ashleyhonrado

[ashleyhonrado]

Do beauty pageants promote empowerment in women?

What comes to your mind when you hear the word pageant? For me, the first thing that came to my mind was a lineup of stunning women wearing long and sparkling gowns where women compete fiercely to be the most attractive, intelligent, and all-rounded lady. As many people know, beauty pageant is a popular tradition that rank women according to both their appearance and intelligence. But have you ever wondered how exactly these pageant began?

Due to the fact that people have always valued beauty, beauty pageants can be traced back to ancient times. It started in Ancient Greece, in the city of Troy. A selection panel comprised of men from variety of fields, such as public speakers, warriors, philosophers, actors, poets, and sculptors, judged the contest. At that time, beauty pageants were a fantastic source of amusement for many people. Ancient China and the Ottoman Empire also held these pageants. In 1839, there was also a pageant in Scotland called the Eglington Tournament, where a winner was crowned by a beautiful woman, and the winner recieved the title of "Queen of Beauty." While in the United States, they are said to have first taken place in Atlantic City, when hoteliers decided to hold a festival to attract, summer tourists. It all started with the "National Beauty Toumament" held on the beach to determine which woman looked the best in a swimsuit.

This clearly shows that in ancient times, the term "beauty pageant" perpetuated the belief that women should only be appreciated for their physical appearance But as we evolve, the concept of beauty pageants has also taken on new dimensions and has the potential to empower women by showcasing their genuine identities on stage, since pageants have the opportunity to strengthen their public speaking skills, gain the self-confidence that that is necessary to communicate with a large of audience, and inspire the next generation with the charities that they support. The fact that today's candidates participate in charitable activities makes them excellent models for younger girls. There's no doubt that the women of this generation have more than just a pretty face.

Although it cannot be denied that the earlier versions of beauty pageants have been degrading to the participants, the organizers attempted to showcase the youthful, feminine, and innocent appearance of their female contestants by imposing strict age and weigh restrictions on them. Fortunately, old beauty standards that are no longer accepted by our modern society are also gradually being abandoned by beauty pageants one of the best example is Miss Universe 2019, Zozibini Tunzi, a black woman with afro hair she became the first in the history of the pageant to win with afro- textured hair, which represents an acknowledgement of black beauty on the international stage with beauty contests historically dominated by lighter-skinned contestants and long hair being equated to femininity and beauty, Tunzi challenged patriarchal prescriptions for what an ideal beautiful woman should look like. Another example is miss universe Nepal 2023, the first plus-size woman to enter the Miss universe pageant. Proving that beauty has no single standard and all women, regardless of cize or shape, deserve to be represented and celebrated in the beauty industry.

These beautiful women's brave participation reasonates as a message of transformation and openness in the perception of beauty, contributing to the creation of a more accepting space in the pageant industry and even in our society, as they represent who they truly are. Because joining a beauty pageant doesn't only require beauty from the outside but also beauty inside our hearts. As Miss universe 2015, Pia Wurtzbach said, "I am confidently beautiful with a heart."

In conclusion, beauty pageants serve the purpose of providing society with intelligent and gorgeous girls who captivates people with their captivating appearance and passionate desire to improve the world. Pageants play a significant role in empowering women, giving women the opportunity to take on these responsibilities and participate in numerous charities that are vital to the development of the nation or world. One more reason is that beauty pageants provide an excellent tool for girls to express themselves, as these competitions help them go deeper and explore their potential by helping them discover their unique quality and their capacity to improve the world. Beauty pageants also provide a place for discussing current issues, including drug abuse, climate change, and underage pregnancies. This clearly shows that beauty pageants empower all the women around the world, preparing them to be successful as well as providing them the voice and platform to be advocates for younger generations and grow into a successful and impactful queen of society around the world.

REFERENCES

The evolution of “Beauty” – How pageants have changed over time. (n.d.). https://ascjcapstone.com/terms/spring-2020/fmwillia/

Tessmevah. (2014, March 2). The history of beauty pageants. A Little Shred of History. https://tessmevah.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/the-history-of-beauty-pageants/

Livemint. (2023, November 18). Miss Nepal Jane Dipika Garrett makes history as first plus-size model in Miss Universe | Mint. Mint. https://www.livemint.com/news/world/miss-nepal-jane-dipika-garrett-makes-history-as-first-plus-size-model-in-miss-universe-11700302233721.html

#woman empowerment #beauty #pageants #woman

[ashleyhonrado]

Minsan may isang puta

“Minsan may isang puta” is a literary work by Mike Portes. She wrote this short story in 2004 and continues to be one of Filipinos’ most-read articles. The author used vulgar words in this piece, which really help to let the reader feel the emotions the author wants to convey, and the title itself really catches the reader’s interest. The author also used a literary device, which we call a metaphor, in which a word or phrase denoting one kind of object or action is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them.

