Beauty Pageants: Not just a question of Beauty

The recent Miss universe has just been concluded with Miss Venezuela coming out on top. Sadly the Philippines’ bet didn’t even come up to the semifinalist list despite her claim that she would bring home the title. Miss Venezuela has an odd story to tell the audience apparently she was kidnapped a year ago thus high stress situations such as the pageant doesn’t boggle the least. She is a tough chick. As usual, we Filipinos have much ado come beauty queen season. We simply love beauty pageants! Nearly every barangay throughout the country would have a beauty pageant held every fiesta to coronate the town’s best looking girl. Have we ever asked to wonder why this is so? Why we have such a passion for beauty pageants? Perhaps it’s due to the fact that we are a very religious country. Beauty contests are simply romantic. We love to see the triumph of beauty and virtue in one package. Merely beauty leaves a sour taste in the mouth but beauty with virtue and all things beautiful is what we are after. That is why we have the question and answer portion. The triumph of beauty is the triumph of God and all that is good. Thus, the Filipino is tuned in to the boob tube every beauty queen season we want through some vicarious thrill for others to achieve in a microcosmic level what our reality doesn’t afford us: the triumph of beauty.

The origin of beauty pageants dates back to Greek mythology when Paris the young lovelorn man had to choose Venus in the beauty pageant of goddesses to receive Helen: the most beautiful woman in the world. Subsequently, European nations have conducted their own beauty queen tilt type activities.

“Choosing symbolic kings and queens for May Day and other festivities is an ancient custom in Europe in which beautiful young women symbolize their nation's virtues and other abstract ideas” (wikipedia)

Today the Miss Universe pageant winner; Miss Venezuela, Dayana Mendoza is likewise she has shown that she doesn’t have just beauty but poise, and intelligence as well. Ms. Mendoza is 22 years-old and her career ambition is to become an Interior Designer. She also enjoys photography and is interested in advertising. Apparently she doesn’t have merely beauty going on for her. I used to tell my mother that in Miss Universe pageant all the girls are winners already and all of them are beautiful. Who are we to judge who is more beautiful as long legged equally beautiful women sashay down the catwalk? Instead, the girls have to have something else to offer and that something they have to offer is carefully observed during the selections in the entire tilt. It could be anything that elusive x factor, an interesting experience or story to tell that can wow the audience educational background or some such. So far in our country that hungers to see our own local bets triumph over the world we’ve only seen a very small percentage of them make it.