|
|
|
|
We used to live in a country which denied its citizens an opportunity
to watch or participate in various beauty pagents.
The official politics pronounced such ceremonies
as the "wicked ways of the West".Today, the same passion
is at work, but to the other extreme. There is no village small
enough which doesn't have its own beauty contest, while the
national public television broadcasts dozens of beauty contests
a year. Every year it seems that there are more and more
miss titles to be won. First we had "Miss Croatia for the Miss of
the World". Nowadays we lost the track of so many
different "Misses" of this and that that we are not sure which one
is "the right one". Beside the finals there are many semi-finals
and semi-semi-finals and semi-semi-semi finals within the
country and of course in diaspora too. TV viewers (male mostly)
are thrilled. Who cares if they don't know the name of
the pagent or what title the girl is competing for, as long as they
can sit back and feed their "hungry" eyes?!
This summer our daily paper Slobodna Dalmacija and a weekly "Nacional" featured interviews with Antea Kodžoman, a girl who won the title "Queen of Croatia 1999". Although one of the interviews was titled "Beauty with the Brush", and wrote about Antea's interest in design and her wish to attend the Arts School, the pictures showed exclusively Antea's body, the only thing that made her interesting to the media. The interests and ambitions of Antea as well as of many anonimous girls who haven't got the right for an interview with their half-naked bodies, are totally irrelevant for the media unless they are accompanied with the pictures worthy of "five minutes of glory". I expect that the fans of beauty pagents will react to this with the usual remark that there is nothing wrong in showing a beautiful body. My question is: if there is nothing wrong in contests in which local businessmen, sportsmen and various "bosses" give grades to women's bodies, how come that a lot of efforts is being employed to persuade us how such contests are closely connected with some transcedental humanitarian values and how the girls, who participate in them, are some (half)ingenious superwomen who applied for the competition solely to pass the time before the beginning of school semester in between university lectures and who do not expect to win at all? Wouldn't it be less hypocritical to admit that the heart of such pagents is the competition based on the bodily measurments: breasts and buttocks, legs and waists, hair and absence of fat? Those girls who do not mind to be pronounced as the most beautiful in such contests would have the right to compete for the title and such a right would be theirs to keep. But, it is hypocrisy to pretend that the promenade of women's flesh in front of the jury and the viewers has humanitarian and activistic values. There is nothing humane in the fact that people need degrading shows to give for charity.
|
This year the media were full of the news about this or that candidate or winner
of this or that beauty contest. Girls who participated are young and
pretty. How close to the beauty ideals they were, depends on
personal tastes (mostly of, in aesthetics, unqualified jury) and the
imagination of every individual.
The scenario of the shows is painfully boring and it is fascinating how the viewers can't get enough of the girls walking up and down in their swim suits, when they can see many more every day on the beeches and usually with less clothes. It is equally fascinating how all these girls have been trying to convince us and themselves that they did not expect to win, and that they were there to meet new friends and have fun. But, as a rule, they can never hide disappointment if they are not pronounced for the "Miss". The media promote such contests because they are a good source for scandals, pictures, rumours, gossip about the famous and those who will become so due to media attention. The media also try to convince us how such contests are in fact promotion of tourism and how it is extremely important that our Miss goes to some exotic island, together with a crew, and spend the tax payers' money. Watching her on their TV screens splashing around on the beech, the majority of viewers forget that they are unemployed, with no prospects and a lousy future. What interest, in particular, does Croatia have from sending a girl to a world beauty contest? How many investors would hurry to invest the money into the country or how many tourists would change their minds and come to spend their summer on our coast just because we sent some immature creature to have some fun on our expense? Exaggerating the importance of participation on such events is equally hysterical and inappropriate as recent despise. Until the world becomes aware of the stupidity of such contests, it would be better to accept reality. It is a fact that the girls will continue to participate in such contests as long as the media would guarantee them the escape from anonimity and reputation which the girls with the title will be able to sell somehow. After the "five minutes of glory" are gone, the only thing they could do would be what the majority of such girls does, to find a sportsman or a singer, marry him and ensure that their names will every now and then be seen in the papers, however indirectly as somebody's Mrs. It will continue to be their future until they realize that the beauty of the soul and the intelligence can not be seen and are not looked for in the bathing suit, and that the hungry children of the world can be helped and are helped in many other, more dignified ways, which result from the very brains which the beauties are swearing by with their breasts out and their stomacks tucked in.
|
