Beauty Pageants and the Peñafrancia

Flaunting their bodies and flesh on stage under the glare of spotlights  in front of a crowd of strangers, is probably one of the shallowest aspirations that women could ever have. Beauty pageants, as universally accepted as they are, do nothing but insinuate that women's primary goal in life is to make themselves beautiful, sexy and attractive - with voluptuous body, large breasts and hips, small waist, long and shapely legs, smooth skin, shiny hair, white perfect teeth - so that when the day of judgement comes, they will be pronounced the most beautiful of all. Pageants promote the petty, small-minded belief that women should beat other fellow women in their physical looks, and therefore perceive fellow women not as allies for a greater cause but as competitors of their temporal youth and beauty. Women should get the attention of the judges, most of whom are men, and some women who believe the same way.

Worse, women's intellect and stand on social issues and problems are hardly counted in beauty competition. When contestants commit errors in grammar or answer questions stupidly, judges and audience alike just laugh it off. These tendencies imply that women, anyway, are not expected to be intelligent, so long as they are attractive and they know how to please the judges. Pageants perpetuate the cultural convention that intellectual abilities and assertiveness are not the priority qualities that women should develop.  Furthermore, they encourage women to submit themselves to the whims of the judges so that they will win the much coveted crown. Women are brainwashed to continue believing that they should subject themselves to the judgment of a group of individuals who, like all other men and women, are not in the position of judging their fellow human beings. Beauty pageants intensify the gender stereotype that that women are expected to perpetually submit themselves to their fathers or husbands or sons.

Such beauty pageants become even more hateful and abhorring as they are conducted within the novenario period in adoration of Ina, the blessed woman. Instead of promoting the strength of spirit and selfless determination epitomized by the Blessed Mother in her time, women in beauty competitions are made to do silly things to please the judges and the audience. It is a glaring dichotomy how a community like Naga and Bicol who prides themselves of deep devotion to the Nuestra Senora de Penafrancia but treats and judges women as objects to pleasure their eyes of the lustful sights of almost naked bodies ramping back and forth. Women, blinded by the dictates of their society, allow themselves to be hailed because of outer temporal appearance and not of the depth of their personhood.

The position statement of the Bicol Association of Catholic Schools (BACS) against the holding of beauty pageants during the Penafrancia devotion is a most welcome step. It is high time that Naguenos and Bicolanos reflect on the irony that has characterized the Penafrancia celebration for the past many decades.