Argentinian City Bans Beauty Pageants, Replaces Them With “Community Awards”

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There are many people in favor of beauty pageants because they say it can give girls a whole load of confidence they never had before, and it also can encourage them (depending on which pageant you enter) to get involved in communities work, charities etc.

While getting confidence is a great thing, should it come from something that mostly only affirms a woman for her physical appearance? That is the argument a city in Argentina made, and therefore they decided to ban beauty pageants altogether.

The city of Chivilcoy, which is about 100 miles east of the capital Buenos Aires, is known for its farming roots, and has a relatively small population (compared to the capital) of 60,000. A group of politicians banded together to come up with a new ruling that states: “These beauty contests between girls, teenagers and young women reinforces the idea that women should only be valued and prized for their physical appearance.”

The new legislation was put forward by the Gender Secretariat and the Assembly for Children’s Rights of the local branch of the Argentine Workers’ Union (CTA). It was supported by the mayor of Chivilcoy and several NGOs, and passed by the local council by 12 votes and five abstentions out of the 17 councilors present during the debate.

The new ruling also states that most beauty pageants are based on “stereotypes, promoting in many cases an obsession with body shape and a physical ideal which can never be achieved.”

The politicians said they found events like this can lead to eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, which is kinda well known across the globe. We hear stories of women starving themselves, going on extreme diets, and other drastic measures which aren’t promoting a healthy ideal of beauty.

If beauty is measured by how white your teeth are, how big your breasts are, how tanned your skin is, how lean your muscles are, and how dyed your hair is, then we are looking at a very narrow and unrealistic notion.

“Beauty is not quantifiable. Therefore, to qualify and organize a competition based on this is discriminatory and violent,” said the politicians of Chivilcoy. They don’t want the women of their town growing up with a skewed view of what women are supposed to look like, and instead want to place emphasis on what they do, and what they have to offer those around them.

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They have come up with a replacement event which instead assesses women based on what they offer to their community. It is open to all women ages 15-30. If traditional beauty pageants are the ‘American Idol’ of the industry, having been around for many years, then these new community awards are ‘The Voice’ of beauty pageants, assessing women not just on their physical package, but the talent that lies behind.

“It’s a very important achievement. It has an enormous symbolic value. The municipal state made the decision, within the framework of this bill, to stop subjecting the women of Chivilcoy to the exhibition, objectification, and selection that beauty pageants imply, with the added bonus that instead they will promote other values that aim to encourage the construction of citizenship with a gender equality,” said Claudia Marengo of the local CTA branch.

Elsewhere around the world there are similar measures being taken, showing the growing dissatisfaction with the traditional mold of what beauty pageants represent. Both France and Russia ruled to ban underage children from entering pageants because of the hyper-sexualization they are introduced to.

In Uganda, the army has taken over running the local ‘Miss Uganda’ pageant which sounds a little weird and perhaps militaristic, but they are actually trying to achieve the same goal: getting people to value women for what they can do not what they look like. Since agriculture is a big deal in the country, the army has gotten rid of a lot of the superficial categories and implemented challenges where women have a chance to show off their farming skills, in a bid to encourage more Ugandan women to take up jobs that will help their economy.

More recently, chairwoman of the famous Miss World pageant Julia Morley told the press that from 2o15 onwards they are banning the swimsuit category as it takes away from the true value of a woman, which is what they actually want to focus on.

Well it seems the cards have been laid down, moves are being made, and we hope it is only a matter of time before the grand poo-bah of beauty pageants, Donald Trump, follows suit. He claims beauty is subjective and that looks are not everything in business, so let’s see if he really can put his money where his mouth is and be responsible for a whole new generation of women entering his and other beauty pageants because they want to show off whats in their head and heart, not on their chest.

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