For Maxine and her sisters
One of the risks of speaking up against beauty pageants is that you may get accused of committing “hate speech” against those who look much better than you. So let’s be clear: this is not another rant against beauty pageants. Far too many people already make it their business to tell others how they should live and what choices they should make. What you’ll read here is inspired by a different, and hopefully less judgmental, impulse.
As Bb. Pilipinas, the model and interior designer Maxine Medina has drawn more attention than anyone would probably like, and not all of it charitable. Of the Filipinos who follow pageants—and that seems to be a large, vocal group—some have criticized Medina for an imperfect command of English and her recent comment about Imelda Marcos having “invented” the terno. To her credit, Medina quickly apologized for the terno comment and has expressed openness to the idea of working with an interpreter on pageant night, if that will help her answer questions more clearly. She had the grace to express these statements without asking how many of her critics would have the discipline and tenacity to improve themselves the way she has done.
There’s something I wish was different, though. I wish that more of us had paid equal (if not more) attention to the historic marches that took place last weekend, as to the whirl of events leading up to tomorrow’s Miss Universe pageant. Last weekend, anywhere from 3.3 million to 5.4 million individuals joined marches in the United States to press for women’s rights. That the marches took place during Donald Trump’s first weekend in office was no coincidence. Many of those present joined the marches to protest against the racism, misogyny and Islamophobia that they feared Trump would enable. Outside the United States, at least 914 other events were also organized in the same weekend, bringing together 266,532 to 357,071 participants. The estimates gathered by Jeremy Pressman of the University of Connecticut and Erica Chenoweth of the University of Denver do not include a report from Quezon City, where an Associated Press journalist photographed a group of Filipinas gathered in protest. In the center of that photograph are two women who wore red. Both had one arm each up in the air, fists clenched. Their beauty is not the kind that will win pageants, but it exists, nonetheless. That they have found the time in their hectic, probably chore-filled lives to go out and speak up for other women: that is what makes them beautiful.
The arguments against beauty pageants are so old they would fit snugly in the fossil record. Yes, pageants can preserve impossible standards of feminine beauty. Yes, they can distract us from other, more urgent concerns. Yes, we face far bigger challenges than overtaking Venezuela in the number of Miss Universe and Miss International titles held.
But the fact that women are free to join these pageants is worth celebrating. Choice always is, in a world where millions of women are still forbidden to do certain things—like drive or vote or seek high public office or speak up against dirty old men or choose whom to love. Imagine the kind of attention and resources that beauty queens could draw to important issues, like the education of girls or closing the gender wage gap, if they put their minds and their influence to it.
Whatever happens tomorrow, our hope is that Miss Medina will continue to lead a life of fulfillment, and, if she wants, perhaps even use her considerable advantages to bring that gift to the lives of more women. And to foster world peace, of course.