PERSONALLY SPEAKING: Are beauty pageants still acceptable today?
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Posted: May 30, 2016
The new Miss Staffordshire, right, is announced.
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THERE were a handful of annual TV highlights when I was growing up in the 80s.
It wasn't the final of Britain's Got Talent or the season finale of The Walking Dead that we hankered after, but rather The Eurovision Song Contest and Miss World.
Back in those days the Miss World beauty pageant was a huge televisual feast presided over by Eric Morley and Judith Chalmers.
Young women from around the globe would parade across the screen in their swimwear, as families like mine sat at home and watched on vast wood-effect television sets.
I recall we were quite harsh about the outfit choices and the seemingly universal ambition to achieve world peace one sequin at a time.
Although it's still hugely popular around the globe, the Miss World final was last broadcast on UK TV in 1998.
Nowadays the swimsuit round has been removed, and replaced with the likes of intelligence and personality tests.
The pageant has adopted the slogan 'beauty with a purpose' and the contestants are now referred to as 'delegates'.
However that doesn't stop it receiving the sneery disdain of liberal types.
“A toe-curling memory of lingering shots of breasts and bottoms and leering, fully dressed male presenters," complained one objector online. Surely they're not suggesting it would have been more enjoyable if Eric Morley had sported a mankini?
I don't remember it being like that at all. I remember it as harmless and entertaining. Maybe my eight-year-old moral compass wasn't working quite as it should have done. Or maybe, even then, I knew that I wasn't cut out to be a Guardian journalist when I grew up.
I never aspired to be a beauty queen myself, and watching Miss World didn't make me see my own body in a negative way. It certainly didn't put me off the hearty evening meal I was probably tucking into while I watched it.
Fast forward more years than I care to admit and, last weekend, I found myself sitting at a beauty pageant judges' table - helping to choose this year's Miss Staffordshire.
I had no qualms about accepting the task. It didn't feel sexist, antifeminist or wrong. I should probably add that there's also a Mr Staffordshire contest.
I don't want to give any secrets away, but you'll be pleased to hear that the judging was much gentler than the Miss World living room banter of my childhood.
There was no critique of body shapes and sizes. Rather it was about the ability of each contestant to represent the county on a national or even international stage.
My fellow judges and I disappeared off to a private room, rather like a papal conclave to elect a new pope. We talked about confidence, charity fund-raising, public speaking and role models. There was no mention, at any point, of body parts and facial features.
The eventual winner was a paramedic from Talke, who took her crown from last year's P.E. teaching winner.
She won because she was genuine, natural and capable of being a positive role model. Who knew that beauty pageants were really about that? My eight-year-old self would have been surprised.
It wasn't the final of Britain's Got Talent or the season finale of The Walking Dead that we hankered after, but rather The Eurovision Song Contest and Miss World.
Back in those days the Miss World beauty pageant was a huge televisual feast presided over by Eric Morley and Judith Chalmers.
Young women from around the globe would parade across the screen in their swimwear, as families like mine sat at home and watched on vast wood-effect television sets.
I recall we were quite harsh about the outfit choices and the seemingly universal ambition to achieve world peace one sequin at a time.
Although it's still hugely popular around the globe, the Miss World final was last broadcast on UK TV in 1998.
Nowadays the swimsuit round has been removed, and replaced with the likes of intelligence and personality tests.
The pageant has adopted the slogan 'beauty with a purpose' and the contestants are now referred to as 'delegates'.
However that doesn't stop it receiving the sneery disdain of liberal types.
“A toe-curling memory of lingering shots of breasts and bottoms and leering, fully dressed male presenters," complained one objector online. Surely they're not suggesting it would have been more enjoyable if Eric Morley had sported a mankini?
I don't remember it being like that at all. I remember it as harmless and entertaining. Maybe my eight-year-old moral compass wasn't working quite as it should have done. Or maybe, even then, I knew that I wasn't cut out to be a Guardian journalist when I grew up.
I never aspired to be a beauty queen myself, and watching Miss World didn't make me see my own body in a negative way. It certainly didn't put me off the hearty evening meal I was probably tucking into while I watched it.
Fast forward more years than I care to admit and, last weekend, I found myself sitting at a beauty pageant judges' table - helping to choose this year's Miss Staffordshire.
I had no qualms about accepting the task. It didn't feel sexist, antifeminist or wrong. I should probably add that there's also a Mr Staffordshire contest.
I don't want to give any secrets away, but you'll be pleased to hear that the judging was much gentler than the Miss World living room banter of my childhood.
There was no critique of body shapes and sizes. Rather it was about the ability of each contestant to represent the county on a national or even international stage.
My fellow judges and I disappeared off to a private room, rather like a papal conclave to elect a new pope. We talked about confidence, charity fund-raising, public speaking and role models. There was no mention, at any point, of body parts and facial features.
The eventual winner was a paramedic from Talke, who took her crown from last year's P.E. teaching winner.
She won because she was genuine, natural and capable of being a positive role model. Who knew that beauty pageants were really about that? My eight-year-old self would have been surprised.
http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/PERSONALLY-SPEAKING-beauty-pageants-acceptable/story-29337349-detail/story.html
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