ACX703: Developing a Communication Research Project on Beauty Pageants

This essay critically examines the phenomenon of beauty pageants, exploring their evolution and significance within the context of fashion, social media, and YouTube. It delves into the influence of these platforms on contestants and the industry, highlighting the impact of fashion trends, cultural representation, and the role of social media in shaping public perception. The essay reviews existing literature, discussing the complexities of fashion's role, YouTube's influence, and the power of social media. It also identifies gaps in the current research, particularly concerning the criticisms and negative effects associated with these contests, such as the pressure on contestants, the objectification of women, and the impact of social media controversies. The essay concludes by summarizing key findings and the importance of this research in understanding the evolving role of beauty pageants in contemporary society.

Running head: DEVELOPING A COMMUNICATION RESEARCH PROJECT
DEVELOPING A COMMUNICATION RESEARCH PROJECT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The main aim of this essay will be to discuss about the beauty pageants or beauty
contests throughout the world. The focus will be on fashion, YouTube and the other social
media platforms as the influencer, and to find out the gap in those beauty pageants or beauty
contests held globally in the context of the above said topics. A beauty pageant or beauty
contest can be termed as a competition that has aimed on judgment and providing ranks on
the physical attributes or qualities of the contestants taking part on those competitions. The
modern beauty pageants also focus on the talent, intelligence, personality traits and answers
to the questions asked by the judges of those contests as the criteria required for judging the
contestants. The term beauty pageant mainly involves the contests involving women, for
example the Big Four international beauty pageants – Miss Earth, Miss World, Miss
International and Miss Universe. Different kind of rules and regulations are involved in these
contests, like the age of the contestants. They are usually multi-tiered, where the contestants
are find out from the local competitions held in different countries around the world. The
winner of these beauty contestants are usually called as beauty queen and the rankings
provided inn these contests are known as placements (Cohen 2015).
Literature Review
Fashion
Fashion can be termed as an aesthetic expression that is popular in a certain period of
time and context. It is related to clothes, shoes, lifestyle, makeup, hairstyle, accessories and
body proportions. Fashion is different from trend as trend is something that lasts for a shorter
span of time. Style is something that lasts for a longer period of time such as class, culture,
symbols etc. though the term fashion is related to costumes and clothes, both are different
from each other (Banet-Weiser 2013). Clothes refer the material or garments technically,

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while costumes refer to special senses like masquerade wear or fancy dress. Several global
brands want themselves to be labelled as haute couture. Sustainability has become a major
issue with increasing production of commodities at lower prices for consumers, brands and
politicians. The global fashion industry is a product of the modern society. Before the 19th
century, the clothes were basically custom-made (Besse 2014). Generally, it was like in a
form of order from tailors or dressmakers. With the advancement of technology and the
invention of the sewing machine, there has been a rise of global capitalism including the
development of factory production system. Departmental stores and retail outlets also came
into existence. Moving into detail, a beauty pageant is different from a fashion show. In a
fashion show, a fashion designer portrays his or her latest collections. Whereas in a beauty
pageant, female or male contestants are in a competition with each other. Here the main
competition remains based on beauty though the aspects of talent, intelligence and
personality is of equal importance. Therefore, fashion plays a vital role in case of such
competitions. The participants must be well aware of the latest trends and fashion. The
fashion should also be in accordance with the target market, whether men or women. Since it
is the case of a beauty pageant, the fashion must bring about the class, elegance of the
contestants and must be clear and comfortable. They must feel confident enough to carry
themselves in the dresses, accessories or footwear they are wearing. Self-pride brings about
self-esteem. In some beauty pageants it is necessary to represent one’s background, cultures
and community (Tice 2016). The contestants are generally very selective over what kind of
gowns they will wear because it is an anticipated segment of the competition. The judges and
even the audiences expect the participants to wear something that represents his or her
community and tradition. Though cultural fashions are more on focus in case of ethnic based
pageants, presenting one’s own culture in the forefront becomes a stylish asset. Just like
many other global industries, fashion has many drawbacks as well. The garment workers are

