Feminist debate: Are beauty pageants outdated or not?

Despite the growing global intersectional feminist movement and all the change it has brought about in industries, policies and laws, one thing has remained seemingly untouched – beauty pageants.

For years, pageants have been met with criticism and yet they continue with no visible signs of slowing down. In South Africa alone, hundreds of women enter the Miss South Africa pageant and countless others and though they continue to face criticism, no one seems to have been able to make a solid case for or against them.

The Citizen spoke to two women on either side of the issue.

Shay-Leigh Chizinga is an entrepreneur, model and former contestant who believes pageants are empowering and should never fade away.

Competing in pageants is an opportunity for young people to network and gain friendships. “Pageants promote self development and transform you as an individual.

You have an opportunity to be recognised and gain skills like communication, how to handle pressure and so forth,” she explains. “Pageants also encourage charitable work, so it’s not only about getting but about giving. In my opinion, anyone entering any sort of pageant should always go in with the intention of self development. A true win is when you become a better version of yourself.”

Pierrette Mulumba, a beauty editor at Johannesburg-based Longevity thinks pageants should be a thing of the past. She is mostly incensed by some of the rules contestants are required to follow, as she believes the rules are outdated and have no real bearing on the quality of a contestant’s character.

“They still enforce unrealistic standards of beauty on us. Every single one of those girls is needle skinny and the only curves they possess exist in their coily hair,” quips Mulumba. “The fact that contestants aren’t allowed to have birthed children is definitely ‘mom shamey’ and it’s bizarre, considering the number of single mothers in this country.”

Pageants have also been criticised for a lack of diversity, by holding contestants to Eurocentric standards of beauty even while industries related to the pageant world were implementing some much needed change.

That is why Zozibini Tunzi’s win as Miss Universe was heralded as such a historical moment – a dark skinned woman wearing her natural hair in a style previously assumed to only be for men.

– kaundas@citizen.co.za

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