Beauty Pageants: Bad for Women and Animals

The Miss USA 2010 pageant was mildly interesting to me, as two of the contestants, Miss D.C. and Miss N.Y.C., were vegan. Neither woman won in last month's pageant, but even if they had, you could not count me as a fan of the beauty pageant industry.

The quest for the Miss USA 2011 crown has already begun, and the Miss Florida USA pageant held a preliminary event this past weekend. The event was protested by the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida because the Fur Information Council of America is a sponsor. The pageant gives away free fur coats to the winners.

I think fur belongs in beauty pageants. Why? Both are anachronisms, relics of a less ethical past.

Women have long been at the forefront of the animal welfare movement. In the 18th and 19th century, feminists, such as Mary Wollstonecraft, connected cruelty against animals to the oppression of women. But women have also been a huge part of the exploitation of animals through the use of fur, leather and feathers in clothing. In the 1880s, seal fur coats first became in great demand. During this decade, whole birds were also fashionable on hats.

The rise of fur in fashion occurred at the same time as the birth of the modern beauty pageant. The first beauty pageant was planned in 1854 by P.T. Barnum, the man who started the Barnum & Bailey circus. He also conducted beauty pageants for birds and dogs. In 1880, the first "Bathing Beauty Pageant" was held in Delaware. Contestants were to be "of good health and of the white race."

Fur coats have been given away as a prize in beauty pageants for years. In 1988, animal activist Bob Barker resigned as host of the Miss USA pageant because of the fur giveaway to the contestants. Barker had hosted the pageant for 21 years.

Defenders of the pageant industry claim competitions have evolved to empower women. Forty-five percent of the judging is based on a contestant's personality and intelligence, as determined in a twelve minute interview. But misogyny still pulses through pageant culture. The problem with the pageant industry isn't that they are a celebration of female vanity (although that's not great either), but it is the way the contestants are treated.

Contestants might sign a contract that there are no nude or semi-nude photos of them in existence, (which they have used to dethrone winners in recent years), yet the 2010 pageant was promoted with photos of lingerie-clad contestants sprawled suggestively on a bed. The pageants want the women to display their bodies, but only on the pageant's terms and for the pageant's benefit. Provocative photos were released of Miss USA 2006, Tara Conner, but she was allowed to keep her crown after pageant owner, Donald Trump, ordered her to attend rehab. Playboy magazine then approached Trump, requesting for Conner to appear in their magazine. Trump was reported to be mulling it over. Apparently Donald Trump now owned Tara Conner's body.

Women have a right to their own bodies, just as animals have a right to their own skins. Beauty pageants objectify women; fur objectifies animals.

TLC has not renewed its contract to air the pageant in 2011. Hopefully this means the beauty pageant industry will end up just like the fur it gives away: dead.

Photo Credit: Angela N.