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exploited, there is a lack of diversity and also damage issues to the environment. The fashion
industry must do something more to address these problems and resolve them too. But in
spite of all the faults, fashion is capable of spreading any idea very powerfully and coherently
(Odine 2013).
YouTube
In today’s modern world, the power of YouTube cannot be underestimated. YouTube
has become a website for the masses while getting transformed form a platform of the young
teens. The top most fashion networks flourish on YouTube and has turned out to be
extremely successful while promoting brands. Without having a presence on YouTube, more
than ninety percent of fashion brands are unable to claim popularity. Therefore, the fashion
statements become successful on the YouTube through the streaming websites and channels.
The superior creativity level that is reflected by a fashion brand, has a direct impression on
the masses including the contestants of a beauty pageant. there are several relevant videos
that gives online training and guidance to become successful and win a beauty pageant
(Méndez 2016). The different beauty pageants held in various parts of the world, mainly the
Big Four international beauty pageants – Miss Earth, Miss World, Miss International and
Miss Universe, are often streamed live in the official YouTube channels, thus helping the
organizers to connect with a broader audience, who can follow the fashion used by the
participants around the globe and can follow them for their personal purposes. One thing can
be make sure that this overall system is mainly for the elite class people, who possess the
financial flexibility to purchase the fashion statements used by the participants of the beauty
contests. The management of this globally popular social media platform of YouTube often
enters into a partnership with the organizers of these beauty pageants so that the official live
streaming can be done through this social media platform only, where exclusive interviews of
the winner of these beauty contests can be viewed by thousands of followers around the

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world. The upcoming fashion designers can also have the opportunity to learn from this
social media platform about the details of fashion style and statements used by the
participants (Banet-Weiser 2015).
Influences of Social Media
Social media player a vital role in the modern life of the people. The number of tech-
savvy people are increasing day by day, which is helping the different social media platforms
to engage more number of people with their platforms. In the context of the topic of this
essay, social media platforms influence the fashion statement of the beauty pageants a lot.
The style statement of the contestants is often influenced on the recent social trends, and the
same thing happens when a particular beauty contest comes to an end and the regular social
media users reads and sometimes, follows the fashion users by the contestants. The makers of
the dresses worn by them in the beauty pageants are marketed in the official social media
accounts of them, in order to attract the people around the world and showcases and sale their
uses, worn by the participants of those contestants (Todorova 2014). Various artists or the
designers uses the social media platforms in order to showcase their upcoming fashion
details. Many personalities can share their views on the fashion style and statements used as
well as to be used in the beauty pageants all over the world. Many brands can market their
products used by the contestants on the social media platforms, just to target more number of
tech-savvy and elite class people, who are the main followers and buyers of their products.
Different social media platforms help to share the news related to fashion used by the
participants in the beauty pageants in and around the world. For example, the woman who
won the Miss World pageant or the woman who won the Miss Universe pageant in the
previous years are already famous due to the fashion statement they showcased in those
contests. The organisations engaged with the fashion worn by them shares the detailed news
by the help of different social media platforms, in order to attract lots of tech-savvy people,

