by Delaney Letts
Pageants are a great way to appreciate and celebrate all the physical beauty people have to offer this world. This is a type of competition that people of all ages can participate in and one that doesn’t require as much training (unlike the Olympics), but rather contains a lot of natural talent.
Some people are just born with a greater amount of attractive features and have a greater stage presence than others. However, many people will boycott participating in beauty pageants or even just watching them.
Women (and now little girls in pageants like “Toddlers in Tiaras”) are either idolized—setting a new standard for what beauty in America must look like in order to be considered beautiful—or these ladies are discriminated against because they do not have pretty enough eyes or the color of their hair is brown instead of blonde, etc.
In some ways, pageants really have a negative effect on women in our society. Losing competitors and general observers downgrade their own body features because they do not match the competition winners’ descriptions and physical attributes. Girls will start to wear more makeup, curl or straighten their hair every day or do whatever it takes to meet this new standard of beauty.
Still, many people, like myself, enjoy watching beauty pageants to see all the pretty outfits, hair styles, makeup and more. In a lot of pageants, women are asked to present a talent to also contribute to their scoring in the competition.
This idea is great because it allows the competition to be about more than just looks, but rather, other cool traits too. Everyone has different talents, so it’s fun to show those off. Beauty pageants are fun to watch at home on TV, judging for yourself what styles you like best or who you think is the most talented and might win.
“Miss America,” one of the most well-known pageants nationwide, just finished celebrating its 96th year. Since 1921, 52 girls have been representing all 50 states in the U.S. and now Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as well.
On Sept. 11, 2016, 21-year-old Savvy Shields stole the crown in Atlantic City, N.J. for the title of “Miss America 2017.” This year, the competition offered a special 9/11 tribute in honor of the date of the finals.
Representing Arkansas, Shields felt overjoyed to be given such an honor. Her blonde hair, big smile and green eyes weren’t the only thing that helped her win. Shields performed a fantastic jazz dance to a song from “Smash” (a hit NBC TV show) titled “They Just Keep Moving the Line.”
Now that the competition is over, she commences on her journey to give back to the community. While Shields plans to continue on with her education at the University of Arkansas (where she will apply her $50,000 scholarship), she also plans on getting involved in a non-profit organization called Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals where she will speak about how to live and eat better. Throughout the next year, many people will look up to Miss Arkansas, now Miss America 2017.
