There are times I see Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss America and wonder, where is the male equivalent? Why aren’t men a part of the world of beauty pageants? There should really be a Mr. America, Universe and World; Bring out all the abs, men in sexy bathing suits, doing fun talents, etc! Why don’t we put men on display for once, it would be an equal opportunity for both genders to be judged on stage.
I know men have their own forms of beauty pageants like strength and bodybuilding competitions. But I'm not interested in those, it's all entirely about the physicality. I want to see men get all dolled up, pretty and strutting their stuff in front of America and the world. I want to see all the different lovely evening gowns. I guess in this case because we, unfortunately, live in an obsessively gendered society, suits. I would love to see some of the ladies at the beauty pageants rock some cool decorative suits. And the awesome and wonderfully creative national costumes in the Miss Universe pageant? Let's see how much more ridiculous they are with men.
I would definitely love to know how these men would do on the interview part of the pageant. Because for certain questions, 20 seconds isn't really enough to dive in and answer the question elegantly and articulately. Some contestants do get easier questions but you do learn a lot about a person in the ways they answer and in the actual answers themselves. I want to know what beauty pageant cliches will be started with men, such as the stereotypical cliche of the "world peace" answer.
Judging beauty has been around for thousands of years but the first modern convention of beauty pageants originated in 1850s with Phineas T. Barnum. Barnum had accepted entries via photographs and the photographed were exhibited in his museum. The public would decide the 10 best candidates and they would be painted. But beauty pageants as we know them today were used as way to entertained tourists. For example, Miss America started in 1921 in Atlantic City, where they wanted to lure the tourists to stay past Labor Day. Since the dawn of time, as history shows us, we've been asking who's the fairest lady of them all. Now I want to know who will be the fairest dude.
Lastly, people have their qualms and ideas of whether beauty pageants are feminist or not. I do think, yes, they are objectifying but as long as the women in the beauty pageant genuinely want to do them and have fun doing them (and some argue they also feel empowered), then let them. We do have to fix the system of course, like the underlying beauty standards they seem to convey, the heavy focus on beauty while trying to be intellectual with the interview sections and the scholarship problem. But anyway, it would be nice if men, some of whom I am sure would love to get the opportunity to parade in a pageant, could be a bit more objectified as well.
