Beauty pageants: A pathway for personal growth or outdated objectification?

The debate around Chidimma Adetshina’s participation in Miss South Africa focused mainly on national identity, but one party wants a broader discussion.

The Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) have challenged the relevance of beauty pageants in modern society.

While acknowledging the role pageants have played in the past, they argue the negatives have grown to outweigh the positives.  

A need to focus on inner beauty

Azapo cites sexist pressures on young women, brewing body-positive issues and unattainable beauty standards as having a negative influence on contestants.  

“There is a great danger that these pageants teach our young people to concentrate far too much on the superficial in life,” reads a statement issued by party liaison Jabu Rakwena.

ALSO READ: Chidimma Adetshina withdraws from Miss SA pageant

Arguing that young women should be encouraged to prioritise their mental health, with Azapo highlighting lurking predatory practices as potential pitfalls.

“It is crucial that we teach our children to place their energies on attending to, nurturing and maintaining a healthy psyche.

“Beneath the glitz and glamour, there is a darker side that we seriously need to scrutinise and decide what value, if any, do such parades add,” Rakwena continued.

Personal counter arguments

Miss South Africa may be the pinnacle of the industry, but the pageant world is teeming with competitions that cater for a variety of aspirations.

Like newly crowned Miss South Africa Mia le Roux, Mrs Mzantzi Africa 2022 Lizelle Kachelhoffer overcame a disability to win her crown.

ALSO READ: Mia le Roux crowned Miss South Africa 2024

Kachelhoffer was diagnosed with Lupus and Sjogren’s Syndrome over 20 years ago.

She notes the mental strength needed for pageant competition:“If you want to enter a pageant you have to know it is not always going to be roses. Unfortunately, in pageants, there can only be one winner.

“You have to enter a pageant with a clear mind and the understanding of what you want to achieve,” Kachelhoffer told The Citizen.

Revealing the other side of the pageant coin, she admits to suffering a sexual assault during one elite pageant several years ago that she says almost “destroyed” her.

She showed great strength in returning to the stage and remembers the overwhelmingly positive experience of the Mrs Mzantzi 2022 journey.

“They embraced me for who I am and what I stand for,” she stated.

“Pageants have good and bad aspects, but if you want to use the platform to tell your story or motivate others or to do charity work, it’s a good platform.

“But there is always the bad side to it, there are horrible things that sometimes go on behind the scenes.”

Pageantry not a “luck draw”

Earning the crown may be a momentous occasion, but the charitable endeavours before and after the crowning take discipline and dedication.

“Pageantry is not a competition that you enter today and wait for a lucky draw. No, it is a personal evolution programme,” said a former Mrs South Africa finalist Dominique Tibbles.

ALSO READ: Miss SA 2024: R1m cash prize and more for newly-crowned queen Mia le Roux

Tibbles won the Mrs South Africa 2019 Women Empowerment award and was a Mrs South Africa 2023 Speciality Mentor. She also has multiple local pageant crowns to her name.

Having launched her own nonprofit organisation, Belly2Brains through her charity work, Tibbles suggests contestants get back what they put in.

“Not only do you become a brand ambassador to the sponsors of the organization in the year of your journey as a contestant – you are also tasked with making a difference in the community,” she told The Citizen.

However, the detractors believe the superficial expressions of beauty lead impressionable audiences to perpetuate bad habits.

“AZAPO is convinced that beauty pageants do not add value to our society. The advancement of advocacy and charity goals can still happen without having to expose young women,” they stated.

Differing in her personal experience of achieving more than a crown, Tibbles said, “I won so much more – becoming my own brand, leaving a legacy and making friends and colleagues that still today I hold very dear”.