I watched the Dr. Phil episode “Tarnished Tiaras” about
beauty queens whose crowns were revoked because of mistakes they made. It’s made me quite annoyed on a feminist
level.
I think it’s garbage to require a young woman to never, ever
have made any kind of mistake or questionable judgment. These pageants hide behind a “morality
clause” where the contestants are required to say they will not and have never
done anything that would tarnish the image of the pageant.
Really? Never? Not once in their life?
It’s ridiculous and unrealistic. Everyone makes mistakes. We’ve all messed up and done things we
shouldn’t. Sometimes we get caught and sometimes
we don’t. But one mistake shouldn’t
define your life.
I think it’s especially tragic given that the young women
affected are a vulnerable group. They’re
attractive, naïve and in the public eye.
They’re competitive, eager to do what’s necessary to achieve their
dreams and well aware that they’re entering a networking business. They’re courted by men who tell them what
they want to hear and take advantage of them.
They’re young and naïve and don’t know how to protect themselves or
even, sometimes, what lines should be drawn.
It got me thinking.
The pageants aren’t idiots. They
have to know it’s unrealistic. So why
have the dumb rule in the first place? I
would like to believe it began as a good intention, wanting to encourage young
women to respect themselves and their bodies, to avoid judges and photographers
soliciting sexual favours.
However, I think we’re dealing with a more primitive
challenge. Part of the appeal of a
beautiful young woman is her naïveté. At
least, to men. It’s an ideal for
them. An attractive woman who is
impressed and proud of you is a great turn on for men. And it’s more likely to happen with a young
woman who doesn’t have a lot of life experience.
That concept makes me angry.
People have enough stuff to deal with in their lives. For a woman to be told that a single act from
her youth defines her is ridiculous. The
myth that a “good” girl’s reputation can vanish in an instant with a single
“bad” act is garbage. Defining sexual
interest or evidence of sexuality as “bad” in women is also garbage. Women are sexual beings just like men and
don’t deserve to be demonized for it.
The pageants have complained about dwindling interest and
relevance. If they really want to become
more relevant to young women in general, they need to stop focusing on a
completely false Barbied image and start focusing on amazing and interesting
young women. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if
they promoted the image of a confident, self-aware and self-comfortable
contestant? One with depth and flaws and
everything that makes actual women interesting.
Of course, I think the last thing young women need is more
sexualized images of themselves. That’s
where the pageant hypocrisy is really infuriating. They’re selling sex. They’re selling the appearance of sex without
the experiential knowledge. In other
words, they’re selling easy prey to predators.
But that’s just my opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment