A beauty contest is a competition in which entrants, usually women, are judged and ranked according to their physical appearance, sometimes alongside categories for talent or personality. The phrase is also used more loosely, and often with a dismissive edge, for any contest, particularly in politics or business, that seems to be decided on superficial impression rather than solid achievement. Calling a leadership race or a product launch a beauty contest is a way of saying the judgement being made is shallow, based on appearances rather than substance.
What’s the origin of the phrase ‘beauty contest’?
The origin of the phrase is not certain. What can be said is that the practice it describes was already in existence before the wording that now describes it had fully settled. An actual bathing beauty contest was being held in the United States at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in 1880, though because this was a working class beach resort, contests of this kind only became widespread after the turn of the century.
One piece of evidence about how the wording developed comes from the related term “beauty pageant”. That word did not become attached to this kind of contest until the twentieth century, which suggests that “beauty contest” is the older of the two labels used for the same event. This points to “contest” being the original, plainer term, with “pageant” arriving later as an alternative name for the same activity.
It is that plainer, more transactional sense of “contest” that seems to have allowed the phrase to travel beyond beaches and stages altogether. Once established as a way of describing a judged event based on looks, it became available as shorthand for any situation, in politics or business, where a decision looks as if it has been made on image rather than merit.