Emine Saner reports on a disturbing development at London’s top universities, Beauty Contests.
Over the past few months, a series of beauty contests has been held in London. Last week, for instance, Lile He, a politics and economics student, was named Miss School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), at a pageant staged at a nightclub. And at the final in February she will compete against female students from five other universities – including the London School of Economics (LSE), King’s College and University College London. Source: The Guardian.
Thankfully
While some women have clearly embraced the pageant concept with open arms, the contest is a source of consternation and protest for others. At the “Miss Soas” event there was a rally, with around 40 students carrying banners and signs, and shouting slogans such as “Soas is for education, not for your ejaculation!” Eleanor James, women’s officer at the Soas Student Union, helped to organise the protest and says that she sees the beauty contest “as part of the backlash against the fragile gains that feminism has won. I think it’s really sad this is happening, but it doesn’t surprise me because, at the moment in universities, you find pole dancing societies; because of top-up fees, there are students who work in lap-dancing clubs. So having a beauty pageant is a natural progression.” Source: The Guardian.
Pole dancing societies? What on earth for? Still things are even more sinister. Emine Saner writes of the set-up for the Miss University London event.
Most of the preliminary rounds are being held at the Crystal Club in London, which markets itself as an exclusive venue that has “hosted some of the world’s most celebrated elite society”. There is a £15 fee to get in, with tables then costing up to £1,000. To have a bottle of vodka or champagne delivered to your table costs at least £150, while drinks at the bar average around £8. It seems very expensive for students. “You do get students who can afford that,” says organiser Christian Emile, a former student at LSE. “If you want to come and have a drink at the bar, that’s fine. But if you want a £1,000 table, that’s also fine.” The tickets are available by guestlist and Emile admits that the contest isn’t only open to a student audience. According to some reports, around a third of the 300 people at one event were not students, but older men. Source: The Guardian.
Wearing the proverbial dirty macs I’d hazard a guess. But, oh it just gets worse.
Emile plans to launch his beauty contests in university cities around the country over the next few years, and there is already a popular national competition, Miss Student UK, which advertises at freshers’ fairs and in nightclubs popular among students: the first prize is £10,000. The website for Miss Student UK includes pictures and videos uploaded by women, in which they are often wearing nothing more than a bikini or underwear, or are dressed as Playboy bunnies. Source: The Guardian.
Of course organiser, Christian Emile claims “We don’t have a bikini contest, the girls wear evening dresses of their own choosing and there are a series of questions to demonstrate their personality and charisma.” Still you wouldn’t know it from the below image that graces the top of the “your university” pages. Not encouraging those bikini’s, underwear or bunny girl photos at all then.
I’ll leave the last words to Katie Curtis and Ruby Buckley, I couldn’t say it better myself.
Katie Curtis, the National Union of Students’ women’s officer, says that “it is unacceptable for events which objectify women to take place in our educational institutions. Universities should be about expanding people’s minds, not judging them on their appearance.”
Ruby Buckley, women’s officer at LSE, and part of the group that has been protesting against these events, agrees. I ask her why she thinks educated young women are choosing to get involved in a contest that seems, at best, like a sad throwback to a more sexist age. She says some of the contestants are finding ways to justify taking part “but it’s an illusion, a con from society telling women that this is emancipation. I think what summed it up for me was when one contestant was asked, ‘Would you rather have brains or beauty?’ and she said beauty, because if she wasn’t beautiful, nobody would want to listen to her anyway. This isn’t fulfilling, to be ogled at and judged and it’s such a shame that these are educated women, who could be the future leaders of the world, who are not standing up and questioning what they are doing. They are worth more than this competition and they need to realise that.” Source: The Guardian.