What are pageants all about anyways?

Do you watch beauty pageants? I use to. I read this morning that last evening they crowned another Miss Universe....Ms. Riyo Mori a 20 year old from Japan. She is strikingly beautiful. This is a picture of her in her evening gown.

I have never really understood why we have pageants in the first place. Why do we need a Miss Universe or a Miss Texas, Miss Vancouver or Miss Rodeo and Miss Car wash.....I mean really what is their purpose? If it is truly to spread charity and good will then why on earth do we care what she looks like in an evening gown or better yet a swimsuit?

To me it is just another contest. They use to call it Beauty Pageant. Beauty as they say is in the eye of the beholder...so why on earth do we as women put ourselves in positions where we are being judged. Isn't there enough competition out there already.

As I type this I can hear the people for these competitions thinking I am just another overweight feminist wishing that I could be up on stage strutting my stuff. Well guess what folks. I was there once. Don't ask me why. I really don't have an answer for that. I was 15 at the time. Competing for the Miss Teen Vancouver pageant. It was the most stressful thing I could have done. The interview, sitting at one end of the table with 8 people at the other, asking me all kinds of questions....oh I can remember my dry mouth...thank god for the water...then there were the outfits....urgh....I remember looking around the room at all these other girls....I knew I didn't have a hope in winning this...but something just made me want to try. I think at the end of the day it might have been for the notoriety I thought I would have gained if I had won the pageant.

Years past, it was after I had my 3rd daughter she was 8 months old. I was reading in our local paper about a baby competition...I read the rules and I thought....maybe I should enter my little one in this. I mean to me she was cute and cuddly and just so healthy looking. So that is what I did. I entered her in this contest. I had her dressed in this cute country blue dress with pinafore....you know what....they made us remove our children's clothing....all they could wear was their diapers and undershirts. Each parent took their turn entering the room with the judges with our babies in arm....baby was placed on the table in front of the judges...baby cooed and giggled, and then smiled and stood with mommies assistance...and played dancing feet....I was asked a few questions...then left. They then asked us to put our baby on the floor with the other babies...there were toys and the babies interacted. It turns out that is what the judges wanted to see was how well the child interacted with the others. I must tell you that two of the four judges were in the medical field one judge was a community nurse who specialized in paediatrics and the other was a doctor. We didn't know this until the end. Anyhow, the long and the short of it was my little girl won. Yes we were proud, she got a little trophy and pictures where taken and a little notice was put in the local paper and that was that.

When I look back on that experience again I wonder what was my impetus for entering my daughter in that competition. Was it acknowledgement that she was a healthy active cute baby....I knew that...why did I need someone else to tell me that. My daughter didn't have a clue what was going on so it was all about me...what I wanted to do. That was the last competition we ever did. It just didn't seem right anymore.

Now when I think of the little girls all decked out with make up and hair do's...who are we doing this for and why? At 4 or 5 or even 6 years of age, do they really know what they want? Yes, they want to please mommy and daddy. Yes they like it when people clap and smile and say they did well, who wouldn't. But is that the message we want to be giving our girls?

I have watched many documentaries on this topic. What I find to be the common thread is that most of these children are pushed by their parents to perform. Whether it be for a beauty pageant or cheer leading the parents are often the driving force. Again we must ask ourselves, whose agenda is this? Is this truly what the child wants or are we as parents trying to live our lives vicariously through our children.?

I think there are some children out there that are very driven and want to perform and cheer lead and such......but for a larger portion I don't believe that to be that case.

I am not against competition, but when the competition is based soley on our looks I have to ask myself why? Why do we do this to ourselves?

Cheers all and Happy Tuesday