How Miss Peru contestants used beauty pageant stage to empower women
The winners of the 2016 Miss Universe pageant. Reuters/File
In a startling break from tradition, contestants of Peru's Miss Universe Pageant this year used the stage to announce statistics about the growing menace of targeted violence against women in their country, instead of their "vital stats", that is physical measurements.
Crimes against women are rife in Peru, and any initiative to highlight the issue is welcome. Any popular and widely televised event is a great medium to create awareness about the problem.
But what makes this initiative pack a special punch, and therefore all the more laudable, is that this was a beauty pageant, and the statistics were being announced by women who were supposed to reel off their bust, waist and hip measurements.
Participants in Peru's Miss Universe broke with tradition and recited statistics detailing violence against women https://t.co/q3rBAHBQ8E pic.twitter.com/RjbodaWhVL
— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) November 1, 2017
Later on, during the swimsuit segment - the most-criticised round of the competition - the women in bikinis posed against the backdrop of pictures of assaulted women.
The statistics of horrific crimes being read out by women in shimmery mini dresses, and gorgeous contestants in swimsuits standing against pictures of attacked women, presented a stark contrast, enough to jolt any viewer.
The initiative has used an event traditionally seen as the festival of women objectification to send out a powerful message - that this parade of beauty was taking place in a country where women are horrifically at risk, but more importantly, that glamour and social consciousness aren't mutually exclusive.
The event not only helped create awareness about violence against women, it gave back control of beauty pageants in the hands of participating women.
It proved that beauty pageants contestants are not dumb dolls, that a woman conforming to established beauty standards and using her looks to compete for a tiara and sash is equally qualified to speak on social and political issues.
Beauty pageants have been attacked, and to a large measure rightly so, for promoting objectification of women, for making women compete against each other to establish who has a better figure, a better face, a more lady-like manner.
The very fact that contestants are made to announce their "measurements" to a crowded room has been found odious, and the swimsuit round is seen as a titillation fest to ogle bikini-clad women and judge who has the best curves. There have been calls over the years for banning the events altogether.
However, true empowerment lies in not doing away with the pageant, but in surrendering its agency to the contestants.
If women wish to, why should they not make a career out of being beautiful? The assumption that every beauty pageant contestant is a pawn in the game played by men and is allowing herself to be a display object for lust is disempowering, and takes away the agency and choice of the participant.
This also propagates the idea that pretty women are vacuous, that those who pay too much attention to their appearance are removed from matters of greater importance. This notion cuts both ways – women have to de-sex themselves to be taken seriously, and then their self-esteem is attacked by calling them “unattractive”.
Beauty pageants have been organised by men, are sexist and promote objectification. But the fact that women are taking back what has traditionally been a mechanism of their dehumanisation, and using it to make their voice heard, is very heartening.
The Miss Peru contestants have managed to catch the attention of the world. As they posed in swimsuits, they sent out the message that they were strong-minded women celebrating and parading their beauty by choice, which is as empowering as a woman receiving an academic degree or speaking in a legislative body.
The event proved that a celebration of women's beauty can be empowering, and activism is just as powerful when walking gracefully on six-inch heels.