Sunstar Essay: One in beauty

Saturday, September 17, 2011

SHE could have made it, if they asked her the right question when she could have shown she’s bright, said the young woman seated next to me while I waited for my turn with my service card number at the bank. “It was a silly question they asked her!” she exclaimed.

What quickly came to my mind was Miss Universe 4th Runner-Up Maria Venus Raj and her now famous “major-major” statement.

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But at the bank, the two women seated near me were talking of Shamcey Supsup, 2011 Miss Universe 3rd Runner-Up. I didn’t see the televised Miss Universe Pageant but I could imagine the beauty contender great in her gown, cheered favorably by the audience in Sao Paulo, Brazil when it was time for her to stroll on the stage in what media now call a “tsunami catwalk.”

The two women talking at the bank referred to Shamcey’s having missed the Miss Universe crown.

“Sayang! I tell you, she’s beautiful, she looked great in her gown!”

“But it’s still great that she made it not only as one of the top five but the great Third Runner-Up!” said one of the girls in consolation.

Maria Venus Raj was just a 4th Runner-Up in 2010….

“But one of the Top Five, get that!” said the other young woman while, quickly, a third one ahead in the line stood up and moved back a bit to cheer. She seemed like a stranger to the other two but had fallen for the unity that comes to a nation when a citizen wins a contest or becomes an international champion.

“The Filipino is beautiful, she’s a winner!”

But not just the Filipino, not just in the Miss Universe contest or the Miss International race or the Miss World match, and not just in our time. In the ancient island of Greece called Lesbos, there were beauty contests

Mankind through time is always looking out to preserve, praise and admire what is beautiful in the early small villages and communities, and in what the world would now call nations. And not just of female beauties but also of male physical aptitude. In Lesbos, the women winners were given golden garments, the men suits of armor, friends giving the male winner ribbons and myrtle (evergreen leaves of berries) made into a wreath. Picture the winner as he walked in glory with Greek friends toward the temple.

Then there would be more of the women beauty contests, but the men going into sports instead, not just for beauty but for skill. Beauty contests would be more than the measure of physical beauty, it should go deeper—in attitude, intelligence, even social awareness (which shows in the contestants’ answers to questions given them in a hushed audience).

Beauty contests weren’t just found in Greece but everywhere, now regularly, the organizers hoping to insure among the young their idea of beauty—way beyond the physical look and touching on wisdom and grace.

In the Philippines, we had and still have the beauty contests in fiestas. It was in 1952 that we started sending a representative to the Miss Universe Pageant. The organizers got a franchise for the pageant in 1964 with Stella Marquez-Araneta at the helm.

In the ‘60s, our candidates made it mainly to the Top 15, although Gloria Diaz won in 1969 and got one of those special awards, the Ten Best in Swimsuit. In the next decade, our representatives were semi-finalists in the Top 12. In 1973, Margie Moran won and garnered the Miss Photogenic award.

Then in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there were runners-up and one of the 1987 Top 6 Semi-Finalists was Geraldine “Pebbles” Asis. Charlene Gozales Bonnin got the Best in National Costume and Ivory Best Hair in 1994. There would be five more of Miss Photogenic Filipino candidate awardees.

In 2010, Maria Venus Raj was 4th Runner-Up. This year, the Philippines made it to the Top 5 again, this time with Shamcey Supsup as 3rd Runner-Up winner.

There are now the contests yearly held the world over in country states, provinces, even cities, then in the national scale, and in the international level. The world has caught on.

Beauty contests are one of those few ways that serve as a break from disunity and war.

(ecuizon@gmail.com)