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Last week the comedian John Oliver’s hilarious rant about the obvious corruption behind the Miss America Beauty pageant (owned by Donald Trump) served as a reminder of the importance of social honesty in any democracy that seeks equal rights and opportunity for all of its citizens. The very well-known women’s beauty competition is normally aired on television every year. Apparently, the pageant is the number one provider for women’s scholarship. Sadly this is true. Miss America claims to of provided 482,000 in 2012 towards these “scholarships”. Out of the 45 million that the organization makes, not even half of the money goes to formal education.

But wait…There’s a catch. In order for a woman to receive money from this organization they have to of never had children, have to be part of the pageant, and of course, be strikingly attractive.

I personally believe that pageants like these degrade women similar to prostitution and porn. While prostitution sex is considered a taboo, are beauty pageants really any better? The media alone already adds certain prejudice within our subconscious. Women are subjected to these idiotic biases that force people to judge them by their appearance, and their “highly skilled” ability to answer useless questions in a short amount of time. Miss America provides the ugliest image of what a successful woman should be.

The core democratic values demonstrated in this is the value of equality and truth. Why should degrading one’s body primarily revolve around women?