When Gloria Diaz won the Miss Universe crown in 1969, her status as a lifetime celebrity in the Philippines was assured. Diaz got a lavish parade upon her return to Manila, an honor hitherto given only to world-famous dignitaries visiting the Philippines.
After Aurora Pijuan was crowned Miss International a year later, the Filipino’s fascination for beauty pageants became incurable. By 1970, the Philippines was a participant in six international pageants.
In the late 1960s, Gemma Cruz, the first Filipina to be crowned Miss International, openly opposed beauty pageants because they tended to exploit women. She urged Congress to enact legislation banning pageants.
The campaign Cruz launched against pageants practically lost steam when Margarita Moran became Miss Universe in 1973. Soon after Moran was crowned, the Philippines offered to host the pageant the next year. The offer was accepted by the pageant organizers, and the Miss Universe pageant in the Philippines was set for July 21, 1974.
In a record 90 days, the Folk Arts Theater (located near the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Pasay City) was constructed for the pageant venue.
Hotdog, a popular band in the country back then, was commissioned to perform a song dedicated to the pageant —Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko. This song was a big hit on Philippine radio.
The pageant put the Philippines on the world map. Local publications invited everybody’s attention to the pageant. On pageant day, television audiences were glued to the RPN TV Channel 9 coverage of the event.
In the end, Amparo Muñoz of Spain won the title. The first runner-up eventually won the Miss World title the next year. Another runner-up decided to remain in the Philippines for a while and got involved with a popular professional Filipino athlete.
The Philippines hosted the Miss Universe pageant anew in 1994, this time at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. After Miss India won the title, Indian businessmen in Manila announced a one-day moratorium in favor of their debtors. Miss Australia married a local television actor later on.
Through the years, other international pageants mushroomed. Many more Filipinas won as Miss International, or as the title holder of some other international competition. Quite a number became runners-up.
Incidentally, the reigning Miss Universe and Miss International are from the Philippines.
At the end of the day, what utility is derived by society from these pageants?
Ostensibly, pageant winners are styled as ambassadors of goodwill, as well as advocates of certain causes, usually involving the environment. From a realistic perspective, however, nobody feels their presence anywhere there is an international crisis—not by the victims of the recent earthquake in Italy; not by the Syrian refugees refused sanctuary in Europe earlier this year; and not by the people of Leyte who were left homeless by super typhoon “Yolanda” in 2013. In this light, how pageant winners can be sincerely called “ambassadors of goodwill” or “advocates of causes” is an enigma.
During the Cold War, Communist China, the Soviet Union, and countries under the Iron Curtain did not participate in these international pageants.
When communism ended in Eastern Europe, the countries under the soviet yoke began embracing capitalism. Soon enough, they were joined by Russia and Communist China. The Vietnamese were opposed to western-style pageants for many decades. A few years ago, however, they hosted one of them.
Why? There is money to be made in these pageants by their organizers, that’s for sure, or the entire system would have been discontinued decades ago in a world that is perpetually in an economic crisis. Sponsorships, celebrity endorsements, franchise fees are among the economic considerations.
Perhaps there is truth in the allegation that these pageants exploit women, and treat them virtually as sex objects.
Several decades ago, the swimsuit segment of these pageants featured contestants wearing one-piece bathing suits. Today, the one-piece bathing attire has been replaced by bikinis – revealing swimsuits that expose more flesh to international audiences.
Because conservative Muslim states frown on needless body exposure by women, these countries did not participate in past pageants. Nonetheless, optimistic pageant organizers were still looking to the day when these countries will ease up and join the pageants. In view of the compulsory use of bikinis in current pageants, getting these countries to join is a confirmed impossibility.
Why contemporary pageant contestants are required to parade in bikinis in the first place is a big mystery, precisely because Miss Universe, Miss International, or Miss whosoever does not travel around the world or attend international conferences in a bikini.
Pageant organizers justify their events as “vehicles for international understanding and worthwhile causes.” Really?
Lebanon refused to participate in the 2002 Miss Universe pageant because Israel, with whom it is technically at war, sent a participant. In the 2015 Miss Universe pageant, Lebanese citizens protested when Miss Lebanon and Miss Israel got photographed together. Legendary Miss Universe pageant host Bob Barker quit his decades-old job to protest the use of mink coats by the contestants. What happened to the “international understanding and worthwhile causes” announced by the organizers?
Controversies have also rocked many of these pageants. 1974 Miss Universe Amparo Muñoz created a stir when she subsequently appeared in what was identified as a “sexually-oriented film” produced in her native Spain. There are news reports that many pageant queens of lesser reputation concealed past pregnancies, much to the consternation of the organizers. Just recently, the Philippine candidate to the Miss Earth pageant was caught on camera making nasty remarks against the winner, Miss Ecuador. Tsk, tsk.
The Philippines wants to host next year’s Miss Universe pageant. Although the trend is that the constestant from the host country never wins the crown, Filipinos are still looking forward to the affair. How this useless event, which the Filipino taxpayers must ultimately pay for, will redound to the benefit of the Philippines is anybody’s guess.
