Beauty Queens and the Capitalist Beast

Vijay Prashad

















overconsumption on the international stage is less well known. Founded right



promotional device for Mr. Morley’s company, Mecca, which is what he called a

‘leisure group’ (travels, entertainment, etc., all at a high price). In 1970,

Mrs. Morley coined the phrase ‘Beauty with a Purpose’ and they took what was



prestigious until CBS television and Donald Trump took over the enterprise in

late 1996. Before the early 1990s, the Miss Universe pageant was as ‘Universal’

as the US baseball championships that are called the ‘World Series.’ CBS-Trump




history of bringing together some of the most impressive, beautiful and

interesting women from many backgrounds and cultures and then helping them

achieve their goals.” Miss World makes the same claims.





share in places like India. CBS-Trump’s Miss Universe pageant conceived of

something called ‘Big Event Television,’ a hugely promoted event that draws a




an opiate, the Bread and Circuses of current capitalism.




strangers to the winner’s circle at the pageants. In the Miss World pageant, the


finalists (’70, ’72, ’75, ’78, ’80, and ’91) followed her. At the lesser Miss

Universe, six semi-finalists and finalists (’66, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’90, and ’92)

forged the path for Sushmita Sen’s victory in 1994. But the victories have come









creation of desire transforms luxuries into necessities).



by bourgeois nationalists. Sushmita and Aishwarya saved India from the Surat



Reality can be easily occluded by big event television. After Ms. Dutta’s

victory, Femina’s editor Sathya Saran wrote in <The Economic Times> that

‘today, reality has overreached the dreamI The country is proud, happy. But not

surprised.’ Utter drivel. The country is still in the midst of a drought that

effects 100 million people, at the very least. And most of the ‘country’ had no

idea that this graduate of St. Xavier’s (Mumbai) spent the last three weeks in


island (Cyprus spent $7 million on the effort).


reason feminists and other leftists across the world are unhappy with the




protests outside the basketball stadium (decorated like a Greek amphitheater)


kind of universalism. A banner proclaimed that ‘we want schools and hospitals,’




garbage bags told the press that ‘I’m a teacher and we have to beg for handouts

and we are wasting money here on this pageant. Why?’ Indeed, why? Simply to


contemporary capitalism than social justice and ethical conduct.



the contestants was ‘what would you say to those who condemn the contest as an

affront to women?’ Lara Dutta’s answer appealed to the judges: ‘pageants like




independent as we are today.’ Of course Ms. Dutta is entitled to her own




forces. But one can still muse over these ‘choices and opinions,’ especially how


Women’s Association or of Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia (whose




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