Eating Disorders And Beauty Pageants

A beauty contest is a competition based on the physical attributes of the contestants though talent, personality and question responses are also judged. These contests are seeing a downslide in popularity in most countries for treating women as objects and encouraging girls to eat less and less. Women who aim to take part in beauty pageants or those who have already won continue to diet to the point of harming themselves. Most models and beauty queens suffer from some form of eating disorder. Anorexia (deliberate weight loss) and bulimia (binge eating) are the two main eating disorders prevalent among these women. People who suffer from anorexia nervosa are driven by the fear of being fat and indulge in deliberate weight loss, often leading to death. Even when anorexics are thin, they consider themselves too fat. A low self-esteem causes them to fear even taking a small amount of food. Bulimia nervosa is binge eating that recurs following a pattern. It is followed by guilt, crash dieting and over-exercising. After a binge eating, bulimics try to control themselves by purging the food through vomiting or laxatives. They have extreme habits of both eating and exercising. Other eating disorders include obsessive compulsive overeating or OCO, Orthorexia nervosa and selective eating disorder. Looks are actually what count in beauty pageants. Since beauty queens are supposed to be thin they are always conscious of what they eat. Even an occasional indulgence in good food results in a guilt complex. Surprisingly, others appreciate the reed-thin looks of models, thus encouraging their neurotic behaviour. Most girls enter the beauty arena at a young age. In the process, eating disorders set in early leading to various health set backs and often nervous breakdowns. Being forced into a competition, whether the child likes it or not, hampers the confidence of the child. Moreover, she has to always look pretty, wear make-up and behave in an adult manner. Naturally, these children suffer from mental problems like low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders. Most of these girls are tall but have a low body mass index or BMI. Malnutrition sets in their body sometimes at the young age of 14 or 16. Eating disorders are a manifestation of a faulty relationship with food developed right from childhood. Typically, these models are insecure and do not know how to deal with either success or failure. Success goes into their heads while failure breaks them. Medicines usually never work on these people until and unless they manage their minds. Ideally, beauty contestants should be healthy role models. But that's very rarely the case. Most models have knobby backbones, stringy necks and well-defined rib cages. Young, fashion-conscious girls who blindly follow these waifs would, probably, no longer consider them role models after seeing their awful conditions up close. Now, though, many previous pageant winners are coming forward to confess their mistakes. They are trying to spread awareness about various eating disorders and asking women to live a balanced and healthy life. Many Hollywood beauties have also joined them in spreading awareness about being healthy and the importance of eating properly.