When you read it from the start, you will think that it is the story of a prostitute woman who is adored by many people because they believe she is the most beautiful and popular person in their area. As she treated those people with respect, they didn’t return the favor. The woman is being sexually abused by the three foreigners and focuses on the influence of one of these foreigners on the woman’s life and her children. It is stated here that their lives begin to change for the better when the American foreigner comes into their lives, but this foreigner is slowly killing and breaking her apart. That’s why she decided to push the foreigner out of their lives. But after, their lives started to fall apart; she became buried in debt, some of her children became successful in other countries, some stayed with her, dragging each other down due to their personal agendas, and some started to turn their backs on her.

 

But when you come into the last part, where the first person introduces herself in the line “Pilipinas nga pala”, you will realize that the story is not about the prostitute woman; it is really about our country, the Philippines. The author used the prostitute woman to represent our country, which is the Philippines, which is really beautiful and is adored by many countries due to its natural resources. The three foreigners, which represent countries like Spain, Japan, and America, colonized us and abused our natural resources. And her children, which represent us Filipinos. As you noticed, just like stated in the piece, despite the fact that Americans abused our country’s natural resources, we can’t deny the fact that they really helped us. As the Americans helped the Filipinos rise from the lowest economy to slowly recovering and gaining more and more economic growth, they also established a public education system and introduced the English language that we are still using in the present time to communicate with different people around the world. But after the American period, just like what happened in the life of a woman, our country’s economy fell. Many Filipinos decided to work abroad. Some stayed here, competing with one another and dragging down their fellow Filipinos due to their personal agendas.

The author wanted to tell us that our country, which is speaking and telling her story, experienced and is still experiencing crises in the present time, and that she couldn’t bear them anymore. The author wants us to realize that our country is asking for help, but we Filipinos just ignored it. This provoked readers to consider the notion that not only the government should change but also each and every individual who is living in the Philippines.

The author reached the maximum amount of intensity in this short story. As the author really did a good job in giving every detail in each scene and making sure that each scenario has a deep meaning. This literary work also showed external conflict because the main character is fueled by her desire to be free from all the suffering that she has been experiencing

[ashleyhonrado]

Equality

The poem titled "Equality" was released in 1990 by the author Maya Angelou an American poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression the issue of equality for women and people of color is frequently discussed.

The core idea behind this poem's content is to address the reader's thoughts regarding the racial and gender disparities that exist between whites and blacks, as well as to put an end to the inequality that exists in her nation. In the line "Equality and I will be free," this poem wants to emphasize that the author wants to be free from racism and how she wants everyone to be treated equally. The line "Remove the blinders from your vision, take the padding from your ears" shows how effective the metaphor of blinders and padding is for people who would like to deny an unpleasant reality. The speaker wishes for everyone to recognize the issue of inequality in her country. The speaker wants everyone to understand the problem in order to face it and take action.

This poem addresses the issues of inequality and discrimination that black people, particularly black women, experience in African-American communities. As well as the issue of black women's perceptions and sexualization by men.

Maya Angelou used different literary devices that made the poem full of impact for the readers. She used the metaphor of a bird as a woman, such as "I fly from man to man." The poem shows symbols such as glass, drums, and rhythms, shadows, blinders, and paddings to represent different things. The poem also shows the use of refrains that makes the poem full of impact with the line "Equality, and I will be free." It uses a Persian stanza having four verses, or what we call quatrains. She also refers to a historical pattern of oppression, and she succeeded in persuading the readers regarding the racism and gender inequality that's happening in their nation because of her wise lines from the poem. Reading the poem managed to open the eyes and fuel the mind of the reader to speak up for their rights as women and to be treated equally as human beings, just like Maya Angelou did when something was wrong. To get things right and change people's perceptions of what was wrong was the key that made her successful in persuading the audience. Angelou did not only influence women of color but the whole world as well.

 

The issues presented in the poem awakened my mind and heart to how important it is to have equality between everyone in our nation, and it made me think about how ready I am to defend those who are treated differently. This poem inspires students like me to have the courage to step up and speak up like Maya Angelou did since this issue is really relevant in our country, where many ethnic groups are the center of discrimination due to the lack of knowledge of some Filipinos.

#equality

[ashleyhonrado]

Israel-Palestine Conflict

Do you agree with Brock Chisholm when he said, "No one wins a war". Yes, there are different levels of loss, but nobody wins.

