Abstract:
The ideal body and beauty of a “universal” and “world” woman has defined and
standardized as slim, tall, fair, blonde, blue-eyed, etc. by the global media. Through
out the world women are so much concern of their beauty and the body. The
capitalist society is manufacturing beauty queens; it creates competition within
one’s own territory using definitions of ideal femininity/womanliness. This study
mainly focused on the social impact of beauty pageants held locally and
internationally and on women programmes which promote beauty of a woman. The
global market has been promoting the concept of “fairness”, targeting the women
who are having dark complexion, and ultimately fairness becomes an ideal type'Of
the beauty of a woman. Nowadays even for the marriage and for some special
professions such as airhostess, receptionist, society preferred this ideal model.
Matrimonial pages in Sunday newspapers in Sri Lanka and India are the one of the
good evidences which proved how the fairness becomes important when choosing a
bride, especially in South Asian countries.
Some of the data which have gathered through advertisements telecast on Sri
Lankan television and Indian TV channels also proved that most of the cosmetics
promote so called beauty of a woman. Therefore, it is not a gift of nature; it could
be manufactured through these productions. Her nature of beauty is defined by the
patriarchal society and its culture. Based on that this study concludes beauty
pageants are one of the main sources which highlight beauty of women and lead the
global market to get women as their main consumers. These pageants make women
as a separate group within its homogeneity group and results of which create new
issue within the same group. Beauty pageants become a public domain for
auctioning the beauty of women. Therefore, this socially constructed beauty of
woman becomes a dominant concept in the society and the concept of “beauty”
dehumanizes women as a group further marginalizing from their rights.