Young women who take part in beauty contests( 比赛 ) are helping to keep alive an outdated opinion of women : that a woman' s most important value is how she looks. Women have been working very hard through the years to change their image ( 形象 ). They have been trying to prove that the value of a woman does not lie only in her beauty. The world is just beginning to recognize that women are as smart, wise and strong in personality as men are, and that there are qualities more important than looks when judging people. When women take part in beauty contests for top prizes, they encourage people to value them for their beauty alone. It is unfair to say that beauty alone determines one' s worth. Beauty contests not only encourage spectators( 观众 ) to judge women by their appearance, but they encourage this idea in the contestants as well. These young women spend months losing weight to be the "right" size and learning how to dress, wear makeup, and walk just right so that some judges will consider them beautiful. I think it' s great for a woman to feel good about her appearance, but looks shouldn't be sought after in an extreme or unreasonable way. There are too many other, more important, things in a young woman' s life: learning, developing friendships and preparing for their future work and perhaps a family. As long as there are beauty contests, women won't be fully recognized as well-rounded human beings.