Hera Diani

Piece of Mind: Expecting Beauty Queens To Have Brains is Simply Stupid

Three years ago, Nadine Chandrawinata, Miss Indonesia 2006, became a joke when she said “Indonesia is a beautiful city” in an interview at the Miss Universe pageant.

It was a good laugh, especially for regular people like myself who find it satisfying when beautiful people reveal their “dumb blonde” side and to prove that life can, after all, be fair.

But some people were seriously upset with Nadine, accusing her of blowing an opportunity to promote Indonesian tourism and tarnishing the image of the country.

Nadine’s predecessor turned House of Representatives legislator, Angelina Sondakh, also an avid campaigner of the “Beauty-Brain-Behavior” criteria, was among the critics, saying Nadine should have been better prepared.

I didn’t really pay attention to Miss Indonesia competitions afterward. But last weekend, through the magic of Twitter, I was exposed to the furor against this year’s beauty pageant contestants.

A local celebrity said he felt like throwing up after listening to the fake, superficial answers from the contestants. Another tweep commented how beauty queen criteria should be prioritized in the sequence of Brain-Behavior-Beauty to avoid embarrassing statements.

And then all hell broke loose when Acehnese Qory Sandioriva was crowned and said it was worth it to not wear the jilbab like other contestants from Aceh, the north Sumatran province that abides by Islamic Sharia law.

I have always been indifferent to beauty pageants. I’m not a fan, but am not against them either. The criticism of the contestants is baffling for me. People seem to forget that it is a beauty pageant, after all. It’s good if the contestants are smart, but if they give less than intelligent answers, let them be. It’s not the science Olympics.

What is it with the attempt to intellectualize beauty pageants? To break the stereotype that beautiful people are not necessarily dumb? I think people know that already. Or for the contestants to be able to promote their countries’ tourism if they make it to the international competition? Venezuelan beauty queen Stephania Fernandez is the reigning Miss Universe, but are tourists from all over the world flocking to Venezuela? I don’t think so.

Would a country’s image be tarnished by what beauty queens do? Looking back, Pamela Bordes, a Miss Universe contestant from India, turned out to be a call girl. Did it make anyone think less of India? Did it stop the country from becoming one of the global economic powerhouses? No.

Or perhaps because beauty pageants objectify women? I think feminism is about choice. There is a place for everyone, or every women in this case. If some women want to be models, beauty queens or Playboy bunnies, or have any other profession or take part in any activities that emphasize physical appearance, it is their right.

If human rights violations were occurring in beauty pageants — which is often in the case in the porn industry — then that would be a problem. But that really doesn’t seem to be the case.

It is rather hypocritical to intellectualize pageants. Sandioriva made a point about why the contestants wearing head coverings never won.

If people want to emphasize intelligence, put the pressure on our legislators so that only those with proven academic and activism merit can be our representatives in the House. Celebrities, former beauty queens included, who are only used as vote-getters, can stay away from House seats.

In the meantime, just sit back and enjoy another rerun of Miss Congeniality. It is funny, entertaining, and it shows exactly how a beauty pageant should be seen: With tongue firmly in cheek. And don’t forget, what do you all wish for? Yes, “World Peace.”

Hera Diani is an investigative reporter at the Jakarta Globe.