Women telling other women how to dress and behave is definitely not it. As women, we should be lifting each other up, especially when it involves a little friendly competition. However, one Utah teen who participates in beauty pageants apparently left her respect behind. She decided to call out the other women at the beauty pageant she participated in. Why? Because, apparently, they weren’t dressed “modest” enough for her liking.
Ziona (@lightwithziona) grew up in the LDS Mormon church, as seen by her TikTok content. She’s also a teen who decided to enter her first beauty pageant recently. You would think that you would be most concerned with yourself and how you rank when you enter a contest, right? But Ziona decided to take to social media to call out all the other women in the pageant after she noticed one little detail: The competitors were not dressed as “modestly” as she was.
Ziona shared a video of her pageantry captioned, “You’re the only girl in the pageant that dressed modest.” In the video, she shows various clips, including one where they walk the stage in a silverly flapper-style dress. All the other women come out in the shiny dress, which is form-fitting but beautiful. When Ziona walks the stage, she’s wearing long gloves that mimic sleeves on her dress. In another clip, the girls are all dressed in workout gear and Ziona’s gear is the only one that covers her belly and arms. Lastly, she’s seen walking the stage in a pink gown with sleeves attached to it. But who cares? In the video, other women are wearing long sleeves and those who aren’t still look amazing and like they belong there.
This is just one example of how religion sometimes makes other women turn against each other. As Ziona says in her video, “I live modestly by choice, rooted in my relationship with God.” But that’s her choice. If other women choose not to live by religion’s standards, then they’re not in the wrong for choosing to do so. Ziona clearly disagrees with the way that other women choose to present themselves. As she goes on to say, “When you dress with modesty, you set boundaries that demand respect and allow your true worth to shine. Women, let’s bring modesty back and redefine confidence through self-respect.”
One commenter shared on Ziona’s video, “As a Christian I apologize. We aren’t all like this.” Another person commented, “No hate like Christian love.” This weird behavior is offensive to women who choose not to live the same way. But what about if any of the competitors saw Ziona’s video? It’s like a slap in the face where she’s basically calling them immodest compared to her. I don’t know, but I find that behavior unpleasant. It’s just acting like a mean girl.
