Currently a radio station here in Fargo called Y94 is featuring a contest to win free tickets to the Lady Gaga concert in the Twin Cities this summer. I signed up as a Y-VIP so I get notified about different contests and things before they’re posted on the website, so that’s how I heard about this. To enter the contest, participants must submit two photos of themselves: a Not photo and a Hot photo to show their Not to Hot transformation. Then they have to have their friends vote for their transformation, and whoever has the most votes will win tickets.
So, I have a few problems with this. One, the contest is all about someone’s looks and a messed up definition of the word beauty. Two, the photo examples given on the page look like they’re for a 12-year-old girl with no makeup on in one photo, and in the second photo, she has her hair done, accessories on, a full face of makeup done and more. She doesn’t even really look like the person in the previous picture. Three, it’s promoting the principle that you need to have tons of makeup on and have your hair blown out, otherwise you’re considered a “Not” in society. We try so hard to combat this image from women’s magazines and media everywhere, and I feel like this is a step in the wrong direction. Four, this contest seems to have nothing to do with Lady Gaga and her overall image.
Lady Gaga’s whole message is about being and loving yourself since you were born that way. Sure, she dresses in crazy outfits and sports some not-so-normal hair and makeup looks, but that’s just her thing. She’s not forcing anyone else to dress or look like her at all. She’s clearly confident in who she is as a person, and she doesn’t care what other people think about how she looks.
I understand it must be difficult to come up with different ideas for contests, but is this really the best they could come up with? Promoting and encouraging a false sense of beauty for women of all ages that only matters if other people agree on your “hotness?” Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it made me really upset when I saw this.
I will not be participating in this contest, and I don’t think you should either. It just comes down to begging for other people to validate how “hot” you are now and how much of a “not” you were before, and who cares what other people think about you anyway?
