I am the dirty “F” word; I am a feminist. Before your unmentionables get in a twist, let me define feminist. A feminist is a person who believes in equal rights and fair access to resources, no matter gender or sexual orientation. Please take note I said “person” and not female or woman. Boys, guys, men, transsexuals, and those who have yet to decide, can be feminists if they so choose.
Being a feminist is not for the faint of heart. You will suddenly find yourself watching a television program or a movie and become highly offended at the way a character is portrayed. You begin to wonder why the male lead cannot talk about his feelings or why the female lead never gives him a chance to but expects a whole essay on why and how they should be together in the end. Reading the newspaper or Internet news site articles can also become considerably trying, or you could be worse off and watch these shows, unaware of the stereotypes portrayed.
If, for instance, you read a recent article on female beauty pageants, you might begin to wonder why a young lady could only learn poise and confidence from a beauty pageant. Why could the said young lady not work hard in her academics and receive a scholarship for those alone? Why could she not also participate in athletics and learn these important values? Athletics teach team work, how to get up after you fall down and how to have confidence in your abilities. It comes across to me that if you aren’t what society currently deems attractive then you have to focus on your studies and/or be an athlete to reach your goals. We have no place for a mixture of these in one person. 
Why must pageants be presented as a woman’s most sociably accepted choice to achieve scholarships? It isn’t that I don’t appreciate how pageants have helped some young women succeed in their dreams. I just question why it must be presented as the best option. Why can’t a woman be pretty, athletic and extremely intelligent? I just don’t appreciate how beauty pageants are presented as the “pretty girl” option, and the rest of us get to be athletic and/or strive to be academically successful.
We never talk openly about how women are defined by their looks. In our society, we promote the idea a woman’s beauty as directly related to her self worth. We don’t put it out there that a woman with larger breasts may be taken less seriously or the pretty girl may have her judgment questioned. There is also the extreme pressure society puts on women to be thin.
We don’t discuss, in seriousness, judging men by their appearance. Why not have socially attractive men strut their stuff down a runway in swim trunks? This would teach men about personal grooming, how to dress professionally and would offer them another option for succeeding with their dreams. Also, it would be a major step forward for gender equality, but we’ll just ignore that part. We’ll just focus on the promoting of male beauty pageants. 
Men would be able to focus on their images. They could learn a talent such as twirling a baton and still be a judge or a lawyer one day. It would be socially acceptable for men to be very concerned with how they look in a swimsuit. Men could worry about which outfit to wear during the evening wear competition.
While you are probably laughing at these mental images, think about it! These are the exact things we require of women in these beauty pageants, but we offer them scholarships in return. Again, why not extend the same option to men? They play sports and/or achieve in academics. Why shouldn’t they have another option to achieve their dreams? If we hold women to these extreme beauty standards, why not men?
Delilah Schmidt is a senior majoring in sociology. She can be contacted at [email protected].