Beauty Pageants: What People Look For In A Woman

The phrase, beauty pageant, almost invariably refers only to contests for women since similar events for men are called by other names and are more likely to be “bodybuilding” contests. History tells us that choosing symbolic kings and queens for certain festivities is an ancient custom in certain parts of the world where beautiful young women are selected to symbolize their nation’s virtues and other abstract ideas.

In beauty contests, efforts have been made to emphasize the different aspects of women and highlight their personal successes during the competitions, as against the earlier claims that the contests were trivial events whose interpretation required no scholarly effort. As is evident today, the organizers have put their best to give women the opportunity to rise to the top through such contests. In contrast, pageant participants themselves are made to return to their hometowns to promote community involvement.

Competitions like this, where most women are preferred more than others, found that rather than providing women with opportunities, beauty contests have gone a long way in hurting the prospects of other women who do not fit into the current cultural ideal of women’s beauty. Hence these contests are only meant to promote the idea that those who fit this ideal are “better” than those who do not. And some pageants require a swimsuit for a portion of the competition, which emphasizes the physical bodies of women, some claim in an undressed state.

The face of a pretty woman looms large in the background of any colorful canvas. People fail to understand today the word ‘Beauty’ because it is more than make-up. The pretty face isn’t the upshot of diligent external body care but the product of internal, balanced nutrition that only God, through His word, can give! Naturally, the body of a woman attracts attention.

There’s a message here for every beauty pageant contestant on the necessity of ‘inner beauty’ in her walk with God and work for the Saviour. The beauty of the woman is not the creation of make-ups that help conceal wrinkles and blemishes. Nor is it the presence of attractive men, elegant physique, or gorgeous gait. True beauty consists in an outward display of virtue and blameless conduct emanating from a pure heart.

The Scripture doesn’t applaud physical beauty as much as it praises Christian perfection created and sustained by the fear of God. In fact, it warns, “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised (Proverbs 31:30).

In the beginning, when God created the woman, there was no make-up. The first woman, Eve, was created perfectly with good looks and pure charm, for God had ensured that “everything that He had made…was perfect (Genesis 1:31). And Adam was satisfied to have Eve as his wife, saying, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh…” (Genesis 2:23). Mother Eve was beautiful, no doubt. But her beauty wasn’t limited to her physical appearance. Since everything God created was perfect, Eve must have been the epitome of virtue – holy, loving, caring, considerate, gentle, meek, kind, wise, prudent, and so forth (Galatians 5:22-23). Eve’s heart had no seed or root of sin. She was pure within and holy without until the devil entered the garden and tempted her. The entry of sin marred the purity of Eve and destroyed her beauty – the ability to live in holiness. Thus, while Eve still appeared beautiful outside, her heart had lost its original inclination to holiness; it was then aligned to evil. Eve developed the sin nature, and her real beauty was gone.

Organizers of beauty pageants pretend that they have eventually crowned beauty queens; the name was given to the winners of beauty contests, yet they have just done to reveal the ruined divine nature of womanhood. Going by what is seen today in such elaborate contests, human beings are only succeeding in mocking themselves by getting dressed in stolen materials. As a beauty queen, you, as well as all human beings, we’re born with the nature of sin, the propensity for rebellion, and the tendency to stray from God’s will and way (Psalm 51:5).