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Perceptions of Traditional Beauty Standards in Televised Pageants

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Perceptions of Traditional Beauty Standards in Televised Pageants PERCEPTIONS OF TRADITIONAL BEAUTY STANDARDS IN TELEVISED PAGEANTS A Thesis submitted to the faculty of San Francisco State University In partial fulfillment of 'Z'O IS the requirements for jet** the Degree .v h ? Master of Arts In Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts by Dania Melissa De La Cruz San Francisco, California May 2018 CERTIFICATION OF APPROVAL I certify that I have read PERCEPTIONS OF TRADITIONAL BEAUTY STANDARDS IN TELEVISED PAGEANTS by Dania Melissa De La Cruz, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts at San Francisco State University. Nancy Reist, Ph.D. Professor Christopher Clemens, Ph.D. Assistant Professor PERCEPTIONS OF TRADITIONAL BEAUTY STANDARDS IN TELEVISED PAGEANTS Dania Melissa De La Cruz San Francisco, California 2018 Media images of women who embody traditional standards of beauty tend to affect women’s satisfaction with their bodies. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact that watching televised beauty pageants has on women’s body image, appearance satisfaction, and social comparisons. The principal method of data gathering is a focus group discussion, but open-ended survey questions and the Body Appreciation Scale and the Physical Appearance Comparison Scale are also implemented. The study was compromised of five college-aged women. Results suggest that women oppose the lack of diversity in pageants. They reported seeing contestants who tend to be thin, lighter skinned, and fairly tall. Most participants compared themselves to pageant contestants, but this did not mean they were vastly dissatisfied with their appearance or that they desired to emulate contestants. The results are discussed in reference to social comparison theory. A new theme about the perceptions of beauty pageants and contestants emerged the during the focus group discussion. Participants criticized pageants and believed they lack value. Recommendations for future research are provided. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude toward my family and friends for always supporting me throughout this journey. I would also like to thank my chair, Dr. Camacho, for her continuous guidance and extensive feedback. Thank you to my other two committee members, Dr. Reist and Dr. Clemens, for providing me with the help I needed to move forward with my thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Reist for organizing the monthly meetings for graduate students working on their culminating experience projects. I am grateful to my cohort for supporting me in those meetings and during my time as a graduate student. In addition, I am thankful for Michelle Kennedy for her support with the recruitment stage of my thesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables............................................................................................................................... vii List of Appendices......................................................................................................................viii Introduction.................................................................................... 1 Operational Definitions..................................................................................................................6 Lit Review........................................................................ 6 Beauty Standards in the Media and Society................................................................. 6 Beauty Standards in Pageantry....................................................................................... 9 Media Effects on Body Image.......................................................................................14 Social Comparison Theory ...........................................................................................21 M ethod...........................................................................................................................................27 Questionnaire Protocol................................................... 27 Participants.................................................................................................................................... 29 Procedure...................................................................................................................................... 30 Data Analysis................................................................................................................................30 Results .................................................................................................................................... 31 Open-Ended Survey Questions..................................................................................... 32 Survey Scales...................................................................................................................34 Focus Group Session.......................................................................................................35 Discussion..................................................................................................................................... 45 Beauty Standards in Pageants....................................................................................... 45 Body Image and Appearance Satisfaction.................................................................. 47 Social Comparisons.......................................... 48 Perceptions of Beauty Pageants and Contestants........................................................51 Limitations.................................................................................................................................... 53 Conclusion................................................................. 54 Implications................................................................................................................................... 54 Further Research............................................................. 55 References..................................................................................................................................... 57 Appendices.................................................................................................................... 75 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Themes for Open Ended Survey Questions with Sample Comments..................... 71 2. Themes for Focus Group Discussion with Sample Comments.................................72 3. Body Appreciation Scale (BAC) Averages..................................................................73 4. Physical Appearance Comparison Scale (PAC) Averages........................................ 74 vii LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix Page 1. Survey Questions.............................................................................................................75 2. Scales..................................................................................................................................76 3. Focus Group Guide.......................................................................................................... 78 1 Keywords beauty pageants, Miss contestants, traditional beauty standards, body image, appearance, television, social comparisons Introduction Every year, the Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe pageants are televised. Contestants have the opportunity to display their runway and public speaking skills in the hopes of impressing the judges and winning the crown. Several months of preparation conclude with a few intense hours on the stage before the name of the new titleholder is revealed. In the meantime, millions of viewers (Porter, 2017a; Porter, 2017b; Porter, 2017c) have the opportunity to watch contestants in swimw'ear and evening gowns and respond to the on-stage question, if contestants reach that point in the competition. Annual pageants are held worldwide. In the United States alone, there are thousands of pageants across the country (Banet-Weiser, 1999). The Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe contests are considered natural beauty pageants (Shappert, 2011), but other types of pageants include festival and glitz pageants (Shappert, 2013). Three of the major pageants broadcast in the U.S. are the Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe competitions, and they are the pageants analyzed in this study. Viewers can watch the pageants on television or via online video recordings when accessible. Critics argue that the standards of beauty in pageants do not represent all women (Dow, 2003; Schulz, 2000; Wu, 1997). Pageant queens are generally tall, thin, and light­ skinned, resembling traditional standards of beauty (King-O’Riain, 2008; Schulz, 2000). This can be problematic because body image research suggests that women can be 2 negatively affected by the images of thin, attractive women presented in the media (Fernandez & Pritchard, 2012; Jung & Lennon, 2003; Mask & Blanchard, 2011). In fact, the effects of constantly seeing unrealistic body image ideals are felt across the globe and can be so profound that a French law dictates that any commercial image in which the model’s body has been digitally edited must have a “retouched photograph” label (Lee, 2017). France’s Health Minister Marisol Touraine contends that “exposing young people to normative and unrealistic images of bodies leads to a sense of self-depreciation and poor self-esteem that can impact health-related behaviour” (Eggert, 2017). Individuals
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