HISTORY OF BEAUTY CONTESTS

HISTORY:
The first modern American pageant was staged by P. T. Barnum in 1854, but his beauty contest was closed down by public protest. He previously held dog, baby, and bird beauty contests. He substituted daguerreotypes for judging, a practice quickly adopted by newspapers. Newspapers held photo beauty contests for many decades: In 1880, the first “Bathing Beauty Pageant" took place as part of a summer festival to promote business in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

PURPOSE:

Miss America, the first pageant of its kind, has made an effort to ensure that it does not appear as a "stereotypical" pageant. The competition emphasizes the different aspects of women and highlights their personal successes. They strive to give these women the opportunity to rise to the top. Pageant participants return to their hometowns and promote community involvement.
As of recently, anyone of any race or color can enter in them. Of course, they do have some racial specific pageants, such as Miss Chinese International Pageant, Miss Black America, Miss Indian America, or Miss Deccan but generally, all of the contestants come from different backgrounds. Multiculturalism is a widely viewed aspect in pageants.
Another goal of pageants is promoting self-esteem of the contestants. Girls that compete feel a sense of belonging with the other contestants, and the larger pageant community. The pageant offers “not just a place, but a particular way and stringently limited terms ithwhich to negotiate a sense of self.”

Miss America and beyond:
The modern beauty pageant's origin is traceable to the Miss America pageant, which was first held in Atlantic City in 1921, under the title "Inter-City Beauty Contest. The Miss America Pageant is the largest provider of college scholarships for women in the world.



Around the globe:
Major international contests for women include the yearly Miss World competition (founded by Eric Morley in 1951), Miss Universe (founded in 1952), Miss International (founded in 1960) and Miss Earth (founded in 2001 with environmental awareness as its concern). These are considered the "Grand Slam" or "Big Four" pageants, the four largest and most famous international beauty contests.



Selecting a "beauty queen"
Beauty pageants are generally multi-tiered and popular, with local competitions feeding into the larger competitions. The worldwide pageants, thus, require hundreds, sometimes thousands, of local competitions. the selection of a Beauty Queen is thought to be an annual event, there are no hard and fast rules as to the frequency of selection. Pageants have also changed dates and frequency based upon the needs of the Organization.

Criticism:
Critics of beauty contests argue that such contests reinforce the idea that (usually young) women should be valued primarily for their physical appearance, and that this puts tremendous pressure on women to “be beautiful” by spending time and money on fashion, cosmetics, hair styling and even cosmetic surgery. This pursuit of physical beauty even encourages some women to diet to the point of harming themselves. it can be argued that beauty contests hurt the prospects of women who do not fit the current cultural ideal of beauty, because these contests promote the idea that those who fit this ideal are “better” than those who do not. And some pageants require a swimsuit for a portion of the competition, which emphasizes the physical bodies of women, some claim in undressed state.