Current Eugenic "Fittest" Contests

During the height of the eugenics, fittest family contests and better baby contests were popular across the country at various county and state fairs. These contests served principally as a means of entertainment, establishing the ideal and satisfying our most valued sense-visualization. Currently, we still hold multiple contests which aim to display the ideal. Consider Miss America contests or beauty pageants, both of which attempt to award the ideal individual based on our perceptions of beauty and “appropriate” cultural behaviors. Even “Toddlers and Tiaras,” a television show which features young girls who compete in beauty pageants, is dedicated to entertainment and establishing the ideal of young girls’ bodies. These girls are objectified and hyper sexualized in these pageants, which are inherently pedophilic. Current pageants and contests may hold similar purposes as did the fittest family contests and better baby contests during the height of eugenics in that they fulfilled popular societies’ need for entertainment and to demonstrate the ideal. Although current contests may not be directly related to the betterment of the human race and society, they certainly have serious implications.

Angela B.