Beauty pageants are contests which attract a certain amount of controversy, especially when it comes to those which have excluded people from taking part. Looking at contests today The Miss Guinee North America Scholarship Pageant would not have existed in the early days of pageants.

The Miss America pageant has a record of excluding women of color from participating and it was in the 1930′s that this became a formal rule in the official Miss America rule book. By the 1960′s there was still no black contestant and by this time black Americans had set up their own contest due to advances in the civil rights movement.

Thankfully times have changed and now pageants are much more inclusive and contests like the Miss Guinee North America Scholarship Pageant exist.

So, is the bad press for beauty pageants justified, particularly now that all things are equal in terms of who can enter them? The organisers of the Miss Guinee North America Scholarship Pageant would disagree as they know that there is much more to the contest than just being about beauty. The struggle is in finding a way to convey this to those on the outskirts or those who don’t think that they can or should enter?

One way is to look at the output of the pageants themselves – in other words what happens as a result of the event. The Miss Guinee North America Scholarship Pageant is evidence of much hard work on behalf of both contestants and organisers in bettering lives in North America and Africa. The ethos behind this pageant is very much about investing in the young and those most in need in order to help build a better future. The Miss Guinee North America Scholarship Pageant believes in providing education for those who can’t easily get it in order that they get a better start in life. With such good and honest intentions it is hard to criticise an event no matter what people’s pre-conceived ideas may be.

It is difficult not to look at pageants based on their poor image of old particularly surrounding race. However, like anything history is to be learned from and now the contests are about so much more than beauty. Especially where scholarships are concerned pageants like the Miss Guinee North America Scholarship Pageant are a lot more to do with encouraging personal development of participants than anything else.

Girls taking part in the Miss Guinee North America Scholarship Pageant are faced with situations that require them to behave with poise, speak confidently and move gracefully. The organisers and supporters would argue that this actually benefits girls into becoming well rounded individuals, developing and nurturing invaluable life skills in contestants.

Pageants require contestants to take on a social cause that means something to them. Far from being as broad as ‘world peace’ or as narrow as discussing the benefits of home contents insurance only, the topics contestants choose these days are meaningful and commendable. As such, pageants provide a platform for many charities and projects to gain recognition and as a result have monies raised for them. In particular the Miss Guinee North America Pageant uses these social causes as a great way for contestants to be able to give something back to their community and the contest encourage their contestants to work with their communities in this way.

It can be said that pageants of old had a small minded and blinkered approach and this is probably where the majority of the bad press stems from. However, it has to be acknowledged that today’s pageants, such as the Miss Guinee North America Scholarship Pageant, play an important role in continuing the tradition of pageants but with a modern day twist to ensure their longevity.

By Lynda Jones for Miss Guinee North America. All rights reserved.

 

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