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Photo Essay: I Love Beauty Parades
Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta
Yes, Sir. I do love them. I was in sunny Bangalore when the whole hoo haa about the Miss World beauty pageant blew up in 1996. Well, I have to thank Ganesh, Imhotep, Confucius, Zeus and the great Pasta God aka Great Flying Spaghetti Monster with meat balls in the sky, that I stayed in the same hotel as those lovely ladies and my eyes were almost perpetually on stalks. So while it was young spotty hormone driven time way back then, now I have moved on (I think).
I know all the very well known arguments against female beauty parades. Here's a great article by Choodie Shivaram on this issue and I am taking the liberty to quote few lines from her article.
""demeaning to our culture," "devaluing to our tradition," "promoting vulgarity and obscenity," and "a disgrace to womanhood." ...... Communists deplored the event as capitalist exploitation of women and part of the multi-national corporations' carefully planned plundering of India. Women's groups found the event degrading to women.
Quite so, but at the same time, hey, I am an observer and while at the same time, I can slightly see the objections, I also am an appreciative lover of human beauty. Take this joke "photoshopped" picture for example on the left while the real David is on the right
I am sure Michelangelo would be rolling in his grave but that's not beautiful to me even though it is just a plump version of his David. And irrespective of which statue you like, you do know that one arm of that statue is broken and then repaired? You still like and admire that statue, no? A disabled statue, so to speak.
So then I read the news that now Cambodia will play host to Miss Landmine 2009. I quote:
Miss Landmine parades beautiful female landmine victim amputees on the catwalk as they compete to win prosthetic limbs....
See this line?
the pageant has drawn howls of protest from rights activists and feminists, who brand it colonialist, racist, sexist and exploitative.
Sounds familiar? But go back to the woman. Since I have started working in London (many decades now), I have known many colleagues who have lost their breasts after a mastectomy. And one thing was common on every piece of advice and gossip and reading and research and talking about it, that it is not the loss of the breast(s) or the surgery itself that hurts the most, it is the fear that they will no longer be attractive.
And spare me the gumpf about how sexist it is. Everybody likes to look good and feel appreciated, nothing wrong in that. While I am not so sure about the fact that the contestants have to compete to get prosthetic limbs (give it to them, that's what a public health service is all about), but generally, the idea of a disabled beauty pageant is not bad at all. And I am not even touching the topic of landmines at all (but promise to do so later on).
Still, here are women, who due to no fault of their own, no longer have all their limbs. Still for a wrong purpose, they are going to show off their beauty, something like this. Beautiful girls, the fact that they are in a wheelchair is incidental. They still look beautiful and attractive.
I am going to get slated for this, but hey, here goes nothing. Here are some photographs of women who I would find attractive.
Both have a lovely smiles, twinkling eyes and that shows a very attractive persona.
How about this debate about the disabled pregnant woman statue in London's Trafalgar Square?
The statue on the left is said to be the personification of Venus de Milo in the Louvre. So if you can admire the right hand side, can't you admire the left hand side? Once you have seen that, read the story about the real life woman behind the statue.
Now see this real life photograph of a disabled naked woman which resembles the two statues above. Attractive? Beautiful? Wonderful? Sexy? Adorable? Lovely? Cuddly? All these and more. Nothing wrong with it at all.
Would I wolf whistle at these beauty pageant contestants shown below? Yes, Sir, I sure would.
Below is a photograph of a lady who won one of these pageants. You go girl, and she is damn attractive. She is beautiful and wonderful, and the loss of a limb does not take anything away from her. Her eyes display a determination and a love of life seldom found these days.
And there is a swimsuit competition as well as. And yes, I am sexist in saying that I find these women attractive too. So yes, I do love these pageants. I find these women attractive, and yes, even if they are disabled (and no, I do not suffer from apotemnophilia), they are beautiful because beauty is not just the presence or absence of some limbs but is in the eye of the beholder.
Deepa Krishnan
URL
April 21, 2008
11:48 AM
disturbing, thought-provoking. i'm still pondering over my response.
Guido
April 21, 2008
12:28 PM
BD,
Interesting essay. Where does the motivation for this type of material arise?
You have courage. Not many would be willing to broach the subject with such personal subjectivity. You have really let your defenses down. I'm happy you give exposure (no pun intended) to beauty less often celebrated.
Real beauty of course transcends all physicality regardless of condition. But that's a completely different subject.
Ciao, Guido
Temple Stark
URL
April 21, 2008
01:00 PM
Yes, they are beautiful, all, but your descriptions almost (I said almost) classify you as a fetishist.
But couldn't they come up with a better title than Miss Landmine? I mean it sound's like a joke and landmines are either round and dumpy or flat and featureless, so it's not exactly living up to anything attractive.
Miss Kaboom doesn't quite do it.
Miss Amputee , borders on language redundancee.
Miss Missing
Miss Apprehension
Miss Step
Miss Under Stood (shade's of Shakespeare's, Madame Overdone).
Miss Taken
bd
URL
April 21, 2008
06:18 PM
Dee, I read this story about the Miss Landmine 2 days ago and I had the first reaction, what the hell? and then well, started to think about it further, put myself in the woman's mind and body, and well, what you see above is what I got.
bd
URL
April 21, 2008
06:30 PM
#2, well, there was no motivation other than reading that news story and then thinking a bit about it.
