| Username |
Post |
| namita kiran-thuene |
Posted
on 14-May-01 02:19 PM
Rekha and Sally, Thanks for jumping in. And, thanks to all those people who argued for or against the notion of putting women on the stage and judging and awarding for their natural (?) and forced beauty(!). I was wondering why women are not saying anything on this subject since this could well be the matter close to heart. After all, we are the ones who are really affected by this so called “beauty” thing. Of course men are right behind us if you just give a little glance over your shoulder. At least in the west (the states for sure) youths having eating disorder or having a lobster face, sitting too much in the sun to look tan (therefore beautiful).
There is nothing wrong to admire beauty. We like to listen to Chopin’s piano concerto, we admire beautiful, round, juicy tomato, we even have contests for the best looking zucchini. So why do I have objection to this particular brand of exhibitionism? After all, what is beauty? People might think it is god given and natural but, think again. Women (as well as men) don’t come with beautiful hair on the head and hairless everywhere. They don’t come smelling like they had just been to Pierre Cardin’s boutique. Their stomach is not flat as Idaho. We award the best looking zucchini or cauliflower, or a pumpkin but, here the award goes to the GROWER, not the vegetable in suspect! So, why are women awarded, since people seem to think it is the hand behind who did this beautiful job? Maybe some cosmetic company should be awarded, or some sort of “god” right? One of the reasons I am opposed to this type of contests is these shows objectify women. As if we are trying to say, no matter how, just look beautiful! Go have a surgery to take your fat out, to have your nose done, starve yourself, have collagen injected in your lips, suck in your stomach (We have heard the first hand news from Sally) what these women are ready to do to themselves to appear beautiful.), and we will award you and put you on a pedestal and sell you/your image. Where is the line that separates from an object to a living breathing human being? Let’s not forget, there is a danger when somebody tries to put you in pedastal - they can kick you off just as easily.
Jo Bennet Ramsey had crossed my mind when I was thinking about this. The culture is installing in parents that it is ok to train and bring your 5 – 6 year old daughter to these ‘pratiyogas.’ These children beauty contest (what an oxymoronic thought) is the direct consequence of having a beauty pagents of the age between “18 –25.” What a farce! Today it is this group tomorrow it is for “Miss Teenager” and day after it is pre-teens. Nepal and Nepali in the States who organize/trying to organize these kind of contests seem to be at least 50 years behind, so hang in there folks, that day is not that far.
As Ashu pointed out people give gravitas by talking about their cultural heritage when they protest events like beauty contest No, I am not arguing against beauty pageants because I think this is against our culture. Really, what culture are we talking about anyway? The pre-vedic period, the vedic period, or the period when it was encouraged for women to burn in the funeral pyre in the name of purity? Or the culture where women are subjected to dehumanization by being forced to work as a prostitute, or marry her off with a big fat “dahez” so that her in-laws won’t burn you or push you off the edge?
[I had taken a vow of silence but when I saw Rekha saying “… if all single women…,” I could not let that unintentional misconception go by. Rekha, I am married with a 19 month old daughter. Now, did I disappoint you? :) I am not that kind of feminist (again, dear Hari, when I say “I am not one of those feminists who wants to spell woman as ‘womym’, or who brand all sex is rape” I meant I am the other kind of feminist. What kind of logic is that when you thought I am lumping all the feminists in one pile? The key word here is NOT and BRAND. If one makes a statement such as: “I am not a pedophile” do you immediately think that person is lumping every humand kind in one category, i.e. pedophile?), who thinks all men are stupid. I like the company of men. Some of them can be just as smart as women or as stupid. They can be as petty and jealous. Also one suggestion to Hari: maybe you should think patenting of your trademark – “duie paise musings.” It is catching up like a fire. I would. :)]
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| Hari |
Posted
on 14-May-01 09:37 PM
To add to this farce of "beauty" contests, I recently found out that in one of these pageants (Miss World/Miss Universe, I don't exactly know) it is perfectly "legal" to have scores of reconstructive surgeries (read: liposuction, nose-job, boob-job, etc.); it is "illegal" to put on fake eyelashes. :-) Go Figure!
Dear Namita, you might have already forgotten, but in the heat of the moment, perhaps reasonably so, you were very quick to make your "feminist" arguments saying that you wouldn't stop short of raining "acid" on these charades, these objectification of women. And that to me meant that you would be willing to go in there and shoot the organizer in the head. :-) Perhaps I was mistaken, and perhaps you are not as radical as I think.
But, my point was merely to say that IF you were indeed that sort of a feminist, then please spare the mainstream feminism of these radicalisms. And I apologize if your intentions were NOT really to pour "acid-rain" on these organizers.
I don't need to reiterate that beauty pageants, like any other commercial form of entertainment, are sustainable through patronage. And as far as there are people (both men and women alike) who are willing to sit through three dumbing hours of television watching these things, they will go on. And, who am I to tell them that what they can/cannot watch, what they can/cannot organize, what they can/cannot participate in. All I can do is "educate" the audience, and somehow try to persuade them to not waste their time in these things. NOT, however, spew my venom, or pour any kind of acid on them.
That was my only point, and I do apologize if I was less than clear before.
Thanks for the suggestion about copyrighting my truly dui paise signature, but I firmly believe in "copylefting" things, with dui paise worth of credits, of course! :-)
Dui Paise Musings,
Hari
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| namita |
Posted
on 15-May-01 11:50 AM
Hi Hari,
I am glad we worked it out :)
namita
ps do you know something? I have such a love hate raltionship with this site because I don't bother to proof read it. it is great i can say what i want to say in (sort of) real time, then I hate myself when I see so many spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes, and not only that I even find out meaning-mistake, because i clicked the button (send) too fast. Oh well...
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| Rekha |
Posted
on 15-May-01 04:55 PM
Namita,
As we elaborate more on the subject, I must add that it had occurred to me several times as well as to why nobody had commented on this Miss Nepal thing....Im glad you spoke out so I, as well as others, could voice their opinions as well.
Now to clarify my statement of single women. I am under the impression that only single women, girls, teenagers are allowed to enter these competition and while I was expressing my view, I meant those females who enter these competitions. I could be wrong and maybe married females could enter as well. And why should I be disappointed by you being married? Im glad someone with a young child has time to read, write and emphasis on your views!
Keep it going!
My tuppence
Rekha
(please notice I am trying to refrain from using "dui-paise musings" :)!)
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| SP |
Posted
on 17-May-01 12:19 AM
I went to another hiking boot store and saw something else on sale that I wanted to share. In some other site, someone posted why is there no Mr. Nepal contest while there is Ms. Nepal? This question could either be construed as absurd or given some validity. We have 'feminist' women who fight for women's rights. How come there are no 'masculinist' who fight for men's rights?
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| namita |
Posted
on 17-May-01 09:10 AM
right on brother! but there are some feminist style male movement where men are encouraged to cry and with the beating of the drum share their emotions. I forgot the name of the guy who started this. Like I mentioned the male are being afflicted with their own kind of stereotyping and they suffer just like women who sufferred for centuries and centuries. There are mountains of books trying to explain why men/boys kill, why they are abusive, why young boys/men have eatint disorder etc. etc. I don't recall the names right now, but check that out!
namita
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| ashu |
Posted
on 17-May-01 09:33 AM
Robert Bly is the name of the guy.
oohi
ashu
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| namita |
Posted
on 18-May-01 09:12 AM
Thanks.
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