The act of war, as many perceive it, occurs when two parties engage in hostile behavior that swiftly develops into a full-fledged conflict in which both parties devote all of their resources to completely destroying the other side in an effort to completely defeat the other. .  The violent and militaristic nature of war itself ensures that the spilling of blood and the loss of human life are inevitable. Just like what is happening now between Palestine and Israel, the Israel-Palestine conflict took the lives of so many innocent people. According to the most recent updates as of today, October 16, 2023, the Israel-Hamas War has resulted in over 1228 fatalities and over 3,000 injuries in Israel. In Gaza (Palestine), there have been around 1400 deaths and 8583 injuries so far in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Given how many people have died and been injured as a result of this fight, it is evident that no one in Israel or Palestine wins.

To understand the present-day ongoing bloody conflict between Israel and Palestine, It is essential to comprehend the history of the region and the people connected to it in order to comprehend the current.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the fact that in 1850, neither Jews nor Arabs viewed themselves as members of an ethnically, culturally, linguistically homogeneous, territorially grounded nation in the modern sense of the word, and yet, within less than one hundred times, both peoples had developed such strong public ties to the same piece of land that they felt doomed to ever unmask the blood of their fellow heirs in a nonstop battle for supremacy.

The Ottoman Empire reigned over Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land until the end of World War I, when the UK, one of the war's winners, seized possession. During this time, Jewish immigration from Europe to what was then known as Mandatory Palestine surged dramatically, particularly in the 1930s due to Nazi persecution of Jews. Resistance to Jewish immigration and increasing Arab nationalism sparked an uprising in the late 1930s. In order to prevent Arab-Jewish violence, a British panel advocated splitting Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish, in 1937. In 1947, the United Nations adopted a different partition proposal. Both measures were rejected by the Arabs, resulting in Israel's declaration of independence and the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. During that time, more than 500,000 Arab refugees were created.

Several religious factors also pertinent to Islam and Judaism mandate the part of religion as the main factor in the conflict, specially including the saintship of holy spots and the climactic narratives of both persuasions, which are mischievous to any eventuality for lasting peace between the two sides. Extremely devout Zionists in Israel are getting more and more strict when it comes to any concessions made to the Arabs because they consider themselves as the defenders and definers of how the Jewish state should be. On the other hand, Islamist associations in Palestine and other corridor of the Islamic world promote the need to liberate the" holy" places and places of deification for religious purposes and spread violence andanti-Semitism against Israel and the Jewish people.

The issue was compounded by Israel's occupation of additional regions in 1967. Israel took control of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and the Golan Heights in Syria, establishing settlements there. Israel also overran Lebanon in 1978 and 1982, occupying the southern region of the country for a very long time. These conflicts and occupations exacerbated the political crises surrounding the Palestine issue and were tied to it. Even after Israel eventually left Egypt and Lebanon, the occupation of Palestine (and the Golan) persisted. Israel's construction of settlements and a vast border wall that encircled large portions of Palestinian territory have made it much harder to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Positive advances have been hard to come by in the current depressing Israeli-Palestinian environment. In contrast, the preliminary clearance for the development of the Gaza Marine gas reserves announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June offered a rare sight of a potential win-win scenario. It might give the struggling Palestinian authority and the Palestinian people a much-needed boost. On the Israeli side, it enables the Netanyahu administration to assert that it is helping to improve living conditions in Gaza and might result in less U.S. criticism on problems like settlement development. In the grand scheme of things, this is yet another illustration of how energy is increasingly becoming a focus for potential win-win deals in the East Mediterranean.

In recent times, the US, the European Union, and other Western nations have unanimously denounced the assaults by Hamas against Israel. Israel's closest ally, the US, has provided the Jewish state with more than $260 billion in economic and military assistance over the years and has pledged to continue doing so. A carrier, other ships, and jets were also announced as being sent to the eastern Mediterranean. While, both China and Russia have declined to denounce Hamas and claim to be in constant communication with both sides of the crisis. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has attributed the lack of Middle Eastern peace to US strategy. And on the other side, Iran, a major regional power, is a major ally of Hamas as well as of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, another local adversary of Israel.

REFERENCES:

Meghna. “Who Supports Palestine and Who Supports Israel: Allies and Adversaries.” IIT Notable Alumni, 13 Oct. 2023, iitnotablealumni.com/who-supports-palestine-and-who-supports-israel-allies-and-adversaries.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Six-Day War | Definition, Causes, History, Summary, Outcomes, and Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Jan. 2009, www.britannica.com/event/Six-Day-War.

Beyer, Lisa. “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict History: The Roots of the Israel-Hamas War.” Bloomberg.com, 16 Oct. 2023, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-13/israeli-palestinian-conflict-history-the-roots-of-the-israel-hamas-war.

United States Institute of Peace. “Israel and the Palestinian Territories.” United States Institute of Peace, www.usip.org/regions/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-palestinian-territories.

#Palestine #Israel #Conflict