Every year, different beauty pageants are promoted in the country to crown young ladies as well as open many doors that would lead to advancement, be it educational, financial and in most cases, social. Pageants such as Miss Malaika, Miss Ghana and Ghana's Most Beautiful, among several others have even become fixtures on the social calendar since their inception.
These pageants have not only become a form of entertainment, but also a topic for debate in many forums.
The first time I watched a beauty pageant was in 1994 and, as I watched the different ladies from the different regions in Ghana during the talent part, the first noticeable thing was that these ladies were helping the tourism industry by promoting the culture of the various regions that they represented. Looking at pageants from this angle paints a positive picture since promoting tourism brings in more visitors which also acts as a boost for the economy.
The prize package for winners often include scholarships, laptops, wardrobes for 1 year and a spot in an international beauty pageant that has a linkage to that particular pageant. Winners are also given the responsibility of picking issues that affect society and finding ways of improving upon the subject of concern.
Pageants may also help in boosting the confidence of the ladies since they do go through intense interview sessions during these pageants.
However, is the price that these ladies have to pay to become beauty queens worth it? The first question I keep asking is why these ladies have to wear swimsuits on stage. Some may say that it boosts their self confidence since it takes a lot of courage to model one's self half naked to a crowd of about 1000 people. But honestly, doesn't that rather put pressure on these ladies to have a certain body type or weight which may not suitable for them?
I remember watching the Miss Ghana beauty pageant auditions about a year or two years ago and gasping in shock as one of the judges told an already slim girl that she needed to lose some more weight. My God! Do we want anorexics as beauty queens or what?
These ladies who want to be queens of beauty would only resort to bad eating habits which, in the long term could have devastating medical effects on them.
Now that doesn't imply that all contestants have eating disorders. You must agree that some of these ladies push themselves to the edge in order to achieve the kind of results required by these pageants.
Don't these pageants look at pretty faces? Why did Kate Menson of Face of Africa have to lose weight in order to win.
I think its time Africans stop following the people of the Western world blindly. Pageants that promote education, tourism and the development of self esteem are highly lauded. However, organisers of pageants that force women to kill themselves slowly just to be in the spotlight should restructure their requirements. After all, even the slim ones couldn't tell us what Euthanasia was.
I end here.
These pageants have not only become a form of entertainment, but also a topic for debate in many forums.
The first time I watched a beauty pageant was in 1994 and, as I watched the different ladies from the different regions in Ghana during the talent part, the first noticeable thing was that these ladies were helping the tourism industry by promoting the culture of the various regions that they represented. Looking at pageants from this angle paints a positive picture since promoting tourism brings in more visitors which also acts as a boost for the economy.
The prize package for winners often include scholarships, laptops, wardrobes for 1 year and a spot in an international beauty pageant that has a linkage to that particular pageant. Winners are also given the responsibility of picking issues that affect society and finding ways of improving upon the subject of concern.
Pageants may also help in boosting the confidence of the ladies since they do go through intense interview sessions during these pageants.
However, is the price that these ladies have to pay to become beauty queens worth it? The first question I keep asking is why these ladies have to wear swimsuits on stage. Some may say that it boosts their self confidence since it takes a lot of courage to model one's self half naked to a crowd of about 1000 people. But honestly, doesn't that rather put pressure on these ladies to have a certain body type or weight which may not suitable for them?
I remember watching the Miss Ghana beauty pageant auditions about a year or two years ago and gasping in shock as one of the judges told an already slim girl that she needed to lose some more weight. My God! Do we want anorexics as beauty queens or what?
These ladies who want to be queens of beauty would only resort to bad eating habits which, in the long term could have devastating medical effects on them.
Now that doesn't imply that all contestants have eating disorders. You must agree that some of these ladies push themselves to the edge in order to achieve the kind of results required by these pageants.
Don't these pageants look at pretty faces? Why did Kate Menson of Face of Africa have to lose weight in order to win.
I think its time Africans stop following the people of the Western world blindly. Pageants that promote education, tourism and the development of self esteem are highly lauded. However, organisers of pageants that force women to kill themselves slowly just to be in the spotlight should restructure their requirements. After all, even the slim ones couldn't tell us what Euthanasia was.
I end here.
