Every year, around the end of winter, the Miss Carlsbad and Miss Teen Carlsbad pageants occur. These competitions, the former for women 17 and up, and the latter, for teenagers aged 13 to 16, judge ladies on their beauty, brains and personality with competitions such as a speech, a question-and-answer section and much more.
With such an honor being open for any Carlsbad woman of the right age, I believe men are being discriminated against. It’s a travesty. With women’s rights having come as far as they have in the past century, how can we as a society allow men to receive the same sexist treatment of the pre-industrial world? If women can run for president, why can we not have a Mister America?
Maybe I’m being silly. Beauty competitions are feminine, much like every single boy in the world has to like football, and pink is only for girls, right?
No.
Now that we’re out of the 1950s, it’s not that hard to see stereotypes being defied daily. Women can now actively serve in armed combat, gay marriage is rapidly gaining acceptance and everyone can drink from the same water fountain.
While pursuit of beauty has been considered womanly for much of history, what’s wrong with a man being pretty? Just because we don’t wear dresses and spend hours on our hair and makeup doesn’t mean guys aren’t trying to look good. If a woman wears a bright red dress and heels for an event like Homecoming or Prom, she gets compliments on how good she looks. If a man wears a tuxedo and dress shoes of the exact same hue, he only receives weird looks from everyone, questioning why he decided to break the norm, rather than compliments on how the tux brings out his eyes.
It seems only given that men should have a chance to express their own inner and outer beauty, rather than be stuck on the sidelines. I dream of a world where men can strut classily down the pageant runway in finely tailored threads, give opinions on foreign policy and walk away with all the ladies in the audience scoping his hip swing.
Maybe most men aren’t into the pressure and all the people watching them compete, but we still deserve the right to compete and show what we can do. If anything, make it a unisex competition and allow us to go head to head, eliminating any of the sexism and judging man and woman as equal.
It may not happen this year, maybe not even in the near future, but I certainly hope that one day some suave young man can receive the honor of being crowned “Mister Carlsbad.”
