Miss Zimbabwe and the politics of women’s beauty

Miss Zimbabwe and the politics of women’s beauty

Zimbabwe recently held its Miss Zimbabwe pageant and a mixed bag of reactions to the new beauty queens appointment to the title dominated the media. Some even called her “ugly”. However, what defines beauty and who defines it for us. The very nature of our patriarchal society has entrenched norms that require women to preserve and enhance their beauty in order to appeal to men. Beauty is defined to us in many ways especially through all kinds of media and other social institutions. These ways, most of which are warped put pressure on women to attain the so-called ultimate beauty as defined by others. Read more…