Beauty Queens

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

Beauty pageants, past and present, are the subject of this
well-researched, attractively produced, and entertaining volume. It
features a wonderful compilation of photographs and posters and telling
quotes from the likes of Mae West, Debbie Reynolds, and feminist Susan
Brownmiller. Brownmiller maintains that beauty pageants are “degrading
to women,” while conceding that they “hold a morbid fascination for
me and I watch them all.” The benefits that accrue to successful
beauty pageant contestants have included not only substantial monetary
gains and career-enhancing rewards but also generous scholarships that
have enabled them to attend colleges and universities. Broadcaster Diane
Sawyer—Junior Miss 1963—recalls “Miss America seemed the dreamiest
thing to be ... becoming a beauty queen was the quickest way to vault
out of the ordinary.”

Beauty pageants have survived the rage of feminists. As Mae West said,
“The curve is more powerful than the sword.”