Many people are moved when they hear the name of the beauty pageant. People who are not interested in this competition are rarely found. After 21 years, India got Miss Universe again. While many Indians are overjoyed to be crowned Miss World, Vaishna Roy, Associate Editor of The Hindu, highlights another aspect of the competition.
While watching Miss World 2021, Vaishna Roy could not understand the difference between Miss Paraguay and Miss India. As the camera turned, the two beauties held each other’s hands. Vaishna Roy’s then looked like they were two schoolgirls. At one point it felt like twin sisters.
Vaishna Roy has also explained the reason for this. She thinks the various stages of the beauty pageant are meaningless and painful for the contestants. All the contestants are dressed in the same way. Their physical constitution is similar in terms of competition. The beauties of the world are also dressed in western style. Competitors wear beach attire in the West.
At a moment of competition when the beauty of India’s world beauty Harnaz Sandhu was being discussed, she said that there are many more problems in the world besides this. He expressed interest in talking about it. But Vaishna Roy noticed that Harnaz forgot to sit in Israel and talk about the Palestinian crisis, even though he talked about many other crises in the world. This time the 70th Miss Universe event was held in Eilat, Israel. But neither the competitors nor the organizers spoke out about the expansion of the Jewish settlement in Palestine and the crisis there.
Vaishna Roy noticed that some of the contestants were wearing Palestinian clothes. They also had Palestinian food with them. But there was the hashtag Israel. According to Vaishna Roy, in this way they also took part in the process of annihilation of Palestine.
At one point in the competition, Harnaz said, you have to feel unique. You have to stop comparing yourself with others. Vaishna Roy thinks that this statement of Harnaz is self-contradictory. Because, Harnaz has taken part in a competition where 60 people are being declared as the most beautiful. Among them, the top 10 have been selected as the most beautiful. And one of them has been chosen as the most beautiful. Vaishna Roy said that comparison with each other is the main theme of this competition. He thinks it’s pointless to talk about being unique there.
Vaishna Roy has ridiculed the rules of beauty pageant. Participants in the competition take part in the Cat Walk, he said. Many of them wore high heels. It was very difficult for them to walk that way after the gown. Their dress and grooming had no representation of their own country. They had to laugh for a while. According to him, the whole process was stupid, sad.
According to Vaishna Roy, many of the contestants worked on children’s and women’s rights. However, there is no mention of the work of the contestants. The criteria for verification in the competition are height, weight, body shape, teeth and nose. Because, here women are rewarded for their physical or external beauty.
Those who criticize the rules and rationale of this competition are told that this is an opportunity for women’s empowerment.
In this context, Vaishna Roy mentions Nelson Mandela’s grandson. When she called for a boycott of the Miss Universe pageant, Miss Universe Iraq was sharply criticized. Raises the question, why would a man talk about women and women’s empowerment organizations? She called the beauty pageant an opportunity for women to represent their country.
According to Vaishna Roy, the two words empowerment and choice are incompatible with the beauty contest. He thinks of this competition as commercialization of cosmetics and fashion. It seems sad to Vaishna Roy to match the issue of empowerment with such a consumerist system.
Journalist Vaishna Roy said, “Many thought that the Corona epidemic might affect our thinking. Many thought that maybe this time people will see the world differently. Her humanity will be evaluated more than women’s fashion and beauty. But Corona didn’t change her mind too much. The beauty pageant has remained a trade. When women are empowered in the judgment of beauty, it has a detrimental effect on the mentality of women. ‘
Vaishna Roy says, how perfect one’s nose is, how soft one’s skin is — these are the criteria of world beauty contest. When a whole team works to verify the perfection of one’s beauty, Vaishna Roy raises the question of how much it reflects the reality of life. She said that in the last judgment, perfect beauty was celebrated in the world beauty pageant. Vaishna Roy has compared this competition with making a perfect mannequin.
