Adult Beauty Pageants

• Usually what happens is that because the child has grown up in the pageant life, they will continue to compete into adulthood. Which leads us into adult beauty pageants.  According to the Miss America website, to be a contestant you must be between the ages of 17 and 24.  This is interesting because according to law, you do not become an adult till you turn 18.  So in fact, the “adult beauty pageants” could actually consist of children. 

• The Miss America website states, “Miss America program exists to provide personal and professional opportunities for young women and to promote their voices in culture, politics and the community.   This is an excellent cause, however we take issue with the fact that to receive these opportunities women and teenage girls are subject to harsh judgment and criticism about their physical appearance and their “talents”.

• The Healthy Soul
  Rational Element:	To receive a scholarship and create opportunities
  Irrational Element:	To become a celebrity, and win money, they have a hunger and thirst to win the title and become famous
  Spirited:	Emotions such as Jealousy, anger, depression, feelings of inadequacy.

• Women begin this process to receive a scholarship, however soon the greed and hunger starts to set in. They may really want to be in a pageant for the fame and the celebrity status, and so feelings of jealousy and anger start to set in against fellow competitors.

• The women no longer have healthy souls, because they have been competing since they were children, and so they have begun to rationalize competing and changing their bodies to suit the ideal.  They also feel the need to compete in order to feel valued or feel self-worth, because throughout their lives they have been judged on their appearance and talent.  They must compete in order to feel good about themselves, and the more they compete the more damaged their soul becomes.

• Also, some women may feel inadequate if they lose, which may lead them to some way change their appearance, in order to win.  According to a recent article, “Plastic Beauty” is it not uncommon for beauty contestants to have plastic surgery done, in fact it is encouraged. For example, Debra Maffet had a nose enhancement and breast augmentation, she became Miss America 1983.  Also, the Miss California Pageant was in the news for paying for the runner ups breast implants in 2008. The contestant was asked many questions about what she would change about herself so she would feel confident on stage. Miss World 2005 has had numerous surgeries including nose enhancement and breast augmentation. Clearly there is a pattern that, the judges believe that these enhancements are what beauty should be.  
• There is also a belief  that being thin is beautiful, and therefore many beauty pageant contestants believe that to win, they need to be thin.  In the 1990’s the average pageant contestant was 5 feet 7 inches, 121 pounds (BMI 19.0) (However, the National Center for Health Statistics states, “The average 20-29 year old American woman is 5 feet 4 inches, 142 pounds (BMI 24.4)” Therefore, beauty contestants are below what is deemed to be a healthy body mass index. Each time a woman competes and changes a part of one’s self to better fit the mold of beauty their soul becomes more and more unhealthy.  How can one be happy, if all they want is to compete for the need to win?  And they compete again, and again, forgetting the real reason.  .  How can such a contest and culture be deemed acceptable?