Beauty contest
Beauty contest
Only eight days after this nation ended a week of national
mourning, a fuss started brewing over the issue of Indonesia's
participation in an international beauty pageant.
Besides the already well-known objections on the part of
Indonesian women's groups, the timing is indeed unfortunate.
The objections to beauty contests are usually that they are
degrading for ladies, are a veiled sex exploitation and are like
cattle auctions. Besides, it is not true that participation in
beauty contests help boost tourism. The comparison to bovine
muscularity, however, is certainly uncalled for, if not
outrageous. Indeed, imagination has no limits, but one must use
it in discriminating ways.
An old friend of mine whispered to me that in his personal
view, a bikini is like barbed wire: it protects without spoiling
the view (beautiful view, he added).
Beauty contests seem to corroborate Oscar Wilde's observation
on woman that ladies are to be admired not analyzed. But men
should beware. For a man's admiration of beauty could be his
downfall.
Do beauty contests help boost tourism? Spain and Italy, to
take two countries as examples, annually attract tens of millions
of tourists, contests or no contests. Besides, the notion could
be interpreted as a slur, if you have fleshpots in mind.
There is also an element of unfairness in beauty contests. In
rich western countries, beauty comes more naturally than in
countries with low GNPs per capita. Girls with tall statures and
Cleopatra noses, for instance, are not an uncommon sight in the
former. In Indonesia, they are an exception.
Whether a beauty contest is an exercise in inanity or vanity,
many young and ambitious girls find it both alluring and
challenging. For a young lady to be selected to run for a beauty
contest is a great achievement, made possible only by years of
training and conscientious care.
Those who see no particular danger in beauty contests would
maintain that women more than men need recognition in aesthetical
achievement, called beauty. In sports, records are measured by
instruments. In beauty contests, tastes still play an important
role, despite an agreed criteria. Is this the thing which makes
beauty contests exciting?
Why have men preferred to keep silent on this matter? Maybe
because beauty contests are the ladies' sacrosanct domain? Why
the strong objections on the part of Indonesian ladies? Beauty
contests are certainly only good for the girl concerned, her
chaperon, and the sponsors. Her country gains nothing.
The main reason for the strong opposition to the beauty
pageant business seems to be that in such international events,
beauty could easily slide into vulgar sensuality. Showing beauty
can certainly be done in many other more decent ways.
For future contests, sponsors would be well advised to propose
to the organizing committees concerned that contestants should
participate in their own names, and not on the names of their
countries.
The names of participants' countries should not be printed on
the sashes. Only during the introduction or presentation would
the master of ceremony mention the countries from which
contestants come.
Well, it would be wise to hear what Victor Hugo says in Les
Miserables: Le beau est aussi utile que l'utile. Plus, peut-etre.
SOEGIO SOSROSOEMARTO
Jakarta