Beauty Pageant Names

Beauty pageants are a competition traditionally focused on judging and ranking contestants’ physical attributes. Over the years, they have shifted towards including inner beauty as well, with contestants being judged on their intelligence, talent, character and charitable involvement during private interviews and public on-stage questions. In addition to a variety of beauty titles, some pageants also offer special distinctions such as Miss Photogenic, Best Evening Gown and Best Swimsuit/Fitness.

Aside from the competition’s focus on physical beauty, beauty pageants have long been associated with a culture’s hierarchies of value, such as societal attitudes toward femininity and women’s roles in society. This has inevitably led to debates and arguments about the nature of beauty and how it should be defined.

Some pageant winners are designated as “appointed” instead of winning a title from competing at an in-person event, for example Miss Grand International and Miss Earth. Appointed titles (also called at-large titles) come with their own pros and cons, but the decision to accept an appointed title or not is completely up to each individual contestant based on their goals and what they hope to gain from pageant participation.