Miss Beautiful Morals Pageant

Now this is something I can get into…’cos well, you know, I prolly would never make it in the swimsuit portion of any other pageant!

When I hear the word pageant, it evokes many different feelings and images - I think of Little Miss Sunshine’s dance act, as well as that made for TV movie with Kirstie Alley - think they try to kill (or badly maim) other contestants…based off of a true story (I could be wrong here…) and then there is of course lil’ Jon Benet Ramsey, in all her harlequin-esque (read: too much for a 5 year old) make up.  And then of course there is the most recent debacle of Miss USA, Carrie Prejean saying that she didn’t agree in Gay Marriage…whatevs.

So, in my most recent issue of National Geographic, I ran across an article about a very cool pageant happening in Saudia Arabia - the Miss Beautiful Morals Pageant.    These Muslim women are not allowed to wear westerner clothing - they spend their daily lives in their veils and black abayas.   According to the event founder, Khadra al-Mubarak, “The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants’ commitment to Islamic morals… It’s an alternative to the calls for decadence in the other beauty contests that only take into account a woman’s body and looks” .  I happen to dig this idea and for a couple of reasons.

1. Women are consistently objectified (in television and movies, in print marketing campaigns, and other ways)
2. Women tend to be exploited based on the fact that they are well, women
3. Not all women are created equal - that is coming from a girl who is a true size 12/14 (always have been) with a size 10 foot, that stands 6′1″ in heels.  Am I bound for supermodel skinny-ness?  Not really….I think the least I’ve ever weighed in MY LIFE was 155 lbs and that was when I joined the Air Force.  Some of us just aren’t built like Kate Moss or Iman. 

This also leads me to another thought I’ve had recently about marketing campaigns and how they target certain audiences…The ads on billboards and in Cosmo, with the emaciated, crack skinny bitch wearing next to nothing speaks loudly to the girls in this country…and it screams in their ears that they MUST BE SKINNY to be accepted.

About 10 years ago, I was on the road for business and happened to catch Dateline or 20/20 one night in my hotel.  The episode was absolutely heartbreaking - it was about a couple who had devoted their entire lives to helping girls with eating disorders, at their ranch.  They fought uphill battles every day with families and young ladies who had let themselves drop to 90, 80, sometimes 60 lbs…some irretrievably ill and most on their way to die.  But at the half way mark of this gut wrenching show, a commercial came on…and you’ll never believe what it was?!?

Kate Moss, came across the screen, wearing nothing but a gauzy, white top as she rolled around in the sand, talking about her love for Eternity…and then the program resumed.

Who the hell thought that this was in good taste?  You’re going to put Kate Moss on, during a program that may or may not be reaching out to people in the US that have eating disorders?  Seriously, I was infuriated…I wanted to call the network and give ‘em what for…but I’m sure it would fall on deaf ears, so I didn’t.

Okay…::Moving soapbox back under sofa:: so back to this cool idea for Beautiful Morals…

Isn’t it what’s on the inside that counts? 

This began last year with 75 contestants - and this year’s pageant has more than doubled in size with 200 contestants, that will compete over a 10 week period of time learning different aspects and taking tests on things such as “Discovering Your Inner Strenght” and “The Making of Leaders” as well as “Mom, Paradise Is At Your Feet” which is an Islamic saying from Prophet Muhammad stating that the respect for your parents  is among the faith’s most important values.   And strangely enough there are quite a few of the young women, aged 15-25, that say if they are not awarded the crown or title, they feel they have won in spirit for the devotion that they show to their elders.

So here’s to you ladies!!!  Good luck to all of you and thank you for being beautiful!!!