THERE are various theories as to when the first Beauty Contest was held, ranging from anywhere in the 1800s — some sources claim it was in the form of a medieval joust re-enactment in 1839 when they crowned a young woman as the “Queen of Beauty”.
Others see it starting with beauty contests that were publicized in newspapers in the 1850s, others in the 1880s, while another claims that the first “true beauty pageant in the modern sense of the word was not held until 1921, in Atlantic City, New Jersey”.
Whichever date is right, they have been going for some time, that is for sure.
The very term “beauty contest” must be contested though. Firstly, it cannot really be defined as a contest, rather an opinion — after all, the entrants do not have to do anything other than stand. How are the entrants competing?
Secondly, we should ask the age-old question: what is beauty? Who determines who is beautiful?
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, we are first advised by Margaret Wolff Hungerford, so who is to say that someone is more beautiful than someone else?
Then we have the English poet John Keats chipping in with “Beauty is truth: truth beauty”.
Does that mean that some of those entrants in beauty contests are not true?
- School of sport: Winning ugly
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We might reflect that it is similar in some ways (but different in others) to more recent contests found in reality television shows, like X Factor, where anyone can enter the talent competition and sing a short song before a panel of judges who then give their expert opinion on the performance but ultimately, the winner is not chosen by one person, or panel, or audience but by the whole wider public who phone in their vote as many times as they want and can afford.
The consequence is that it is not necessarily the best singer who wins; one contestant may just have a very rich grannie!
Indeed, it has happened that in a reality show when celebrities dance off against each other, viewers have voted for the worst celebrity because it was so much fun watching them do it so badly and embarrassingly.
Is that a contest? Is that beautiful? The performance is “ugly” but it wins! We laugh!
However, if that is the way we go with contests, then surely when it comes to sport, we should have two teams play a very short game, a panel of experts (they are called “pundits”, remember!) give their comments on the performance and then people can phone in (as many times as they like) and nominate who their winner will be. Would that be beautiful? Is that where we are heading?
Alternatively, why can we not watch a sporting match (the proper longer version), but then decide which team has played the most beautifully and declare it the winner?
Why do we not make it a beauty contest? We seem to like beauty contests!
However, many will immediately object to such a ridiculous suggestion (correctly) as they will declare that at times teams have to “win ugly” (incorrectly).
Coaches will argue that their job is to win, not to be nice and friendly and appealing.
They must do whatever it takes to win and who cares what others think of the performance?
They will not use substitutes, for example. Winning is all that counts — but is that beauty?
If we argue that we should accept “winning ugly”, then surely, we must also be as keen on “losing beautifully”? And also “losing ugly”.
And “winning beautifully”. Why is it only about “winning ugly”? Can we have the one without the other?
The losing beautifully would be in the sense that we accept defeat gracefully, with dignity, humility and integrity. Let all the pupils play, would be an example.
Literature down the centuries, even before beauty contests arrived, have explored different versions of stories of the ugly sisters — while they have always been seen as the villains, in some versions the ending is not dire.
What they do is get into the heroine’s life and do whatever they can to prevent her from enjoying life.
Interestingly, one book has defined the ugly sisters as covetousness, jealousy and envy.
All of that can equate to how we can see those ugly sisters (usually brothers but that is another, story) in school sports.
Winning ugly stirs up covetousness, jealousy and envy even more.
Beauty should not be determined by looks or appearance but by character, character on the sports field too.
Beauty is truth, after all, and the truth is that no-one’s value is determined by their appearance or their ability.
At school we do not need to win ugly; we need to learn and deal with truth (and winning), positively, fully, beautifully. Do we want ugliness in our schools? Seriously?
