This is the big moment for the ladies as they just filed their answers to the judges´ decisive questions. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence comes the verdict. Three of the five finalists are declared winners. While the around twenty-two contestants give a standing ovation, the winners are presented with the glittery tiara.
The past year or so, Kathmandu has played witness to a plethora of beauty contests. These contests have raised many an eyebrows and for the right reasons mostly. Miss Airhostess to Miss E-College to Miss Angel, you name it all. And while they claim to create a platform for young girls to exhibit their talents, the winners have hardly been able to live up to what is expected of them.
“Youngsters today are media savvy and beauty queens and models are the role models for them. Hence, every other young girl wants to have a lean body and look like some celebrity model,” says Sugarika KC, Miss Nepal 2005. She is of the belief that unlike in the past, beauty contests have become “extremely common” and that there is not much qualification required for participation. The organizers of such events, on the other hand, she asserts, are only interested in minting money. "Its business for them," she says.
All beauty contests require a form to be filled by the participants. These forms cost an applicant anything from Rs 200 to Rs 500 just to audition. Furthermore, selected candidates are required to dole out another round of payment, which in most cases is Rs 10,000. Sometimes, it even reaches up to whopping 20,000 just for the trainings.
Besides these contests have turned adolescent girls extremely image conscious. The beauty queens are hardly healthy role models. Instead the winners are mostly skinny with well defined rib cages. This, as a consequence, leaves the audience, which are mostly girls of similar and younger ages, strive for skinny body and a fair complexion.
But as for the youngsters they hardly seem to have anything against the contests as they see them as an opportunity to see the outside world.
Dristhi Dahal, a contestant for this year´s Miss Teen Nepal organized by Jaycees, contends the belief of beauty contests giving out a negative message.
“I am short and I´m healthy but I still got selected,” she claims. She says such contests enhance their beauty and the trainings they receive boost confidence. “I don´t have to win the crown,” she says, adding, “The admission charge I paid is for the training.” The contest Dristhi is a candidate for, claims to have received 113 contestants out of which only 19 were selected to participate.
Although, such beauty contests claim to empower and challenge the existing attitude towards women, they are hardly seen fulfilling their promises. They seem to be only paying lip-service to feminist words.
“It is quite evident that these contests are not fruitful either for the participants or winners,” affirms Ram Tiwari, lecturer of Sociology at Tribhuwan University, Kirtipur. He believes that the contests have been stifling the creativity of contestants by enforcing in them a particular way to talk, walk and even think.
“Only the politically correct answers and a good physical appearance will lead to winning titles at such shows,” he says. Another factor that Tiwari highlights is how such contests are based on caste and ethnicity and therefore encouraging rivalry instead of amity.
Also, Tiwari puts in that since the winners are decided on the basis of appearance, it makes the plain Janes even more diffident and question their abilities.
How has pageant culture changed or perhaps how the pageants have changed today´s culture? Will the tiaras continue to sparkle? The question seems to have no immediate answer.
At present all we cay say is as long as these contests don´t contribute to turning girls into objects to be judged on the basis of appearance they should do no harm.
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