Libby Purves (pictured) argues women who take part in pageants are using their assets to get ahead in a competitive world
YES
By Libby Purves
I came of age with Women’s Lib and attended some of the movement’s first meetings — though not the one where protesters came up with a plan, as seen in new film Misbehaviour, to flour-bomb the 1970 Miss World pageant.
I’m glad they did it though: the pageant’s creepy founder Eric Morley and crass dinosaur of a host Bob Hope deserved the flour-bombs. As did the cameramen who zoomed in on bums and breasts as the swimsuited, often bright and ambitious, young women paraded.
And yet I still think pageants can — and even should — be an empowering experience for young women.
When you listen to recordings of the winner and runner-up from 1970’s Miss World, Jennifer Hosten and Pearl Jansen (both black women for the first time in its history), you notice they were never cattle; not in their own hearts and minds.
Jennifer challenged Bob Hope, did a Master’s degree and became a diplomat; Pearl suffered more from South Africa’s apartheid than from sexism. They chose to be at the pageant, and they knew what they wanted in return. And at least under the Morley regime, while they were exploited for his company’s profit, they were treated as ladies.
These women were no fools. It was a time, remember, of disgusting sexism on every level: old men phwoaring and groping and getting away with it. Beauty pageants, frankly, were the least of it.
Nor are those women who have a go today fools. They’re just using assets to get ahead in a competitive world where everything counts. Many, like Jennifer before them, are looking onward — not to tabloid fame but to aspirational careers.
They’re no fools, they’re using assets to get ahead
Miss World 2019, Toni-Ann Singh, plans to be a doctor and now can afford the training; 2018’s runner-up Nicolene Pichapa Limsnukan works with autistic children and was given an award by Barack Obama.
Fifty years on, does Miss World bother me? Not in the least. We get commodified and judged in far worse ways, now, through Instagram.
And there’s one gratifying change: women are daring to look at men in an equally judgmental manner. Daniel Craig has to pose semi-naked with his jeans a bit undone, too.
So good luck to any girl who has worked on her physique and competes, knowing what nonsense it is, while keeping her eyes on the future. If you want to parade in a bonkers national costume, just make sure they treat you like the lady you are.
NO
Julie Bindel (pictured) argues pageants should be banned
By Julie Bindel
During my teens I remember watching Miss World with my mum — it would have been around the mid-Seventies.
Looking at my denim-clad legs and face without a scrap of make-up, I felt like a creature from another planet compared with the hand-on-hip goddesses on the screen.
Contestants were primped and preened in a way that beggared belief. Every single inch of their bodies was waxed, bleached, curled or straightened, tucked in or modified. Thought you looked your best? Take one look at the Miss World finalists and think again, swamp creature!
Those feminist protesters at the 1970 Miss World pageant knew the whole thing was harmful to women everywhere. And yet, 50 years later, we still ask women to parade on stage like human Barbie dolls.
Even worse, the intensive ‘pageant queen’ beauty regime has spread throughout society until many young women today believe it is totally normal to tweezer or laser off every hair on their bodies, while spending an hour putting on make-up before leaving the house. Far from being empowering, contests such as Miss World have taught a generation of girls that they will, and should be, judged on their looks — and that every other woman is in competition for that male gaze.
Prior to such pageants, of course there was sexism, but women’s bodies had not been commercialised to such a disturbing extent.
It teaches girls they’re judged on their looks
Despite reaching audiences of 30 million in the UK at its height, ITV dropped Miss World in 1988. It returned to screens briefly on Channel 5 in 1998 and 1999, and then ITV in 2001, before disappearing into the oblivion of satellite TV.
Yet we must go further and ban this sort of ridiculous vanity parade altogether. Such shows may have fewer viewers today, but the ideals they push are everywhere. Pageants pressurise girls and young women into believing their bodies can be moulded into an ideal shape. The inevitable consequence of this quest for perfection is body dysmorphia and low self-esteem.
And to those who argue that competitors are also tested on their intellect, I say: could you be more patronising? Like making a dog dance for biscuits, these ‘she also has a brain, folks’ interludes are somehow the worst part of all.
Let’s encourage girls growing up today not to be held hostage by their bodies, nor a man’s expectation of them. Let’s teach our daughters to collaborate rather than compete.
Beauty pageants in 2020? Nope, the party’s over, gents.