admin Bruce Ndlovu
During the 1999 Miss World pageant, Botswanaa��s Mpule Kwelagobe was asked what, if any, action should be taken if the Miss World winner fell pregnant after she had already been crowned.
a�?Personally I think Miss Universe as a symbol of a womanA� should celebrate her femininity. And I believe that if she got pregnant, you are not supposed to end the title. But, as a woman she should celebrate her femininity. Thank you,a�? she replied to raucous applause.
It was an exemplary answer from the Botswana representative who went on to be crowned the last Miss Universe of the 20th century.
The ramp has always been used as exhibit when the conservative in society want to point how the beauty and nakedness on stage is a symbol of how torn modern societya��s morality is.
The erudite Kwelagobe showed a remarkable grasp and understanding of a potential that probably haunts any winner of of a pageant that is obsessed with stripping any sign of sexuality from some of the most picturesque women from all corners of the earth.
Before and after Kwelagobea��s romp to victory at the 1999 showpiece, pageant organisers from around the world have thus not only been pre-occupied with finding a beauty who is not only comfortable strutting in heels but has the former Miss Botswanaa��s off the cuff grasp of societal issues.
This yeara��s high profile pageants could not be a more stark illustration of this and Zimbabwe has been at the forefront.
On Wednesday, the Miss Tourism Zimbabwe held its first auditions for this yeara��s pageant in the City of Kings. The beauty who will walk away with the crown from this yeara��s edition of the pageant should be a proud holder of a diploma or degree, with an A a�?level certificate being the minimum requirement.
This is ostensibly because the winner will be seen as an ambassador for the country and so the more educated the better. This is similar to the stringent requirements for the aborted Miss Zimbabwe pageant, which placed an emphasis on students at A a�?level and university, while also requiring that models swear an oath that they had no nude pictures lying about somewhere. The latter requirement is thought to have scared away a lot of beauty queens, who might be at the mercy of former partners that might still possess compromising pictures.
One thus wonders whether the countrya��s beauty contests have now become about everything else but beauty. Models, mainly because of their beauty, have been harshly stereotyped as dumb and the hair brained responses of some beauty queens down the years have helped reinforce this stereotype.
However, expecting intellectual answers from beauty queens has led to many pageants losing out on potential models.
When footballers give puzzling post match interviews that reveal low thinking capacities, soccer bosses dona��t react by asking them to acquire academic qualifications. Of course it is great to see great brains accompanying a soccer stara��s great feet, but that is not prioritised in football and so why should it in modelling?
According to Nokuthaba Sibanda who has groomed many a model in the city, the intellectual part of modelling is here to stay as its essential.
a�?We are moving away from the dumb blonde stereotype because when they go to the international stage they compete with people with PHDs. If you are just beautiful then your beauty has no purpose. However, if a model does not have all these academic qualifications but is smart enough, I think you can make concessions,a�? she said.
Online Reporter