@GAMBIT – These women are adults. They can choose to enter or not. One hopes they would take their parents’ wishes into consideration, but if the parents aren’t willing or able to pay for college, then the women need to do what they feel is important to their own future.
In addition, these pageants aren’t all about great teeth and beautiful bodies. They do indeed include talent competitions as well as the ability to remained poised and lady-like in various situations. And no one wins if they can’t speak in an articulate and intelligent manner.
My daughter is never going to enter such a pageant in part because she doesn’t enjoy that sort of thing, and in part because she doesn’t need to because we started saving for college before she was actually born. However, if she wanted to do that I would support her choice.
All of us are judged by our appearance every day, even if we are not on a stage. Just try going to a job interview in torn jeans, a t-shirt with a rude saying on it, and uncombed hair. And what do you think happens when your daughters go to the beach? Or do you make your daughters wear the abaya and hijab whenever they go out of your house?
And personally, while I may admire someone with perfect teeth or a great figure, I am not so shallow as to insist on surrounding myself with people like that. We can disagree about the value of such pageants, but you do not have to attempt to insult me over it.