This year’s edition of Miss Universe Contest created history with it’s inclusivity and acceptance. It was the first of it’s kind in so many aspects. Miss Pakistan pioneered her country’s representation on the ramp. Miss Nepal flaunted her curves brimming with confidence, advocating the significance of mental health and body positivity.
Miss Columbia and Miss Guatemala are wives and mothers. Miss Portugal and Miss Netherlands are transwomen who seldom get to represent their countries in an all-women pageant.
For me, Miss Universe and Miss World were always about Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai. As a 9th grade student, their victory was like a dream come true. Glamour, fame, tiaras, brands, and accolades, the two women encouraged many young girls like me to fantasize about a new avenue for wealth and popularity, to think beyond academics and marriage.
A couple of years down the line and I realized how futile my dreams had been. Well, for starters, I was 7-8 inches too short for the minimum height requirement and fat as per societal standards. Plus, I knew I wouldn’t grow any taller or thinner.
It all seems funny now when I recollect my teenage ambitions, but back then, beauty contests had begun to hurt. Miss India contests caught everyone’s attention, our beauty queens won internationally, many joined Bollywood, and soon the criteria for beauty changed, forever.
5’7″ height, 50 kg weight, 24 years of age, flawless complexion, beautiful smile, and perfect body statistics 36-24-36.
How could I ever match up to the standards? And it’s not only me, I wonder how many women we see around us daily could equal these yardsticks?
So what do we do to come close to these unrealistic goals? Diet, starve, work out, and purchase products from expensive brands. For skin lightening, hair smoothening, teeth whitening, in fact, there’s a solution now, for the minutest flaw. Anti-aging serums are the most unbelievable of all, I mean, aging is a natural process and there are lotions to stop that, with leading models and actresses endorsing them.
Where does it leave me then, I won’t grow taller, can’t lose weight, nor can I afford the brands. I have to swallow my pride and accept my societal ugliness. Would I be wrong in saying that beauty contests are the most brutal form of patriarchy, defining beauty as a measure of physical statistics, which a certain bunch of chauvinists thought was right?
That’s why this year’s edition of Miss Universe Pageant feels like a whiff of fresh air. The organizers bent the rules to accommodate women of all nature, defying the conventional unhealthy norms of perfect beauty. Six women broke the shackles of body shaming, age shaming, and gender, to set a platform for naturality and acceptance. The pageant has definitely taken a step forward in celebrating the real woman, hope we get to see many more of such instances, liberating women from unrealistic expectations.