Beauty contest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A beauty contest, or beauty pageant, is a competition based mainly on the physical beauty of its contestants, although such contests often incorporate personality, talent, and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria. The phrase almost invariably refers only to contests for women; similar events for men are called by other names and are more likely to be "body building" contests. Winners of beauty contests are often called beauty queens.
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[edit] History
Choosing symbolic kings and queens for May Day and other festivities is an ancient custom in Europe in which beautiful young women symbolized their nation's virtues and other abstract ideas. The first modern American pageant was staged by P. T. Barnum in 1854, but his beauty contest was closed down by public protest. He previously held dog, baby, and bird beauty contests. He substituted daguerreotypes for judging, a practice quickly adopted by newspapers. Newspapers held photo beauty contests for many decades: In 1880, the first “Bathing Beauty Pageant" took place as part of a summer festival to promote business in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Contests became a regular part of summer beach life, with the most elaborate contests taking place in Atlantic City, New Jersey (“Fall Frolic”) and Galveston, Texas ("Splash Day"), where the events attracted women from many cities and towns.[1]
[edit] International Pageant of Pulchritude
In May 1920 promoter C.E. Barfield of Galveston organized a new event known as "Splash Day" on the island. The event featured a "Bathing Girl Revue" competition as the centerpiece of its attractions.[2][1][3] The event was the kick-off of the summer tourist season in the city and was carried forward annually. The event quickly became known outside of Texas and, beginning in 1926, the world's first international contest was added, known as the "International Pageant of Pulchritude."[2] This contest is said to have served as a model for modern pageants.[3][4][5] It featured contestants from England, Russia, Turkey, and many other nations and the title awarded at the time was known as "Miss Universe."[3][6] The event was discontinued in the United States in 1932 because of the Depression (the international competition was revived briefly in Belgium).
[edit] Miss America and beyond
The modern beauty pageant's origin is traceable to the Miss America Pageant,[citation needed] which was first held in Atlantic City in 1921, under the title "Inter-City Beauty Contest." The Miss America Pageant eventually included preliminary eliminations, an evening gown competition, musical variety shows, and judging by panel.[dubious ] Still, the contest was at first shunned by middle-class society. Pageants did not become respectable until World War II, when "beauty queens" were recruited to sell bonds and to entertain troops. Scholarships and talent competitions evoked even closer scrutiny of contestants’ morals and backgrounds. The Miss America Pageant is the largest provider of college scholarships for women in the world.
[edit] Around the globe
Other major contests include the yearly Miss World competition (founded by Eric Morley in 1951), Miss Universe (founded in 1952), Miss International (founded in 1960) and Miss Earth (founded in 2001 with environmental awareness as its concern). These are considered the "Grand Slam" or "Big Four" pageants, the four largest and most famous international beauty contests. Minor contests, such as the Miss Bondi contest in Australia, are common throughout the world in the summer months. During the 1950s, pageants thrived to promote county fairs and local products. For example, some of Raquel Welch's titles included "Miss Photogenic" and "Miss Contour." Women from around the world participate each year in local competitions for the chance to represent their country's international title.
2002 was a year remarkable for its number of winners from counties with a majority Muslim population. In that year Miss Lebanon, Christina Sawaya won the Miss International pageant, Miss Turkey, Azra Akin won Miss World, and the original winner of Miss Earth for that year was Džejla Glavović from Bosnia and Herzegovina (before being replaced by Winfred Omwakwe of Kenya). In 2006, the Muslim nation of Pakistan crowned its first Miss Bikini Universe, Mariyah Moten, which later became a controversy worldwide.
Websites are the newest incarnation of the beauty pageant format. Websites like The Ultimate Beauty Queen, Tiara Talk, and others bill themselves as leveling the playing field by allowing more contestants and giving internet users the power to judge them.
[edit] Selecting a "beauty queen"
Beauty pageants are generally multi-tiered and popular, with local competitions feeding into the larger competitions. The worldwide pageants, thus, require hundreds, sometimes thousands, of local competitions. In the United States, there is now a commercial beauty pageant industry that organizes thousands of local and regional events for all ages for profit supported by magazines like The Crown Magazine and Pride of Pageantry, the online epiczine.com, the Pageant News Bureau (pageant.com), and The Crown Magazine, and a host of retailers of everything from tiaras to cosmetic surgery.
The typical perception of a beauty pageant is that it occurs once a year, has women of a petite frame, the event is live on stage, and that a talent is involved somehow. Particularly with the advent of the internet, this perception has changed drastically. Although they are not "live," Internet and mail-in pageants have provided a plethora of entertainment to those who compete and an opportunity not available to those unable or hesitant to travel.
