The Objectives of Beauty Pageants
Critics of beauty pageants say the events appeal to vanity and can damage a young girl's confidence. However, most pageants do have elements that stress intelligence and ambition over appearance. While the objectives of beauty pageants differ from pageant to pageant, most include development of communication skills, learning to focus and set goals, physical fitness and learning more about relevant issues and challenges facing the global population.
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Communication Skills
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In today's pageants, it is not enough to walk across the stage and be pretty. You must communicate who you are both verbally and non-verbally because everything you do, say and wear in a pageant will tell the judges something about you. To prepare for a pageant, a contestant must practice answering challenging questions without any time to prepare the answer. This teaches a young woman to speak with ease no matter how nervous she is.
Goal Setting
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Beauty pageants teach young women how to set goals, focus on the goal and develop actions that lead to achieving the goal. In a world where some children are not able to develop a proper attention span, pageant contestants know how to develop long-term focus both in preparation for the pageant and at the pageant. Teaching focus and goal setting at a young age sets women up for success later in life.
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Physical Fitness
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Being a beauty pageant contestant requires becoming and staying in good physical condition. While this can certainly lead to unhealthy behaviors, such as eating disorders, it does not have to. Beyond maintaining a culturally determined idea of beauty, becoming physically fit involves focus and determination, which builds on the objective of goal setting. Learning good nutrition and developing a healthy workout routine early in life will help young women build confidence and remain healthy into her adult years.
Current Events
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In most pageants, beauty contestants develop a platform. This means that each contestant must pick an issue that she is passionate about and make that her key issue, both in the pageant and during her reign. Each woman can choose her own issue to tackle. Some past issues have included bullying, eating disorders and environmental issues. Having a well-known spokeswoman behind these sensitive topics can bring a much-needed spotlight to otherwise hidden cultural issues.
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