Beauty Pageants: Still Unacceptable?

[Angela Woodford]

But that's fascinating!

A return to English heirarchies! It does sound fun. Can you imagine Hertford life enlivened in such a way? Say.. four cute and popular categories in each year - Lady, LV, Duchess, UV, Princess, LV1, and Queen, UV1 - for the following -

Academic
Music
Athletic
Needlework

With the appropriate celebrations (pageant through Hertford town) the missing factor would be the Lords, Dukes, Princes and Kings. Alas!

But think of the boosted morales!

[Spoonbill]

I know Pageants are big here in the States, and looks alone don't cut it - the contestants have to have a serious 'talent' of some description. I think they are a good focus for young women if healthy self-esteem is fostered, rather than unhealthy body-image obsession.

Re. the unhealthy notion of pageant judges voting for an unrealistically 'ideal' woman as Queen, I think phone-voting would be much healthier than panel-voting if national pageants were revived on TV in the UK. If Miss United Kingdom were televised as, say, twelve regional heats (one each week) with a phone vote after each heat, we'd see a much healthier choice of women. D'you remember how in the old Miss World contests you'd get Miss Something-or-Other walk onstage representing somewhere non-Caucasian and people'd say Dear God, what a weird-looking woman! How the hell did she get to the finals? - which of course is an appallingly insular attitude and deeply insulting. (Also, I happen to fancy Asian women with singularly-shaped noses, not to mention flat-chested women.)

With people of all races and cultures phoning in from all over the UK to vote, things could get interesting...though knowing me, I'd probably just sleep through it all, even if I were actually in the audience at the live event. Whether I'd be quite such an icicle if I were sitting in the audience of Miss Nude USA or Miss Nude Australia, I couldn't say. Not that that's ever likely to happen, mind you.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Could there be a class for "Geriatrics" --- with wheelchair dancing ?

I had a Medical Examination the other day and the (Female) doctor asked me "Do you take Steroids ?"

TBA was convulsed with laughter, she said "I know you still look OK in apair of swimming trunks --- but this was probably to do with Arthritis, or persistent Infection --- or are you taking them secretly -- to build up your beautiful body ?"

Having married a Nurse --- I get no sympathy, or respect !!