Are beauty pageants empowering?

For the first time, five major beauty pageants - Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss America, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA - have been won by black women. People around the world have seen this as a milestone in representation. But are beauty pageants still relevant and necessary in 2019? And can these competitions be feminist? Salma Haidrani is a journalist who documented her experiences as a contestant in Miss England’s 2018 heats and Leanne Levers is a political scientist.