The second (runner up) sex: a de Beauvoirian analysis of beauty pageants

Date

2021

Degree

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy

College

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS)

Abstract

With the nature of beauty pageants as contents that entail the judgment and ranking of women based on their appearances, beauty pageants remain one of the bases of the beauty discourse within feminism. This thesis is an attempt at providing a philosophical viewpoint to the issue of beauty pageants, through the lens of Simone de Beauvoir's major philosophical concepts. More specifically, I applied de Beauvoir's work The Second Sex to offer a critique of beauty pageants, through utilizing her concepts of the Second Sex, the Other, and beauty standards in analyzing the nature of beauty pageants. I argued that, in spite of how they can be seen as a platform for women to express themselves, beauty pageants are still responsible for reinforcing the status of women as the Second Sex, consequently assisting in the Othering of women. These take place through pageants' essentially demeaning treatment of women, both in how it criticizes how women exhibit themselves, as well as "behind the scenes", particularly with cases of sponsors committing acts of sexual misconduct against participants. In addition, I argued that pageants are partly responsible not only for the reinforcement of beauty standards set by men on women, but the creation of new ones as well. To address its problems, I suggested a reformation of beauty pageants which would instead highlight the ideas and practice of feminism to push it further into the mainstream, and ideally, to make feminism "beautiful", in the sense that it would become something that women of all backgrounds would strive for.

Notes

BA Philosophy Best Thesis, 2021

Document Type

Thesis

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