At some point in our lives, we all become conscious of ourselves. Sometimes it is about our body weight, and other times it is about the color of our skin. This negative self-perception may be a result of low self-esteem, rigid social beauty standards, and extremely high expectations of oneself. Especially for women, they are always told to look a certain way and worry about their appearance as it’s going to get them an ‘ideal match’ in the future.

Have we ever paused and thought for a while that why, in this era of modernity and feminism (when individuality and humanism have become the only important ideals), are we trying to fit into the best form of everything? There is always this pressure to meet the expectations of others and society. And amidst fulfilling these expectations, we tend to forget about our individuality. Our identity and aspirations of self, get disoriented amidst already determined standards.

Adding to such discrimination and societal pressures are beauty contests. Almost all beauty contests tend to judge all the participants on the basis of a specific body type, physical features, and appearance. The most ironic fact about such competitions is that all these factors are natural and are solely determined by nature. And as Aristotle said centuries ago, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” It is really pointless to judge some people on the basis of purely natural physical characteristics.

Additionally, these beauty contests have serious negative effects on the mental health of the audience. The titles like “miss perfect smile”, “miss perfect eyes” tend to define how a woman’s physical features should be. They try to define a standard of beauty that must be met by everyone. Research on the same theme has suggested that such titles and contests make women feel underconfident and lower their self-esteem.