Date: February 3, 2017

Participants

(From 12 countries)

Teams

Panel PRO (Team A): Toufaiq, Amin, Mohit, Kratika, Djamila

Panel CON (Team B): Usaid, Fandy, Zivar, Hastin Elham, Sara, Ayush

Audience (Team C): Seif, Johny, Rojhano, Nikki, Jobair, Alireza

Just Listening: Tibi, Behnam, Sersh, Karim

Host: Rick

Co-Host: Johny

Team A summary

Amin: it depends on the beauty criteria. Some women use their beauty to get jobs. It has nothing to do with their dignity. Women use make up to draw attention. They just compete, the contests does not necessarily focus only on their beauty. Some women even go to these contests to fortify their dignity.

Mohit: if we look good, we will be confident and we feel we can achieve many things in life. If we look good, our partner can be more attracted to us.

Kratika: it's a place where women can show more than just body. They can demonstrate the way they think and the way they live their lives. Women don’t do anything wrong in these contests. It gives them chance to show their talents. They can build confidence because beauty is not only for women. Beauty is just one more tool and it depends on how you want to use it.

Djamila: we are not talking about children, we talk about adults and it is their decision, no one forces them. It can help to build self-confidence and contestants can learn a lot from these contests. It’s not always about being beautiful, it’s about commitment, being organized, having long term projects and personality. People should look at it as an opportunity to socialize. People can be beautiful but these contests are a window to new opportunities for jobs and other things. In many case it helps women.

Team B summary

Usaid: we cannot replace the natural things and if we do it, it will not reflect who we are.

Elham: Objectifying women, treating women like object and judging which object is better. Who defines beauty? What motivates women to attend these contests? It could be for entertainment. It's like judging a book by its cover.

Sara: why people admire women's beauty? I prefer being admired for my culture or other factors, not for my external appearance. Beauty pageants do not improve women's dignity and self-confidence. Beauty pageants only judge people by their appearance. Young participants only learn that "looks" is equal to "success". They spend a lot of money in make ups and hair extensions and traveling around in order to participate. They also suffer from depression, stress, and eating disorders when they participate.

Fandy: many children are raised to participate in these beauty pageants. It's a cheap activity, because there are better ways to display yourself instead of show up your beauty. It's a kind of discrimination. If you can do something then you can do something. Having a skinny child does not define beauty. It spoils the actual talent of the person.

Zivar: setting beauty standards on physical attributes is arguable. It denigrates women by focusing only on their external beauty. Some beauty pageants show participants doing charity works. It's not fair to judge people based upon their beauty because some people were not born with such bliss.

Hasting: women are treated as inanimate objects.

Ayush: beauty is not the only tool to use to be successful.

Team C summary

Johny: Team b did not do a research, beauty pageants are not only about physical appearance.

Rojhano: if men show their beauty, nobody would blame them. We may not know their personal reasons for why these women participate in these contests but it may not be for the reasons we think they do.

Jobair: Team A was more prepared with more information about the topic. Getting a job does not always depend on whether you are beautiful or not. Even if we do not talk about children, they are affected by this. They learn that beauty plays an important role in society. This is dangerous to society.

Nikki: it's a woman's choose to participate in these contests, it's her self-esteem what will dictate if it will damage her dignity or not. Self-confidence is not the same as self-esteem. It’s up to each woman to face the judges because it was them who chose to participate.

Votes

Johny: Team A.
Alireza: Team A.
Jobair: Team A.
Nikki: Team A.

Team A won this debate. Thanks everyone for participating. Below are the links to listen to this discussion.

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