Beauty contests have been around for more years than I’ve been on this planet. I grew up watching “Miss America”, and although this never spurred me to want to jump into the beauty contest limelight, as do believe that saying a Beauty Contest is sexist is probably one of the most absurd things I’ve heard in a very long time.

First, all of the women who enter these pageants do so on a VOLUNTEER basis…no one is going to the doors of women across American and forcing them at knife-point to join such a contest. People choose, of their own volition, to partake in these contests, and many of them are nationally televised events, which means that there are MANY people who enjoy watching them.

Many people will say that the reason these pageants are sexist is because they can only be entered into by “women”…well, there are plenty of things that only “men” can do as well. You won’t see a woman in the “Mr. Universe” contest, just as you won’t see a man in the “Miss America” contest. There are different genders on this planet, and until we start celebrating the difference between these genders, we are never going to be able to experience the true joy of who we are as individuals, which does include our sex.

There will also be those people who say that many young girls are forced into “pageant life” by there parents, and therefore we should expose them for their sexist natures. Parents get their children into sports, pageants, clubs, groups…this is something that the majority of them do to better their children’s lives. When I was 5 years old my mother put me into a local Beauty Pageant, I won “First Runner Up” out of about 50 kids, but I didn’t take to it, so she kept trying different things until she got me on the back of my first horse and knew that she’d found something I truly loved. I participate in that sport to this day.

To say that a Beauty Contest is sexist is to say that the Westminster Dog Show is discriminating against cats…it just doesn’t make sense. If you don’t like the idea of pageants, then don’t watch them.