Miss Universe Heats Up
Most Ricochet readers probably know that I run the Power Line site, along with my good friends Scott Johnson and Paul Mirengoff. Some Ricochet readers are no doubt aware that, along with politics and other topics, I occasionally cover international beauty pageants.
In the first year or two after we started blogging, along with the political events that we all write about, my partners staked out cultural territory. Scott knows more about American popular music than just about anyone, and has become one of the most widely-read music critics in America. Paul, meanwhile, established himself as a soccer critic. His commentary on the Everton Toffees--really!--is probably more widely read than that of any other Everton fan in the world.
So, in need of a cultural beat, I came up with pageantry. It grew naturally out of my fondness for beautiful women--not exactly an obscure taste--but also had a political component. Liberals tend to look down on beauty pageants, whereas I genuinely admire the young women, usually smart and ambitious, who use pageantry as a ticket to a better world. Years ago, I had a friend, an associate in my law firm, whose father was a Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and who was a pageant contestant, as were her sisters. One of her sisters was Miss USA, and she and my friend authored the first ever "how to" book for beauty pageant contestants. My friend was a staunch conservative and used to laugh at the tough time her fellow women lawyers had dealing with a former beauty queen.
Somehow, the international pageants keep generating political stories, too. So when there are political points to be made, I'm on the spot to make them. But basically, pageants are about beautiful women from around the world who want to get somewhere in life. I'm in favor of that.
This year's Miss Universe finale will take place on August 23 at the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas. That is a departure, actually, as recent Miss Universe and Miss World competitions have been in remote locations from Vietnam to South Africa. To check out the contestants and catch up on the latest Miss Universe news, go here. Some of the recent videos are noteworthy; this one shows the swimsuit photo shoot:
There are lots of strong candidates, but I will close with a photo of one of my favorites, Miss Sweden. There were a few years when Sweden was culturally opposed to pageantry, and Swedish candidates refused to wear swimsuits, like, say, Miss Saudi Arabia. Thankfully those days are gone. Here is Miss Sweden, 2010:
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Miss Universe Heats Up
smart, ambitious young women: like Sarah Palin!!
John Hinderaker:
...I genuinely admire the young women, usually smart and ambitious, who use pageantry as a ticket to a better world.
May '10
Re: Miss Universe Heats Up
I like the one in the black bikini.
Jun '10
Re: Miss Universe Heats Up
It's either a pageant, or a very successful Bond film casting call.
Aug '10
Re: Miss Universe Heats Up
More power to you, John. But for me, it's their minds I'm really interested in!
Seriously, though, I wish they weren't all thin as a rail. Marilyn Monroe and the Venus deMilo for me are the perfect ideal of beauty and sexual allure.
Jul '10
Re: Miss Universe Heats Up
Why wouldn't the dour left dislike beauty pageants? In their perfect world no one would be advantaged as a result of "lookism." (The word is actually being used out there on the cutting edge of the academy). Every nail should be exactly the right height with the hammer enforcing equality as necessary.
Aug '10
Re: Miss Universe Heats Up
Why didn't I think of "beauty contest journalist?' How refreshing it is to know that there is something wholesome and deep in the perceptual faculties of the nervous system that is so keenly matched to a thing like body form, and with such an endlessly delightful Platonic ideal as its set point. Whatever this normalizing mechanism is, it cannot be rooted out by all of the conniving and meddling of lawyers, academics and politicians. It seems not to be fully explained even by sexual selection. It is an evolutionary miracle on the order of the loaves and fishes. One is left, breathlessly, asking--"Where does all of this beauty come from...and how?" Why is the form and apprehension of feminine beauty such a conserved genetic, anatomical and neurological reality? Whatever the answer, it is truly a model for hope. Wow!