How do beauty pageants empower women?

Question

It's our topic for our debate in school. I totally have no idea. I'm in the government side. My position is to rebutt people, since I'm a whip. If ever you got your answer from a website, please indicate your source.

Thank you. ^-^

Answer 1

beauty pageants empower the winners with all gifts and prizes....but not women as a whole

Answer 2

They could build public speaking skills. I heard a statistic that the number one fear of American is public speaking (ahead of death). You could find a source for that statistic and claim that it squashes the fear of speaking in front of others. They learn good communication skills and how to speak articulately.

The prizes are often scholarships.

They learn good people skills. They also learn good sportsmanship because there are so many girls and so few winners. They learn to have a fun time in the pagaent, make friends with competitors, and not take it so seriously.

Answer 3

PS: Well done, KillingSpree, great points. Listen to her.

~*~*~*~

Beauty pageants, good grief ~ do you go to Stereotype High?

The only answer I could think of is that having the right to enter a beauty pageant might be empowering for a woman ~ she can choose to participate or not.

Personally, if I was government whip on that one, I'd take the opportunity to point out that female beauty contests are just that ~ contests in which young women, and even little children ~ are judged on something actually beyond their control ~ their superficial appearance.

Such competitions may be popular and enjoyable, but they are essentially frivolous.

You could also point out that men are not lining up to be empowered by male beauty contests.

Then you could ask the competition organisers why such a topic is being introduced for debate by school students, when it so clearly has little of substance to offer.

In today's global village, with issues of real concern affecting young people, why debate beauty contests? Does one of the judges have a financial an interest in a beauty competition?

Why aren't they setting topics of relevance in the lives of today's young people?

"Are YouTube and FaceBook empowering for young women?"

"Are girls empowered by video gaming?"

"Boys prefer girls who can do maths?"

"Diversity in families in an essential component of the new millenial village?"

Of course you probably won't say any of this, or even want to, which I perfectly understand, hehehe.

Talk to your team mates. Maybe you can figure out a strategy where if you wear lipstick and hike your skirts up you'll have a chance of winning. It seems to be what the organisers want. Oh yeah, and wear your tiaras.

Ugh.

Good luck! :-)

Answer 4

I assume that by 'government side' you are referring to the pro side, as in you are being forced to put forward the argument that beauty pageants do empower women.

As a whip you won't be able to prepare all of your material in advance - in fact, ideally you would only prepare say 1/3 to 1/2 of your material as a speech and create a list of short points to rebut as many possible opposition arguments as possible.

Let's consider how women are *not* empowered by beauty pageants:

- Beauty is subjective. Why should a more physically attractive woman be given greater opportunities than a woman less so?

- The presentation of beauty in beauty pageants is typically in at least a partially sexual manner. This encourages (men) people to view the contestants through the lens of their attractiveness on a sexual level - which to use an overused cliche, is approximately how people in a butcher's shop select the side of meat they prefer - they pick the one that looks the best. Do we really want people to be honoured based on their ability to cause an erectile response?

Those are just obvious, and will get you started in the right direction. Still assuming you are on the pro-beauty-pageant side, you need to find points that rebut these.

In addition, you want reinforcing facts for pro-beauty-pageant opinions, such as the following:

- Beauty pageants are excellent for generating community goodwill for charitable causes. (Cynics might say this is because of all the sweaty men.)

- Beauty pageants can be a springboard for careers in various fields (usually artistic).

- Beauty pageants allow women to declare their confidence in their looks and encourage other women to be proud of being women.

- Beauty pageants are an excellent exercise for building self-confidence in their participants. The atmosphere is almost always positive. Self-confidence is a trait that allows women to pursue their dreams free from fear.

Good luck!