Do beauty contests degrade womanhood

Answer 1

Yes and no. It depends on the definition of womanhood you use. if you are speaking of the physical design and use of the female body as an object (a tool used by the woman), no contests do nothing to the physical body.

If you are speaking of womanhood more as a Jungian archetype then, yes contests try to put value judgments on things that woman cannot change, thereby esteeming one woman over another for aesthetic reasons.