My friends Sophia and Yulisa are hosting a debate tournament ``I-Las''. The upcoming debate will be held some time between October 8th and October 9th with the motion ``This house believes that beauty pageants for women is actually empowering and not sexist.'' The following is Sophia's ``poster'' thing.
Hi！👋
My friend, Yulisa, and I organized an Online English Debate – I-Las.
🌟The upcoming debate will be held during October 8th to October 9th.
The motion is: Beauty pageants for women is actually empowering and not sexist.
We sincerely hope to see in our group chat or during the debate!
💭If you are interested, welcome to join the group and participate in us. You can be a debater and feel the thrilling crossfires, be a spectator and listen to other participants' views on the topic, or be the host and take on the responsibility of control the procedure of the debate and organizing it! We also encourage everyone to give comments and suggestions and to share ideas.
💭For each debate, we have different motions focusing on many international issues. We believe that through these activities we can all dig deeper into the problems and become ethical global citizens. Through these events, we can work collaboratively and develop critical thinking skills.
We sincerely hope that we can see you participating! ✨
🌟 Have fun! We hope that all can actively take part in these debates and that our activities can inspire you in all kinds of ways!
They have a WeChat QR code. (They don't seem to have a mailing list, sad.) You can nudge me, sophia07px2026 AT saschina DOT org and/or yma26 AT missporters DOT org for more information.
Note: A beauty pageant or beauty contest is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, talent, character, and charitable involvement, through private interviews with judges and answers to public on-stage questions. The term beauty pageant refers originally to the Big Four international beauty pageants. (Wikipedia.)
Copying more from the Wikipedia page, that I believe is relevant:
Critics of beauty pageants argue that such contests reinforce the idea that girls and women should be valued primarily for their physical appearance, and that this puts tremendous pressure on women to conform to conventional beauty standards by spending time and money on fashion, cosmetics, hair styling, and even cosmetic surgery. They say that this pursuit of physical beauty even encourages some women to diet to the point of harming themselves.
The London Feminist Network argues that rather than being empowering, beauty pageants do the opposite: denying women's full humanity by subjecting them to objectification, denying their full humanity by maintaining that their primary purpose is to be attractive.
Another criticism is in the way beauty pageant is quantifiably scored as highlighted by the "Myth of the Perfect 10". Beauty becomes a numerical coefficient in ranking contestants, and this type of scoring still remains followed as a system even in nationwide beauty pageants such as Miss America.
Researchers suggest that these events strengthen skills, such as interpersonal communications, self-assurance, and public speaking, which prove to be useful in future career paths.
Some critics claim that even after beauty pageants became diverse by the end of the 20th century, there is still this misconception that the ideal image of traditional beauty is a white woman.