Beauty pageants do more good than harm

"beauty pageants, are at an increased risk of suffering from those problems. This has been empirically proven" Proof: "With the increase in the prevalence and popularity of beauty standards there has also been a dramatic increase in eating disorders among those women most likely to participate in or watch beauty pageants: white middle-to-upper class women aged 16-25." That was your empirical evidence? HIV has also gone up since the advent of pageants, I guess those must be connected too. And the increase in once-socialist countries becoming capitalist, and the internet. If only we could assume that everything that increases after event must certainly have been caused by it. This logical fallacy is what they call magical thinking. Check your causation. "My argument is that beauty pageants contribute to a culture in which it is not only acceptable but desirable to treat women like objects." Not really women, but the bodies of women. By treating their own bodies as objects, they invite the audience and judges to see their bodies as objects as well. Besides from that, your statement sounds fair. But of course it contributes to a culture where it is desirable to treat women's bodies (and men's bodies) like objects. That's the whole point. And while that is happening, in the next studio over, the same company that broadcasts the pageant is also filming a quiz show that promotes judging people based on their knowledge of random trivia. Survivor invites people to judge others based on whatever open-ended criteria they choose. And beauty pageants are doing nothing to stop that. Because judging the way someone handles her own body is not the same as saying "I'm gonna stop watching quiz shows, because now I no longer care about brains". Beauty, brains, brawn, etc are not mutually exclusive. Then he says that viewing people as objects makes them lose their rights… Not sure I see the linkage there, but let me remind you that we are talking about women (and men) who choose to use their bodies as objects and men and women viewing their bodies as objects. PhPr speaks of men violating women. But wait…any man who views women as objects is not someone who can be trusted when he says "the pageant made me view them that way." Such a man would have serious developmental problems, and was probably born that way. From the time we are infants, we are supposed to be able to understand that others have feelings of their own. That is why babies look at the eyes of us adults to try to figure out what is going on in our minds. As for "losing their rights", last I checked, America, Brazil, Venezuela, etc, still have laws prohibiting rape and murder. In fact, considerable progress has been made for women since the advent of pageants, so by your logic, we should assume that these pageants are the sole cause of women's progress. Possible, but I wouldn't go that far. Nice to know PhPr does not advocate a ban, but the 2nd paragraph of my 2nd arguments still stands *un*re*futed*. People have a tendency to live life in certain ways even if it is not pointed out to them. Sexism and eating disorders existed even before pageants, but one ting that was invented after pageants was treatment for people with eating disorders, and a new dialogue on beauty and it's place in society. If you put something on display, it will have its critics. Only then, will people become consciously aware of it. The public only started debating beauty *and other cards* on a large scale once the beauty card was put on display in pageants. In the decades after thin models became popular, people would wonder if there was a link to pageants or not, find that they couldn't "empirically prove" one, but they didn't stop there. After they wondered, they actually built treatment centers for people who really are suffering from eating disorders, and people suffering from a body complex. If beauty had not been put on display so that we can appreciate it's benefits, we never would have noticed any of the harms inherit to the way human beings treat beauty. PhPr finds that there is a slight chance that pageants cause suicide, abuse, and rape. Not sure how much of a chance there is. I couldn't disprove it, and he cannot prove it, so there might be some chance. But let us consider the effect on suicide, abuse, and rape rates caused by poverty. Women have always been the majority of the poor. But at least now they have another way to stop being poor. At least now, some are more likely to look up at the display of beauty we call a pageant, become inspired to consider her looks in addition to everything else, and enjoy her own beauty and give that to the world. Am I arguing that the result is they all become professional beauty queens? No. Good for the "winners" if they win, but let us discuss how this benefits all other women. She may consider entering a pageant, fail to win the tiara, but she is still more beautiful now, because she tried, and continues to use her body as an instrument of art. Anyone who has created art knows the joy of it, and people tend to enjoy looking good, once they discover that it can be an art. For many, it takes the pageant. Add to this, she now has a new weapon to use in her struggle to avoid poverty. If bosses, investors, regulators, clients, and perspective employees have the habit of judging people by their looks, well, now, at least these pageant watchers can save themselves some face. They will more often be drawn to her than before, they will less often assume negative assumptions like "she isn't making effort to look professional and attract my business, so I cannot trust her to make effort in general" than before. Business opportunities can only increase. Superficial? You bet. Human? Definitely. Human beings have always communicated through their appearance, and we will always judge ourselves and one another by our appearance. We don't usually do it consciously, but psychology shows it to be in our nature. Even nuns look people up and down and judge them before they speak with them. And if PhPr is going to find this state of humanity offensive, he should then admit that it is best that we put it out in the open, into consciousness. But you don't have to take my word for it. Ask University of Florida professor Timothy Judge and University of North Carolina professor Daniel Cable. <http://news.ufl.edu...;. Or read the Jeff Biddle and Daniel Hamermesh and read their survey published in the June 1996 issue of Compsych. Or read Sociologist Bonnie Berry's Beauty Bias: Discrimination and Social Power. And so long as they have the looks, so long will they have that advantage. Presidential candidates are not the only people whose looks count (try finding a short President or CEO. You can't). Looks are consistently linked to better pay. It is also linked, in the mind of the viewer, to intelligence. Yes, believe it or not, you are thought to be more intelligent if you look good (here, looking "good" is not to be confused with looking "sexual".) The reason why has not been determined. Maybe it is because we assume that others are aware of their appearance and surroundings, and have covered all the bases. But whatever the reason, it affects salary and success. The more of that you have, the less suicide, abuse, and rape you get. Last I checked. III) using beauty to attract attention to 1) other traits and 2) causes Many women use beauty pageants as a first step to attract the attention of the mass audience. Who is the mass audience? They are mostly people who only judge people by their looks, and not by their abilities, or compassion. 1) But since all these people cannot pay attention to anything that looks good, they can never learn about the importance of other traits UNTIL A BEAUTIFUL PERSON TELLS THEM TOO! This is why beauty Queens tell their audience to judge people's hearts and brains after they win a pageant. Even Omarosa did that!