Cult of Anti Fat: Miss Universe

Beauty pageants, much like advertising, are mainly designed to bask in the glory of supposed beauty. I say supposed not to even suggest that the women that participate in these contests aren’t drop dead gorgeous, but I do add the supposed for a variety of reasons.

1.) Many of these women have been edited, augmented and end up being highly manufactured in the beauty sense of the word. Jaws are aligned, procedures are made and an army of fembots compete for a crown.
2.) Beauty is relative and saying a woman is more or less beautiful than another has everything to do with taste, and nothing to do with actual beauty.
3.) Just in case, often times, the difference between a fashion model and a porn star are 6 inches and key decisions. Many porn stars are short while most models and miss universi, are quite tall.
4.) Fasting and purging ones system shouldn’t be applauded and some of the girls in these contests truly scream eating disorder.
5.) Beauty is not skin deep and some of these gals are just fancy frosting with no cake.

But in yet another element of our Cult of Anti Fat, we stare, ogle and leave our gaping mouths drooping in awe at the sheer beauty of some of these women. But it gets me thinking, if athletes are penalized and suspended for taking anabolic steroids and other performance enhancers, why doesn’t the same apply to beauty pageants. It’s gotten to the point where it’s a competition of the best surgeon rather than the most complete woman, and I really want to stress on COMPLETE WOMAN part.

A complete woman should have thoughts and aspirations, rather than tic tacs and hydrogen for a brain. They should have wants, desires, skill, and should inspire us to think much more than to offer a lame golf clap because they gave the “right” answer to an open ended question. Complete women know much more than just how to walk down a cat walk, because that’s a testament to good balance much more than to their character.

But a definite byproduct of all this beauty queen loving is that women get even more reference points in regards to what they’re not, what they’re supposed to be, and what they should envy and emulate. Young women have been taught to hate the way they are and how they look and pageants, television, Hollywood and advertising have all had a hand in distorting the self image of millions of young women around the world. You’re too fat, you’re too small, you’re not pretty enough. Too much for many things, too little for about the same amount of criteria and I can’t help but cringe every time I hear a friend or a loved one despise the way they feel about how they look.

Diets and masochistic exercise regimens are adopted in the name of physical beauty. Purging and starving are delightful remedies to lose a quick pound and quality of life and self worth are tossed out the window. To what point will this dangerous scenario repeat itself? Let us hope and pray we don’t have to weigh and find out.

Cheers