I rarely watch, but sometimes I catch a few minutes of a pageant. I actually don’t have a problem with appreciating how beautiful some people are. Most of the women on pageants now often look a little too fake, and the high heals are too high, and the questions they ask the women are too brief. I remember when I was a young girl one year Miss New York won and she was what everyone called a “natural” beauty.
Many countries still love the pageants. I know my Latin American friends, especially those a little older than me, love to watch them. Even though I am a little critical of that, because I think it has a lot to do with a more macho culture, which I have negative thoughts about, I do think that having a Miss America or Miss USA as an embassador kind of plays well internationally.
I’m a little surprised we still have the pageants in America, I don’t know how much longer they will hang on. I guess in the end I am pretty neutral about it. I saw an episode of a show where teenagers get to become something they aren’t. This one girl went from being a t-shirt and jeans, no make-up, not popular, farm girl, who many perceived as homely, to competing in a pageant; that was her wish, to be in a beauty pageant. The show styled her hair, taught her how to make up her face, posture, answering questions, walking, and she was absolutely beautiful. A natural beauty really, but lacked the confidence and know how. Competing in a pageant was great for her in my opinion. She didn’t need a pageant to learn those things, but the pageant represented being pretty I guess. Pretty, unfortunately, still matters in our society. That show proved that pretty takes some work, and that almost everyone can be pretty.