Pageant contestants prove their beauty is more than skin deep

BECAUSE several of those scheduled last year had been postponed, Filipinos have had more international and national beauty contests to watch this year. Do Filipinos think that too much is being ladled on their plates? Not bloody likely. Beauty contests seem to be in Filipinos' DNA. They're in fact very much a part of their culture. From childhood, they witness queens being selected to grace fiestas, and Flores de Mayo and Santacruzan processions. These occasions have religious associations, but in time, they have become more ostentatious, more of an entertainment, circus and fashion show than religious rite, at the center of which is the beauty queen.

It should be no surprise that the Philippines has been an enthusiastic participant of international beauty contests no matter how and why they came about. The first, the Miss World contest, was like a horse race: bets were placed on the likely winners.The second, Miss Universe, served to advertise a bathing suit brand. With their emergence coinciding with the birth of television, live broadcasts of these contests from the beginning have commanded a wide global audience. Depending on where these contests are held from, somewhere in the world people stay awake or rise up early to watch an international beauty pageant.