Local Context
As I presented on my issue to a freshmen class I realized that it has not been well presented to my local community. I was asked by a student what a beauty pageant was, I was surprised myself to realize that he wasn’t the only one that didn't understand what it is. They soon understood and found an example of a beauty pageant in our Latino culture which is “Nuestra Belleza Latina”. Furthermore, my peers are exposed to these beauty pageants through television but didn’t know much about the negativity and destruction that is behind closed doors of these pageants. If many of my community members are not aware of the effects of beauty pageants then this tells me that there are not many local activists in my community informing and addressing to its members of this issue. The questions I asked were if they support or oppose beauty pageants and if they think that beauty pageants affect the participants, the majority of the students at first supported and didn’t think it affected contestants. After my presentation many of their opinions had changed. For example, C.M said, “I oppose beauty pageants because they are worse than I thought. They end up with health problems just to entertain people.” This connects to the fact that my issue is not locally present; many are not well-informed about the dangers that come along with these pageants because they did not expect much harm from pageants. At first a student named Esteban felt opposed to beauty pageants and his response after my presentation was, “I do feel more opposed and more against beauty pageants.” This explains that after the knowledge they received at this day they are more informed and have more information on why they should be against beauty pageants. Nevertheless, if my community is educated about my issue, a bigger movement of people opposed to beauty pageants will prove that beauty pageants are harmful organizations.
As I presented on my issue to a freshmen class I realized that it has not been well presented to my local community. I was asked by a student what a beauty pageant was, I was surprised myself to realize that he wasn’t the only one that didn't understand what it is. They soon understood and found an example of a beauty pageant in our Latino culture which is “Nuestra Belleza Latina”. Furthermore, my peers are exposed to these beauty pageants through television but didn’t know much about the negativity and destruction that is behind closed doors of these pageants. If many of my community members are not aware of the effects of beauty pageants then this tells me that there are not many local activists in my community informing and addressing to its members of this issue. The questions I asked were if they support or oppose beauty pageants and if they think that beauty pageants affect the participants, the majority of the students at first supported and didn’t think it affected contestants. After my presentation many of their opinions had changed. For example, C.M said, “I oppose beauty pageants because they are worse than I thought. They end up with health problems just to entertain people.” This connects to the fact that my issue is not locally present; many are not well-informed about the dangers that come along with these pageants because they did not expect much harm from pageants. At first a student named Esteban felt opposed to beauty pageants and his response after my presentation was, “I do feel more opposed and more against beauty pageants.” This explains that after the knowledge they received at this day they are more informed and have more information on why they should be against beauty pageants. Nevertheless, if my community is educated about my issue, a bigger movement of people opposed to beauty pageants will prove that beauty pageants are harmful organizations.