune system, humans choose mates that possess specific physical features and proportions, which serve as an indication of a good sexual partner. For example, men tend to choose females with smaller “waist-to-hip ratio” (Cowley, 1996), because they consider such women beautiful ad sexy. However, from a purely physiological point of view, this small ratio means that a woman is capable to bear children. Contrarily, women prefer men with strong chest and muscles, because they consider them sexy and beautiful. But this muscularity means that a man is physically strong and can protect the woman and their children. Thus, our perception of beauty is much more complex than just pleasure to eyesight and sexiness. Rather beauty goes deeper into our psychology and physiology, and literally dictates and forms our attitudes to particular body forms and physical properties of opposite sex.

Although judges probably do not plan to marry all contestants, nonetheless male judges at beauty competitions do look for those features in women’s physical bodies that give pleasure to their eyes. The image of wealthy males assessing half-naked women bodies comes from the Western part of the world. And even though there has been much controversy about advantages and disadvantages of beauty pageants, they still remain popular events today, especially in the West.

It is an obvious fact that cultures vary across countries. While in some cultures a woman can show her face only to her relatives and husband, in the Western world, on the other hand, an image of slim, sun-burnt, slander young woman is promoted and taken for granted. And while beauty in one culture is a very private and intimate thing, Westerners have decided to turn natural beauty of young women into commercially beneficial event. In the East, however, beauty pageants provoke demonstrations and even riots against the event, like, for example, the riot against Miss World 1996 beauty competition by Hindu nationalists and feminists in Bangalore (Hamilton, 2003). This phenomenon testifies that the image of female in a swimsuit judged by males is Western, and culturally does not identify with many counties of the East. The most flagrant riots, like the one in Kaduna in 2002 against Miss World “left more than 200 dead and led to the contest being moved to London” (Hamilton, 2003). This way, while in Western Europe and Americas beauty competitions are very popular, they are in fact incompatible with many Eastern and Southern cultures.

An interesting fact, however, is that Eastern women still participate in major beauty contests like Miss World and Miss Universe regardless of their cultural beliefs. Tom Hamilton in his essay about beauty contests notes that India can be proud for its multiple first and second prizes, although Indian girls had to follow western principles, which in fact contradict to Indian culture (Hamilton, 2003).

In general, there is a great difference between the Western concept of beauty and Eastern one. While in the Western part of the world, a white, “young, […] and very very thin” girl is considered the ideal of a Western woman (Colvin, 2005), Islamic concept of beauty, for example, more refers to internal development of self and is less concerned with outer looks (Hamed, 1994). While Americans strive to purchase the most luxurious apparel and other attributes to look attractive and beautiful, Islamic people pay much more attention to their inner mental beauty, and much less attention is paid to physical attractiveness. Generally, because Eastern countries belong to the old world, they have many traditions and customs that mold their perception of beauty.
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