Aren’t beauty contests a waste of time?

THERE is a growing trend in Tanzania of organising beauty contests and honestly, other than for commercial reasons I fail to see much by way of reason to support the hosting of such contests.

The girls walk on stage with their mascarred lashes, manicured hands and hair done up in a hundred and odd different ways and with their feet made up down to their toenails they raise their tweezed eyebrows and pout their glossy lips to the gleeful audience who applaud. However is this all really a big deal?

Let's objectively look at the merits of the case. What degree of effort does it entail? How would it, say, compare with carrying heavy pitchers of water on the head across marshy fields first thing every morning like so many disadvantaged Tanzanian girls? Or having to battle inequality and stigma like so many others still without the benefit of either education or opportunity? Or even having to work from morning to night in order to earn a paltry salary like scores of women in this country with nothing but duties?

None of these concerns bother many of us because our world is urbane and advantaged and for many of us life is not a relentless fight but a self-indulgent fancy whereby we easily find reasons to justify parading our women with or without scanty clothing in the name of style.

Today we see ordinary looking girls winning beauty contests. I am told you don't need to be a terrific looker in the conventional sense. What you need is the urban invention, meaning attitude. If you've got a relentless ambition and drive to stick it out and have no hesitation to shed your modesty in a stylish way, the chances are you could get lucky sometimes and win a contest.

Everybody owes it to themselves to develop their personality to its optimum, to look as good as they can and feel the happier for it. But it's strange that this exercise in self indulgence should be organised by way of grand pageants which lure contestants with huge cash awards and gifts.

In favour of beauty contests, it is often said that they offer the opportunity of a lifetime to unknown young girls. What type of opportunity is being talked about here? Take a look at any of the winners of past contests in Tanzania and see what the girls end up doing with all that "opportunity" which was promised to them --- nothing much. On the other hand, ask a man why he fancies beauty contests and if he is a supporter he will tell you its fun to watch the girls dress to undress or because the
girls sensually arouse him. Don’t the girls who walk the stage know this? Surely they do.