Beauty Queens, or title holders, are chosen on many criteria. Each individual pageant will provide to prospective delegates its particular methods of competition and scoring. For example, The Worldwide Pageant has a unique scoring system wherein delegates have the potential of earning a score of 110%. The breakdown is 25% evening wear (may be pants or gown), 25% athletic wear, 50% personal interview, and an optional 10% for an achievement portfolio. Diamond Dolls is a photogenic only competition which provides 100% of the score based upon submission of required photos.
Size no longer is a limiting factor as many competitions espouse the goal of "natural" beauty. There are also more and more pageants such as Ms. Classic Beauty, which are dedicated to the "plus sized" delegate. Ms. Classic Beauty takes this one step further by devoting itself to "pageant plus." While a size 14-16 may be considered a traditional plus-size in the US, in the pageant world a size 6-8 may be considered as plus depending upon the pageant system. Ms. Classic Beauty takes this into consideration as well as the difference in size based upon height. Therefore, their criteria for inclusion is based upon size/height ratios.
Although the selection of a Beauty Queen is thought to be an annual event, there are no hard and fast rules as to the frequency of selection. Pageants have also changed dates and frequency based upon the needs of the Organization. Take for instance, Miss America. For decades, Miss America was held during the fall with the pageant usually occurring in September. Recently, the date changed to January. This produced a term of greater than a year length for that Miss America.
On the other hand, some terms have been shortened due to needs of the Organization. For example, during its formative years, the Mrs. United Nation Pageant had several seasonal changes with some Queens holding a term of less than a year.
There are other pageants who take a totally different approach altogether. Particularly in reference to on-line photogenic pageants, there are competitions in which a winner is chosen on a monthly or even weekly basis. There are those who will take each of these as a "preliminary winner" with the intent upon a "final" competition at some later date. Others treat each of these as a "final" winner and provide a title.
Regardless of the method of competition, break down of scores or frequency of selection, all are defined as "entertainment in the form of a beauty pageant." It is up to the individual to determine which is best suited for competition or of particular entertainment interest.
[edit] Criticism
Critics of beauty contests argue that such contests reinforce the idea that (usually young) women should be valued primarily for their physical appearance, and that this puts tremendous pressure on women to “be beautiful” by spending time and money on fashion, cosmetics, hair styling and even cosmetic surgery. This pursuit of physical beauty even encourages some women to diet to the point of harming themselves.[7]
Although some competitions have components that are not based purely on physical appearance, “unattractive” contestants are unlikely to win, no matter how talented, poised, intelligent, educated, resourceful or socially conscious they are. Rather than providing women with opportunities, it can be argued that beauty contests hurt the prospects of women who do not fit the current cultural ideal of beauty, because these contests promote the idea that those who fit this ideal are “better” than those who do not. And some pageants require a swimsuit for a portion of the competition, which emphasizes the physical bodies of women, some claim in undressed state. It could be argued, however, that women who do not excel in other fields may at least have a chance to win a beauty contest.
[edit] Big Four winners
- The country won more than one of the "Big Four" pageants in the same year.
[edit] Resigns
| Year | Pageant | Original winner | Replacement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Miss Universe |  Armi Helena Kuusela |
 Elza Edsman (Not offered) |
| 1973 | Miss World |  Marjorie Wallace |
 Evangeline Pascual (Refused offer) |
| 1974 | Miss Universe |  Amparo Muñoz |
 Helen Morgan (Not offered) |
| 1974 | Miss World | Helen Morgan |
 Anneline Kriel |
| 1980 | Miss World |  Gabriella Brum |
 Kimberley Santos |
| 2002 | Miss Universe |  Oxana Fedorova |
 Justine Pasek |
| 2002 | Miss Earth |  Džejla Glavović |
 Winfred Omwakwe |
[edit] See also
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[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Stein, Elissa (2006). Beauty Queen: Here She Comes.... Chronicle Books. p. 37. http://books.google.com/books?id=x98xu9DPmjEC.
"Revues and other Vanities: The Commodification of Fantasy in the 1920s". Assumption College. http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/vanities/. Retrieved 2 Oct 2009. - ^ a b "Miss United States Began In Galveston". The Islander Magazine. 2006. http://www.theislandermagazine.com/history/february2008/missus.html.
- ^ a b c Cherry, Bill (25 October 2004). "Miss America was once Pageant of Pulchritude". Galveston Daily News. http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=623557678868710e&-session=TheDailyNews:4A0612E91631c3859FiIR3DFCB8A.
- ^ Brown, Bridget (17 May 2009). "Isle bathing beauty tradition reborn". Galveston Daily News. http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=ca097dc8342ddcc5.
- ^ Savage, Candace (1998). Beauty queens: a playful history. Abbeville. p. 33. http://books.google.com/books?id=x-PM9-i19aIC.
- ^ The Billboard: 49. 25 Sept 1948. http://books.google.com/books?id=Tx4EAAAAMBAJ.
- ^ "Beauty and body image in the media". Media Awareness Network. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm. Retrieved 2009-01-17.
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