But nothing to do with courage, mate. I guess just weird enough to blog about it, lol.
I went through a tiny bit similar experience, after an accident, I was on crutches for about 18 months. People react differently to disabled people. The almost constant pity party (on both sides) is bloody weird. But I as a man took full advantage of it, it was great as a pick up tool.
But for a woman, it is different and that's sort of something that stuck in my throat. When a woman is disabled, when why do men think that their sex appeal is lost? Or they are no longer attractive? See the links for the psych impacts...
bd
URL
April 21, 2008
06:34 PM
lol temple #3, nice suggestions, I am sure the organisers would love to pick those up.
As for being a fetishist (almost). Hmmmm, worth pondering about. Given that I just thought about it 2 days ago, not sure that the full blown fetish is in place yet. So I think I will get it develop, lol.
temporal
URL
April 21, 2008
08:26 PM
beady:
as for the pageant - p t barnum!
less seriously: the beauty pageants are exloitative, discriminative and crass
and this one is more so
i'd rather this be where plato deemed it be...
Temple Stark
URL
April 21, 2008
11:16 PM
I used to think they were exploitive but a lot of successful people are former pageant winners.
Did they get their success just by looks? I think that's a condescending approach, though also true in some cases. But likely not as true as most people who are "less beautiful" would like to admit.
That's true of men and women, regardless of whether they have appeared in pageants or not.
Life isn't all about beauty on the outside, obviously, but if someone is stunningly gorgeous, they have to learn what to do with that, and it can be a learning experience. To have pageants as an outlet is one fairly benign alternative.
I think of Cindy Crawford mostly when I think of this. I remember reading, somewhere, her difficulties growing up. Of course, those who think, "damn I wish I had her looks," are unlikely to be very sympathetic.
And the dumb ones become the stereotype because of 1) expectations bestowed upon them by society and 2) The aforementioned jealous types would much rather talk about the dumb bimbos than the smart hottie, because that makes it even worse for them to think about.
... Think about the fact that guys really every watch these pageants, to think about how exploitive or discriminative they might be.
Crass is undisputed.
bd
URL
April 22, 2008
02:56 AM
t #7, chuckles at the mention of PT Barnum, well, there you go, you have the link, it is, after all, entertainment for the masses...
bd
URL
April 22, 2008
03:03 AM
#8, well, exploitative would be, if you did not pay a fair wage or remuneration to the participants. It is no different from any other industrial or service activity. If it means, it exploits young girls, then again, that is no different from the modelling industry or the advertising agency...., So we have to be clear about what we mean by exploitative.
Discriminative? Sure, who wants to see a Mr. Universe with a plug ugly like me? lol. Same with hiring and firing, what's the probability of you hiring a plug ugly for say being a news caster or receptionist? :) How about the movies? so on and so forth. The fact that there are 1 out of 1000 as comparatively bad looking does not change the fact that we as humans are discriminatory anyway.
But I meant the article from the perspective of me watching. Yes, I watched the pageants, and admired the beauty. Some time before, I was a teenager and well, there was beauty..., did I care about discrimination? or exploitation? Nope.
But in this case, I do think that it is so because a basic human right of medicine is being exploited (provision of prosthetic limbs). So yes, this is definitely exploitation! :)
as for crass, well, lol, let us not go there, our tastes for what is crass and what is good is a value judgement. Some people object to the fan some to the fan dancer as the quote goes... :)
Temple Stark
URL
April 22, 2008
04:18 AM
I was responding to temporal's comment more than anything in my second comment just to see if he could do more to back up his assertions. ...
Your reply added something, as well.
- Temple
temporal
URL
April 22, 2008
11:47 AM
TS:
noted:)
will respond a little later
rumana husain
URL
April 22, 2008
12:44 PM
you know what, we are currently running a campaign for the rights of the disabled: a petition for our new government to sign and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and to date our participating school children have managed to collect 65,000 signatures. we are hoping to meet our target of 100,0000 signatures before we take up the petition to the prime minister. please sign the online petition on our website: www.cmphr.org thanks.
rumana husain
URL
April 22, 2008
12:49 PM
sorry,i inadvertently added a zero: we are hoping to collect 100,000 signatures on the petition.
temporal
URL
April 23, 2008
04:23 PM
TS #8 and 11:
(chuckle)
this:
I used to think they were exploitive but a lot of successful people are former pageant winners.
and
That's true of men and women, regardless of whether they have appeared in pageants or not.
do not rhyme;)
i agree btw - women (and men) have risen with/without pageants alright
in fact some of them could never have come up through the pageant route
my barnum reference was lost on beady! ... hope you got it ... a sucker blah blah:)
the symposium quote was a hint that beauty should be left alone
agree with dumbo/smartie remarks:)
***
(sigh)
***
as long as tires are manufactured and sold beauty pageants would be in vogue
cheers:)
Temple Stark
URL
April 23, 2008
10:49 PM
No problem temporal, I know (well, hope) you like to raise discussions but also come from what you believe. I do, as well, unless I'm trying to be funny.
Very trying. Not usually funny, though I have moments.
Beauty can't be left alone. It drives everything as much as money - and of course the two are historically intertwined with the world's oldest profession. .. I speak of lawyers, of course ;-)
bd
April 24, 2008
09:34 AM
as the quote goes,
"people say that beauty is only skin deep, its deep enough, what do you want? an adorable pancreas?"
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