February 28, 2020

This past week in class we watched a documentary called “The World Before Her”. This documentary showed the increase popularity of beauty pagents in India, but also the increase of protests against these pagents. India is a male-dominated society, so criticism of beauty pagents is expected because women in the Indian society are suppose to be married by 18-years-old, stay in the house to clean and cook, and just please the husband. The uprising of women wanting to participate in beauty pagents is to boost their confidence and let them feel empowering. Many men argue that pagents are only to judge the external beauty of women with excessive skin showing. In the Indian culture, skin is barely shown by women, so the pagents are a scandelous idea for many. An article published at https://nypost.com/2020/02/26/woman-drops-112-pounds-wins-beauty-pageant-after-fiance-dumped-her-for-being-too-fat/ shows that a woman from the UK was bodyshamed and decided to take matters into her own hands and lose an incredible amount of weight and win Miss Great Britain. The pagent for Jen Atkin was an escape and motivation for her to become confident with her body. The women of India should not be oppressed to express themselves in any matter. There should not be an unspoken rule to be married by 18-years-old. Also, a women is a women no matter what. In India, many men think a woman is only a woman once she bears a child. The pagents give a new edge to the women of India striving for society change on the idea of women.