This year’s Miss Universe is from India, but why are beauty pageants a thing now?
As I watched the crucial moment of the Miss Universe 2021 pageant, I realized that I could not differentiate between Miss Paraguay and Miss India. As the camera went from face to face when they held hands in a schoolgirl simulation of “sisterhood,” they were all twins I could tell. And in short, this is what happened today; Or perhaps science has made the “similarity” more obvious. I honestly watched the segments of this utterly pointless annual exercise – and it was painful. Identified women with similarly sculpted faces and bodies, who parade in similarly sculpted clothing matching what the West has declared, constitute ‘evening wear’ or ‘beach wear’. Will do
The best event is Hollywood’s princess cliché, but this year it seems to be serving up more face-palm moments than ever. There was an ironic moment when India’s Harnaaz Sandhu, who went on to become Miss Universe, passionately dismissed the beauty and said, “Let’s talk about more important things around the world…” while forgetting that She was attending an event in Israel amid a boycott call and a global one. Concerns about the country’s ruthless settlement and repression policy compared to Palestinians, an “important point” that neither the participants nor the organizers were talking about.
In fact, some contestants posed with Palestinian costumes and food using the Visit Israel hashtag, oblivious to the coercive appropriation that allows Palestinian culture to appear, even if the Palestinians are systematically wiped out. have gone
“Know that you’re unique,” Harnaz said, “and stop comparing yourself to others,” even when she reached the top 10 of an event that required 80 women to decide. The battle for who would be declared the prettiest. As young women cat-walked in a style far from human gait, many of them in their impossibly high heels and in their de rigueur flowing gowns. Trapped on trains. They carried ridiculous props to the National Costume Round. They meow like cats. They smiled tirelessly. As always, it was all silly and sad.
Steve Harvey, host of the 70th Miss Universe beauty pageant and Miss India, Harnaaz Sandhu. photo Credit: Getty Images
Many of the women’s bios declared that they were dealing with children or young adults or women’s rights issues – and yet none of them saw anything wrong with an incident that criticized women for height, weight , the ratio, forces the teeth to measure up to boxed standards. , to declare the nose “beautiful”; A phenomenon that clearly foregrounds and rewards women for their physical appearance.
The standard response to such criticism is that these women “choose” to participate and that it empowers them. Indeed, Miss Universe Iraq went ballistic when Nelson Mandela’s son called for a boycott. “How dare you as a man try to tell an organization for women and women empowerment what to do,” she said. She described the event as an “opportunity” for the millions of women who dream of going on the world stage to represent their countries.
But to use words like “choice” and “empowerment” to refer to a mass-marketed and funded phenomenon that is strategically supported by major cosmetic and clothing brands, and that exists inside a giant bubble of unbridled consumerism. Is, at best and sad. worst. Touching faith in an entirely artificial world doesn’t make it any more real, like the winners posing with slum children or domestic violence victims making Miss Universe a human rights case.
One imagined that something as catastrophic as a global pandemic might have prompted us to look at the world differently. To rethink fashion and beauty. Giving women real rather than skin-deep power. But it is business as usual. Just as celebrities believe that by wearing the same outfit twice they become environmental warriors, Miss Universe denounces the enormous damage done to the female psyche by such idealized beauty myths as women empowerment herself. As a mission.
On an even more basic level – what exactly is the point of a beauty pageant in a world where perfect nose is a scalpel away and flawless skin comes in a bottle? When an entire team works to create a Galatea-like vision of perfection, where does reality end and illusions begin? Ultimately, we are left to “celebrate” feminine beauty as little more than a perfect mannequin.
Where the author tries to understand the society with seven hundred words and a little splatter.
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