HistoricalIn 1839, Scotland was the first to bring back an ancient tradition that chose one girl to be the “queen of beauty.” Fifteen years later in New York, Phineas Barnum used this idea and created his own pageants, in which Barnum eventually an important contributor to the pageant industry. According to PBS, ”in the 1850s, the ever-resourceful Barnum owned a "dime museum" in New York City that catered to the growing audience for commercial entertainment. In Barnum’s American Museum revealed a collection of beautiful ladies for viewing pleasure only.” (PBS).1 Through these contests, Barnum was the first to inspire the idea of Miss America. After receiving great amounts of attention, the photo contests began to appear across the country and the number of participants dramatically increased. The contests attracted wide attention and numerous audiences. In 1921 beach resorts began to hold regular beauty pageants as entertainment. According to researchers from Princeton University, “Atlantic City, New Jersey hotel owners desire[d] to stage a fall festival to encourage tourism past Labor Day. The festivals include[d] a National Beauty Pageant Tournament (NBPT), with the winner to be titled "Miss America.” 2 This proves that places began to use beauty pageants as a sources of entertainment and encouraged young contestants to take part of these events to gain money by attracting tourists.
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Early beauty pageants incorporated Barnum’s ideas and switched from photo to live beauty contests while still promoting the idea of the ‘perfect, beautiful woman.’ In 1921 Margaret Gorman a 16-year-old from Washington, D.C., was crowned the first Miss America. By 1923 the average beauty contestants would include seventy participants. Due to the economic problems occurring because of the Great Depression, The Miss America Pageant was discontinued from 1929 to 1932. When beauty pageants first began the contestants were between 13 and 17 year old. However, by early 1960s numbers began to increase, in 1964 there were over 35,000 participants, causing an increase on age division for participants. The modern child beauty pageant emerged in the early 1960s, held in Miami, Florida.
Due to the increase of participants, businesses began to increase their profit by charging an entrance fee to contestants, accumulating a range of $17,500,000 yearly just from entry fees. Nadine Deninno, author of “The High Cost of Beauty Pageants” (2014) makes it clear that beauty pageants incur high costs for the participants. For the contestants: “Pageants also charge an entry fee that can range from $300 to $500, Gravel said, though some pageants can cost as much as $1,000 to enter.”3
Due to the increase of participants, businesses began to increase their profit by charging an entrance fee to contestants, accumulating a range of $17,500,000 yearly just from entry fees. Nadine Deninno, author of “The High Cost of Beauty Pageants” (2014) makes it clear that beauty pageants incur high costs for the participants. For the contestants: “Pageants also charge an entry fee that can range from $300 to $500, Gravel said, though some pageants can cost as much as $1,000 to enter.”3
During this time period, women began to speak about the misrepresentation from the media. Although beauty pageants started in 1921, its peak started in the 1960s. During this time period women fought to receive the same equality that was given to men and allow women to have control over their body and the protection from physical and mental abuse. This was known as the “second-wave” starting from 1960 ending in 1980. The Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was approved in 1920 which was known as the “first-wave” of feminism”. To raise social awareness about the issue, women began to protest outside the pageants. This social feminist movement was known as the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960s. Alice Echols, in her book Nothing Distant About It (1995), mentions that “Women fought for their rights not to symbolize “beauty objects” or “sex objects.” In 1968, 100 women protested the Miss America Beauty Pageant because it promoted “physical attractiveness and charm as the primary measures of a woman’s worth,” especially the swimsuit portion of the contest.”4 Women were used as an object and dehumanized. Their talents were overlooked and disclosed from any privileges that were granted to men. Through their social voice women began to speak about the misrepresentation that was portrayed in the media to its audience
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