**As published on Sunstar:
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/baguio/opinion/2011/03/07/brett-beauty-pageant-politics-143557
NO I'M not going to talk about winning a crown or how to be become the ideal ambassadress of good will. Instead, I would like to share my sentiments on some things that happen behind the glam, make-up, flashy dresses and watchamacallits. I won't also pretend to be an expert and insist that my observations apply to all, but these are based on experiences that unfortunately occurred repeatedly.
It took decades for beauty pageants to be accepted in most societies. This was because beauty contests before were seen as trivial activities that did not actually require scholarly efforts. When pageant organizers tried to dwell away from this stereotype and started emphasizing on the candidates' personal successes, beauty pageantry took off.
Much work and effort were made to do away from the wrong notions about these contests; that these are events to flaunt the feminine physical beauty without much consideration for wit, character and attitude. It is truly unfortunate that despite the evolution it has undergone, critics have become even more critical because of the dirty politics that seem to have become part of the embodiment of these activities.
The words, "lutong Macau" (translated as predetermined results), "lutong-luto", "nadaya", "nasaur" and other similar terms have become defining attributes correlated to beauty competitions. The audiences after all are the harshest and most critical, but take note, most honest judges. Biases aside (considering that members of the audience have their own bets for the title), they concede, though grudgingly, to whatever the results if they saw for themselves that the outcome is indeed acceptable.
Sadly, a lot of these contests have evolved into businesses in which the main aim of such spectacles was to generate profit, thus leaving the naïve, if not trusting candidates, as pawns for these income-generating activities. It is then expected that these competitions are repeatedly dubbed as exploitative. In turn, we gradually lost faith in the credibility of these and thus overlooked the real spirit that should be epitomized in such.
The essence of most, if not all, beauty pageant is to celebrate the totality of a woman. It is disconcerting to note that the moral atrocities of people involved cloud the reputation of these competitions.
The ideal principles that are supposed to be exuded are marred by direct and indirect manipulations that taint the credibility of the results. I won't go as far as to cite specific instances as I'm pretty sure this is not new to us. In fact, it has become quite a 'given' that we then resigned to the idea that beauty contests are no longer done with integrity. It is distressing that much was done to escalate the perceptions about beauty contests only to have these once again mired by works of cheating and obvious display of sullied politics.
It is undeniable that beauty pageants are one of the most celebrated hypes of today's festivals and school, community and organizational activities. It has also become multi-tiered as to become annual international competitions among countries. It is for this very reason that these should be done with integrity so that appropriate support will be reaped from the spectators as well. We patronize these for the wrong reasons however.
It is really commendable when we get to witness a clean contest with results that are devoid of cheating and 'palakasan'. It would also be very nice when at the end of the day, everyone goes to sleep with a clear conscience. Reducing the notion of a beauty contest to a glamorized avenue of generating funds at the expense of others does not give justice to the efforts that were made to elevate the stature and respect that should be given to beauty pageants.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/baguio/opinion/2011/03/07/brett-beauty-pageant-politics-143557
NO I'M not going to talk about winning a crown or how to be become the ideal ambassadress of good will. Instead, I would like to share my sentiments on some things that happen behind the glam, make-up, flashy dresses and watchamacallits. I won't also pretend to be an expert and insist that my observations apply to all, but these are based on experiences that unfortunately occurred repeatedly.
It took decades for beauty pageants to be accepted in most societies. This was because beauty contests before were seen as trivial activities that did not actually require scholarly efforts. When pageant organizers tried to dwell away from this stereotype and started emphasizing on the candidates' personal successes, beauty pageantry took off.
Much work and effort were made to do away from the wrong notions about these contests; that these are events to flaunt the feminine physical beauty without much consideration for wit, character and attitude. It is truly unfortunate that despite the evolution it has undergone, critics have become even more critical because of the dirty politics that seem to have become part of the embodiment of these activities.
The words, "lutong Macau" (translated as predetermined results), "lutong-luto", "nadaya", "nasaur" and other similar terms have become defining attributes correlated to beauty competitions. The audiences after all are the harshest and most critical, but take note, most honest judges. Biases aside (considering that members of the audience have their own bets for the title), they concede, though grudgingly, to whatever the results if they saw for themselves that the outcome is indeed acceptable.
Sadly, a lot of these contests have evolved into businesses in which the main aim of such spectacles was to generate profit, thus leaving the naïve, if not trusting candidates, as pawns for these income-generating activities. It is then expected that these competitions are repeatedly dubbed as exploitative. In turn, we gradually lost faith in the credibility of these and thus overlooked the real spirit that should be epitomized in such.
The essence of most, if not all, beauty pageant is to celebrate the totality of a woman. It is disconcerting to note that the moral atrocities of people involved cloud the reputation of these competitions.
The ideal principles that are supposed to be exuded are marred by direct and indirect manipulations that taint the credibility of the results. I won't go as far as to cite specific instances as I'm pretty sure this is not new to us. In fact, it has become quite a 'given' that we then resigned to the idea that beauty contests are no longer done with integrity. It is distressing that much was done to escalate the perceptions about beauty contests only to have these once again mired by works of cheating and obvious display of sullied politics.
It is undeniable that beauty pageants are one of the most celebrated hypes of today's festivals and school, community and organizational activities. It has also become multi-tiered as to become annual international competitions among countries. It is for this very reason that these should be done with integrity so that appropriate support will be reaped from the spectators as well. We patronize these for the wrong reasons however.
It is really commendable when we get to witness a clean contest with results that are devoid of cheating and 'palakasan'. It would also be very nice when at the end of the day, everyone goes to sleep with a clear conscience. Reducing the notion of a beauty contest to a glamorized avenue of generating funds at the expense of others does not give justice to the efforts that were made to elevate the stature and respect that should be given to beauty pageants.