Sini Shetty, one out of the many young women, walked across the stage with lights all around and won the crown during the Miss India World 2022 pageant that was held yesterday, July 3. While the event is almost always a visual spectacle with young women dressed up in the most beautiful attire, walking across a stage that is surrounded by people from all age groups, showing their biggest smiles and their unique talents, there has always been a fierce debate surrounding such competitions.
But why do such contests get criticised? Is there more to the purpose of the pageants than just being a beauty contest? Have such contests become more inclusive with time? Firstly, let’s start with who this year’s winner is.
Who is this year’s Miss India World 2022?
Sini Shetty, a 21-year-old originally from Maharashtra, won the crown during the event that took place at the Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai. While she was born in Maharashtra, she represented the state of Karnataka during the pageant. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance and also completed her Arangetram (dance) in Bharatnatyam when she was only 14 years old. She is currently pursuing a course in Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Why are beauty pageants like Miss India, Miss Universe and so on often criticised?
Beauty pageants have been blamed for promoting unhealthy and idealistic notions of women’s beauty. Some say that such contests pit young women against each other who are eventually scrutinised by a panel of judges from a patriarchal lens. With audiences from all groups, including early-teens, such contests tend to reinforce the idea that beauty is the sole criteria for determining who can win a competition which could create stereotypes in young people’s minds.
Some also say that the path that women have to take to enter these types of contests is often riddled with problems such as development of eating disorders and eligibility restrictions such as age, height, marital status and pregnancy. For example, In 2018, Miss Ukraine was stripped from her crown after organisers discovered Veronkia Didusenko was previously married and has a child.
But are beauty pageants only about beauty?
Not really. Contests like the Miss World have actually worked towards promoting social causes. A fast track event called ‘Beauty With A Purpose’ is the main criteria for the Miss World finalist selection, wherein, every national delegate is supposed to submit a project on social welfare and the most genuine project is selected as a winner. Additionally, the pageant Miss Earth initially was formed to advocate for conserving the environment. Contestants actively participate in planting trees and campaigning for various issues including pollution reduction.
Contests Miss America provide contestants with professional and educational opportunities. In fact, every Miss America contestant receives a scholarship, ranging from $25,000 for the first runner-up to a $3,000 base scholarship for the last-place finishers.
Are beauty pageants getting more woke with time?
While other world competitions such as the Olympics actually sanction athletes who protest, contests like beauty pageants are trying to become “woke”. Miss America, for example, abolished its most famous swimsuit category in 2018, to try and shift the focus away from contestants’ bodies. Contestants also combine activism plus pageantry and make that fashion! For example, in the Miss Universe competition in 2021, Miss Uruguay, Lola de los Santos Bicco, wore a rainbow skirt to protest discrimination against the LGNTQIA+ community.
Does it empower women or objectify them?
Although the format of such competitions has observed a shift over the past few years, the emphasis on a specific body type continues. For example, in 2019, a newspaper released headshots of all the women competing in the Miss India pageant. Several social media users noted that most of the women shared the same features - same hair, same skin colour. Users said that India continues to be obsessed with being “fair and lovely”. Additionally, titles like “Miss Lovely”, “Miss Sparkling Eyes” tend to reduce women to just their physical characteristics.