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who waits eagerly for these news. Different blogs are written and shared in these social media
platforms, through which many aspirants get influenced to participate in these beauty
pageants (Wroblewski 2014). The same thing happens forb the rising fashion designers who
want to showcase their talent in those beauty contests. The same thing can be followed by the
experienced fashion designers as well, who can connect with the organizers of these beauty
pageants in order to get an entry to showcase the fashion designed by them, which can be
used by the participants of those beauty contests. The participants can also engage themselves
with the common people after participating in the different beauty pageants including the Big
Four international beauty pageants – Miss Earth, Miss World, Miss International and Miss
Universe, by sharing their overall experiences and struggles, which can motivate any young
talents who want to participate in those beauty pageants or want to enter the fashion industry
(Havlin and Báez 2018).
Literature Gap
It has been found from the above discussion as well as from the researches that the
beauty pageants or beauty contests are one of the most popular events held around the world.
But, there are criticisms also related to these beauty pageants. Many critics ignited the idea
that the women and the girls who are taking part in the beauty pageants should be mainly
valued for their physical characteristics or appearances only, which has put a lots of pressure
on the minds of those women and girls (Forero-Peña 2015). In order to look good, they spend
a lot of time as well as money on cosmetics, fashion, hair styling and even cosmetic surgery
to match the standards of conventional beauty. They also start to follow a diet, which actually
harms their own selves only. It has also been found by the social activists and the researchers
that all these beauty pageants deny the full empowerment or humanity of women and place
them as the subject of objectification, and sets that the only purpose of a woman s to look
attractive and nothing else. Beauty is transformed to a numerical coefficient, and this is still

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followed in the beauty pageants all over the world, including the Big Four international
beauty pageants – Miss Earth, Miss World, Miss International and Miss Universe. Apart from
these, the social media also possess some negative effects on the life of the participants of
these beauty pageants (Hutchings 2015). If some controversies occur on the platform of these
contests, the followers of these social media platforms start to criticize them harshly, which
impacts on the mindset of the participants, and that may lead to some serious life-taking risks
taken by the participants. The people, without knowing the truth or the real incident, start to
criticize the participants if anything happens within the beauty pageants. The platform of
YouTube also used as a media to upload and share some vulgar comments and videos related
to the participants or the beauty contests as a whole. Each of these things puts a bad image on
all these beauty pageants and the participants has to face lots of unwanted criticism and
comments due to unethical work of some people in the society (Gilbert 2015).
Conclusion
From all the above discussion, it can be concluded that these beauty contests or
beauty pageants helps to strengthen the skills of the participants, like self-assurance,
interpersonal communication and public speaking, which helps to build the future career
paths of the participants engaged with these platforms. Different social media platforms also
play an integral part in advancement of these events, where criticisms are also a part and
parcel which the participants have to face. There need to be proper rules and regulations
regarding posting and sharing the news related to these contests which should be strictly
followed by the social media followers as well as the management of these social media
platforms. This would help to safeguard the live of the participants of these beauty pageants
and encourage them to move further in their life.

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References
Banet-Weiser, S., 2013. Authentic: The politics of ambivalence in a brand culture. Canadian
Journal of Communication, 38, pp.443-454.
Banet-Weiser, S., 2015. Keynote address: Media, markets, gender: Economies of visibility in
a neoliberal moment. The Communication Review, 18(1), pp.53-70.
Besse, S.K., 2014. Defining a" national type:" Brazilian beauty contests in the
1920s. Estudios interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe, 16(1).
Cohen, C.B., 2015. Beauty pageants. The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality,
pp.113-196.
Forero-Peña, A., 2015. Of beauty and ‘beauties’. Body Image and Identity in Contemporary
Societies: Psychoanalytic, Social, Cultural and Aesthetic Perspectives, pp.104-114.
Gilbert, J., 2015. ‘Be Graceful, Patient, Ever Prayerful’: Negotiating Femininity, Respect and
the Religious Self in a Nigerian Beauty Pageant. Africa, 85(3), pp.501-520.
Havlin, N. and Báez, J.M., 2018. Introduction: Revisiting Beauty. WSQ: Women's Studies
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Hutchings, T., 2015. Christianity and digital media. In The Changing World Religion
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Méndez, D., 2016. Fictive identities on a diasporic ethnic stage: A “modern girl” consumed
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Odine, M., 2013. Role of social media in the empowerment of Arab women. Global Media
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Tice, K.W., 2016. The after-life of born-again beauty queens. In Mediating Faiths (pp. 121-
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