I am now calling an end to my pageant life. I have always wanted to try pageant since that being a beauty queen is my childhood infatuation. I wonder why pageants work? The mystique. I know is kinda old-fashioned of social events but people are still attracted to this concept? Well, essentially, in the sociological context, beauty queens are symbolic representations of collective cultural identities. And beauty pageants operate as avenues of commodification and consumption in a world influenced by globalization and media. It is true that our society places a huge emphasis on physical beauty, because we are all beings who enjoy seeing beautiful things- especially beautiful girls. How to judge beauty? This is totally subjective as the old saying “ Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. How does Beauty Queens win pageants?.
From the recent case of Ris Low, pageant news are always at the center of attention. Often I hear from others that pageants are unfair and are totally biased. I do not believe that pageant organizers will pre-select the winner before the pageant even started. However, finalists play a major role in winning the crown regardless that you are the pre-determined winner. By holding an accomplished resume, I then decided to carry out my research on the nature of beauty pageants, which I won some, lost some. Like an anthropologist, I stepped into the realm of Pageants and Beauty Queens!
From the recent case of Ris Low, pageant news are always at the center of attention. Often I hear from others that pageants are unfair and are totally biased. I do not believe that pageant organizers will pre-select the winner before the pageant even started. However, finalists play a major role in winning the crown regardless that you are the pre-determined winner. By holding an accomplished resume, I then decided to carry out my research on the nature of beauty pageants, which I won some, lost some. Like an anthropologist, I stepped into the realm of Pageants and Beauty Queens!
HOW NOT TO WIN A BEAUTY PAGEANT
Do not possess good PR skills
If you are not a PR person, my advice to you is stop dreaming to become a beauty queen. Finalists should be able to communicate with EVERYONE during the pageant. Not just selected people. Furthermore, the capabilities of making everyone comfortable talking is equally important as you can speak with the Queen's English. A Beauty Queen should be able to communicate well and friendly to the rest because the chosen one will be the ambassador for the next one year.
Not a good exhibitionist
A Beauty Queen need to look good in every occasion, literally means that a Beauty Queen needs to look great every second! You need to have your prefect hair and make up all the time. Cameras are shooting at the Beauty Queen 24/7, that is why a Beauty Queen has to look good all the time. If you are not a dress up lady, or you do not like to put on make-up, then pageant is not for you. Throughout my pageants experience, I personally think that those finalists who constantly look good in any event and occasion are the potential winners. You would not want an under-dressed girl and suddenly you see her transformed into mega-star only for the final night. Organizers and public want a winner who can possess the femininity, poise and elegance throughout her reign period, not just for some special events. Hence, you need to be an exhibitionist at all events. Please prepare to bear your own costs of beautifying yourself.
Learn your performance for talent presentation at last minute
There are many girls who aim to win the talent contest by learning their dance moves or singing at the very last minute. Originally, talent contest means that you have some kind of special talent to perform on stage and your special talent will capture the audience heart. However, there are many contestants who will learn some last minute routine or prepare some songs just to make themselves occupied and look good in the talent round. If you fail to present the talent the way that is expected, then you are making a fool of yourself. Please do not learn your talent at last minute, is better to tell the organizers that you do not have a talent then making a fool of yourself in front of others.
Failure to build rapport with the Chaperons : Behold, The Virtual Queen Makers
Last but not least, the chaperons.
Chaperons do play a crucial part of the whole evaluation during the the selection process. Let me recount the history of the beginning of chaperons in beauty pageants. Early organizers were worried that the girls would be distracted and led astray so they invented chaperons for the contestants and brought into the contest a degree of supervision that assured that they are perfect embodiment of female virtue. In the modern day beauty pageants please do not underestimate their power as they are the eyes of the judges and they can be ultra vires in their actions. They can control the media coverage and present your attitude evaluation to the public. However, this evaluation may be superficial, as it is not within their job scope to judge the finalists' character. They are not professionally trained in human science nor as psychologists to give you any judgments. Therefore, molly-coddling chaperons will assist in a big part of getting the crown.
Chaperons are so powerful that they can influence to shape others to perceive you. Even if you have fake nose, fake boobs, or even caught smoking in the pageant, they can help you to hide the reality because you fraternize and molly-coddle them! There will be lots of SELECTIVE reporting style from the chaperons to the judges. In fact, favoritism can exist among Chaperons but not the organizers or the judges. The reporting starts from the chaperons, so make sure that you court the chaperons like Queens!
Also, another thing to be wary is to obey the chaperon's orders during the pageant. If you failed to do that, they take umbrage, and then you can be easily categorized as having an ATTITUDE problem. If a chaperon does not like you, then this is the easiest way to bring you down in the pageant. Situation such as lateness and answering back to the chaperons. These are the things that can easily bring you down, though there were no evidence nor substance to support that statement. How can you judge a person's attitude in a few days? I cant even make judgment of my friends even I know them for years? Strange? But this is the pageant reality.
Chaperons are way too scary to mess around. Treat them like Queens during your boot camp, no two ways about it. Chaperons have a stereotyped perception of themselves and also they have a stereotyped perception of the contestants. It's as if the chaperon's sub-text “It behooves I am to be respected. And it behooves you respect me!” Professionally chaperons are supposed to assist, look after the contestants and ideally give encouraging words to allay the nervousness of the contestants, not put pressure and become hostile and expect all contestants to be docile and obedient. It behooves on chaperons themselves to have a high level of tolerance instead of it behooves only on the contestants to be resilient and tolerant. It is not surprising chaperons always have nice things to say about the judges when they meet and greet them but treat some contestants like they are from Adam.
Rule of thumb, please prepare for surprises at the finals. There is always a Dark Horse. For those who want to follow a beauty pageant path , I wish you all the best in this endeavor.
