The purpose of a pageant is to reach a state that promotes self-esteem and public-speaking abilities of the contestants. Winners of pageants are said to feel a sense of accomplishment. Pageants can be affiliated with community or social organizations in order to raise money for charities. Some of the better known pageants are ones such as Miss America or those shown on TLC, such as “Toddlers and Tiaras.” Both pageants have a similar structure; however, the level of professionalism between them is extremely different. The majority of pageants are those that women participate in, but do they ever think about the difference between male pageants and female pageants?
Elizabethtown College’s Office of Student Activities annually hosts its all male pageant, “Mr. Etown” where one guy from each dorm building competes in hopes to earn the title of Mr. Etown. At this event, the most put-together, musically talented acts compete to win over the hearts of the audience. In addition to the music aspect of the performance, the contestants try to make it very humorous and try to get the crowd to laugh at the jokes they make. It seems as though male pageants are more relaxed, and not taken as seriously. The contestants and audience just want to have fun.
When asked what she thinks it means to have a male beauty pageant here on campus and why they are not held in the same regard as female pageants, first-year Jasmine Foreman said, “I think that in society today, women are the only beauty icons and people don’t consider men in the same category [as women] because it portrays them as being feminine.”
In this day and age, men do not take female beauty pageants seriously because they think that women do not need any sort of real talent to participate. I believe that guys do not understand the years of practice some women put themselves through for pageants. When the men are put into a pageant situation, they make it into a joke by using humor and satire to appeal to the audience. No one seems to be complaining about how Etown’s “Mr. Etown” uses a lot of humor to charm the audience because it is a fun event that most students like to watch.
Many make it known that they love the way that this pageant is and they do not want to change it. They believe that the humor involved makes it a fun activity for college students to attend on a Friday night after a long and stressful week and everyone enjoys it.