Where do I begin?
I’m sure it’s not going to come as any great surprise to readers of Beautiful You that I’m not a fan of beauty pageants. The entire premise of women being judged chiefly on how they look is grossly archaic to me on one hand, and an endorsement of our modern society’s obsession with outward appearances on the other. I have heard the various arguments about how these pageants are about poise, other achievements, and even funds raised for charity, but I’m sorry, as long as women have to don a bikini and strut on a stage in high heels while having their bodies picked apart, scrutinised and scored – their existence is not going to sit comfortably with me.
The latest news in the pageant world is that the Illawarra rounds of Miss World are now judging contestants on ‘healthy body image.’ What? You can’t ‘judge’ someone’s body image, no more than you can ‘judge’ someone’s self esteem. The only thing I can think has happened here is that the extremely misguided organisers of this pageant have somehow gotten it into their heads that you can tell if someone has a healthy body image just by looking at them. As body image is entirely a construct of our own thoughts and feelings about our body, this is impossible.
You cannot tell if someone has a healthy body image just from looking at them. Such a ridiculous notion only serves to once again give people the impression that you can only have a positive body image and confident feelings about your appearance if you look a certain way and, in this case, feel comfortable enough to have your body judged in a bikini. While the organisers may be thinking that this statement – “Rather than searching for the perfect figure, the swimwear category focused on muscle tone, symmetry of form and posture” – is somehow going to cut it in the body image stakes, they couldn’t have got it more wrong.
Let’s just make things perfectly clear here. Despite what is being espoused by the Miss World pageant, no-one can judge your body image, nor indeed should you let anyone judge you about anything – period. How you, or any of us, feel about our bodies is something only we truly know. Further to this, you can be any colour, shape and size and have healthy, positive and loving thoughts towards your body. You do not need to look like a pageant entrant to feel great about yourself. The fact that the organisers of this competition are trying to tell us we do, is something they should be ashamed of.
Image: Illawarra Mercury
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
You are so right. If as much effort was put into making women and men feel good about themselves as is put into these pageants…. well, the world would look a lot different. Thanks for doing what you do.
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I don't understand what the heck muscle tone and posture have to do with a healthy body image. You are 100% right. No one can judge someone's body image by looking at them. That doesn't even make sense! They probably added that to the beauty pageants so that it LOOKS like they are trying to promote a healthy body image. It's just like the magazines that have an article telling you that it's okay to have curves, right next to a picture of a model weighing less than 100 lbs.
Julie, I am just as puzzled as you are as to why we have these stupid events in the first place. Aren't there other ways, in which young women could assert themselves without having to turn into poseable dolls to be scrutinized by people who know nothing about them?
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Yikes. Well stated. So glad you brought up the difference between healthy body image and appearance. They’re entirely unrelated! You can’t judge health based on appearance just like you can’t judge healthy body image based on a swimsuit competition. I’m thinking they should have taken the time to look up what “body image” means, since they clearly have no clue. Thank you for this, Julie!
Thanks Lindsay. I commonly see people getting the real meaning of body image mixed up. So often people think it is solely about what someone looks like when in fact of course it is all about how someone FEELS about how they look – a very different thing indeed.