The beauty of it all

Two beauty pageants have made news in recent weeks, for drastically different reasons. The first was because of Carrie Prejean, California’s candidate for the title of Miss USA, a contestant once considered a front-runner of the competition. Carrie caused a media frenzy when she was asked her views on same-sex marriage, replying:

“We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.”

Her answer was incoherent and stumbling, yet not the diplomatic answer expected of her. The judge who posed the question to her, blogger Perez Hilton, would go on to call her a “dumb b*tch” and a “c*nt”, while his fellow judge, Alicia Jacobs, declared that she was “stunned on several levels.” However, Perez Hilton’s derogatory response only served to fuel the conservative media backlash against the judges. The story caused further controversy when it was revealed that Prejean had modelled semi- nude as a teenager in violation of the pageant rules, adding fuel to demands for her crown to be stripped away. It was pageant owner Donald Trump who made the final decision to let Carrie keep her crown, saying of the nude pictures: “in some cases the pictures were lovely.”

The whole situation spoke volumes about the worst aspects of modern culture.

Carrie Prejean was a candidate in a competition in which every aspect of appearance was scrutinised, and in fact not deemed perfect enough originally – the Miss USA competition paid for Prejean to have a breast implant operation. In this atmosphere, the judges were shocked to find that perhaps their pretty candidate lacked the values to which they were accustomed – not to mention the ability to word a sentence articulately.

The questions posed to beauty contest candidates are a transparent attempt to shift focus from the fact that the competition revolves around judging women on how much their appearance fits a certain mould. The first beauty contests were inspired by dog shows, which says a lot. When women like Carrie are raised in a society where their looks gain them so much status and praise, it’s no wonder that they don’t have opinions which make sense. Why would she try to develop intellectually, when she’s been bombarded with the message that it’s her appearance that matters? Unfortunately, it’s not just Carrie and it’s not just Americans who this applies to.

That’s not to say that all women who have participated in pageants fit the plastic, vacuous stereotype. The former Miss California, Rev. Lamarche, who is now a pastor, offered a beautifully worded response to Carrie Prejean’s insistence that her anti-gay beliefs were merely the words of the bible. After sensitively critiquing the biblical passages used to condemn homosexuality, Rev. Lamarche writes: “The truth is that it is difficult to know for sure the intentions of the biblical authors, but we do know something about God. Those of us who know God through Jesus of Nazareth know that he went to great lengths to express God’s love to people who were labelled as outcasts. He spent time with children, prostitutes, and lepers, all of whom were labelled as outside of the grasp of the Holy.”

The second newsworthy beauty contest began last week in Saudi Arabia. This contest aims to judge beauty not by appearance, but by beautiful Islamic morals. Last year’s winner, Zahra al-Shurafa, explained: “I tell this year’s contestants that winning is not important. What is important is obeying your parents.”

On the surface, the idea seems like a good way of encouraging women to be valued according to more than only their physical appearance. However, the question still remains: Why do women need to be judged against each other at all? The Saudi beauty contest is another way of pressuring girls to conform to a mould that will not fit everyone, and neither should it. An adult woman should not be made to feel ashamed for questioning the authority of her parents or her religion.

Both contests deny the value of women as independent individuals, who are perfectly capable of choosing what they aspire to be, and judging themselves according to their own goals.