On Sunday, Miss South Africa, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, was crowned Miss Universe, beating bookies’ favourite Miss Thailand.
As one of the last remaining televised beauty pageants, it’s arguably the most famous out of the ‘Big Four’ pageants: Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Earth and Miss International.
But Miss Universe has predominantly been in the spotlight over the past 12 months for less glamorous reasons.
In September 2016, during the presidential election, Hillary Clinton accused the soon to be President of fat shaming former Miss Universe Alicia Machado – calling the beauty queen “Miss Piggy” shortly after she was crowned in 1996.
Defending his statements, Trump revealed his ‘problem’ with Machado to Fox News and Friends claiming: “She was the worst we ever had, the worst, the absolute worst.
“She was a Miss Universe contestant and ultimately a winner, who they had a tremendously difficult time with as Miss Universe.
“She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem.
“Not only that, her attitude. We had a real problem with her.”
But Trump’s comments also added fuel to an existing fire about the relevance of pageants at a time when traditional beauty norms are being questioned by consumers, media outlets and the beauty industry itself.
Inclusive beauty?
“We’d love to see a plus size girl win,” Jemma Simmonds, Events & Operations Manager for Miss Great Britain told Cosmetics Business.
While Miss Great Britain has an equal opportunities policy, in terms of contestant height and weight restriction, Simmonds admits that the pageant world is slow to catch up with the beauty industry when it comes to promoting diversity.
She argues that slow progression is due to the lack of diversity in applications, rather than the final winners.
“It’s really about trying to shake off that age old stereotype,” Simmonds added. “The girls need to see and experience that you don’t need to be a 5ft 10in, size six blonde girl to enter a pageant – far from it.”
But it’s hard to a role model for 'diverse girls’ in the mainstream pageant industry, especially as the current reigning queens from the Big Four adhere to the thin, eurocentric featured stereotype.
How Miss Universe reflects changing ideals
- The average age of a Miss Universe winner is 20.4 years old, but the contestants can be anywhere from 18 years old to 27 years old.
- Winners reflect fads of the times, such as fuller hips in the 1950s and fit, gym-sculpted bodies of the 1980s.
- While the average American woman got heavier, Miss Universe has only gotten thinner.
- 1990 was a milestone. The average BMI for a woman in the US moved from a normal BMI to overweight, while the average BMI for a Miss Universe contestant dipped into the underweight range.
Source: Superdrug Online Doctor, The Evolution of Miss Universe
As well as physical pressures, contestants are also expected to take the ‘Miss’ title literally and abstain from two life changing decisions: marriage and children.
All of the Big Four state in the terms and conditions that contestants must have never been married, or pregnant and the titleholders must remain unmarried throughout their reign.
“It’s just insane,” said Simmonds. “The first rule we changed in 2012, when we acquired the Miss Great Britain license, was to allow married women and women with children to enter.”
“I know there is the title of ‘Miss’ up for grabs and, if you’re playing along with it, then it does mean an unmarried, young woman.
“But it’s a title, it doesn’t have to define the woman winning it.”
With so many glaring restrictions in a contest that from an outsider’s perspective shuns diversity and limits inclusivity, do beauty pageants have any relevance?
Politics and pageants
(Image: Mi Canal Peru)
This year alone provides excellent examples of how budding beauty queens are going beyond the ‘world peace’ stereotype.
The Miss Peru pageant (above) went viral after the 23 contestants sashayed on-stage in sequined mini dresses and, when the moment came to announce their name and measurements, they each offered the judges a different kind of figure.
“My measurements are 2,202 cases of feminicide reported in the last nine years in my country,” said contestant Miss Canicoba.
Other figures included: more than 70% of all women suffer street harassment; 13,000 girls are victims of sexual abuse in Peru and more than 25% of Peruvian girls are abused in their schools.
Other notable political stances in beauty pageants include: Chilean contestant Valentina Schnitzer declaring "the sea [Pacific Ocean] belongs to Bolivia", and Miss Texas Margana Wood branding the Charlottesville attack a terrorist incident, adding that Trump should have spoke out sooner.
We’d love to see a plus size girl win Miss Great Britain
Jemma Simmonds, Events & Operations Manager for Miss Great Britain
Meanwhile, the majority of contestants use the opportunity to forward their career – such as Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot who kicked off her acting opportunities after being named Miss Israel in 2013.
“It’s about what the girls want to achieve,” explained Simmonds. “They are using the pageant to their benefit.”
“People still cling onto the heyday of the 1970s,” she added. “When the men were the only judges and the girls wore swimsuits for every round.
“But we’ve gone through a big change where it’s more about the girls empowering themselves to use the competition as a platform, whether it’s for a career or their charity effort.”
While the Big Four may have limits when it comes to raising the profile of diverse beauty, several alternative competitions have launched specifically to do just that – most notably Miss Landmine and Miss Transgender – proving there is still room for innovation in what has traditionally been viewed as an exploitative industry.
But Simmonds is keen to point out a key fact that is often forgotten in the debate: women aren’t forced to enter.
“We wouldn’t be here if the girls weren’t applying to enter – stopping the choice for girls isn’t great either,” said Simmonds.
“When the girls stop entering, we’ll stop what we’re doing.”
