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Protesters call for university beauty contest to be banned
BENEDICT MOORE-BRIDGER03.12.08
Hundreds of undergraduates in the capital have applied to take part in a beauty contest to be named Miss University London.
The students will participate in heats in the hope of being one of only 15 who will reach the contest's grand final in February.
However, the event has opened a split in London University's student body. Protesters say it is misogynistic and degrading, and should be banned.
Participants and organisers have fiercely defended the competition.
Demonstrators picketed West End nightspots Maddox and the Crystal Club during heats for the London School of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, Queen Mary College and Regent's College.
Last night, entrants from University College London went on stage at the Crystal Club, while students from King's College will do battle next Tuesday. Ruby Buckley, women's officer at LSE students' union, said the contest should be "eradicated for good". She added: "We come to university to be judged on academic ability and not on external characteristics.
"LSE is an academic institution and should not have its name tarnished by an event with a single function of the objectification of women. "
Elly James, women's officer at SOAS students' union, said: "It is like a cattle market. One of the things was that the contestants had to have their waists and breasts measured. I come from quite a rural area and that's what they do to animals." The competition is separate from the university but still uses the title "Miss University London 2008". It is organised by events company 121 Entertainment.
About 400 students from LSE, SOAS, UCL, KCL, Queen Mary and Regent's applied to take part in the first stage of the contest. Other colleges and universities in the capital will also be holding auditions.
Some possible contenders are spotted by talent scouts who trawl library squares and student parties. Students can also enter themselves online. Christian Emile, founder of 121 Entertainment, said women found the event "empowering".
He said complaints were coming from "feminist groups in universities. It is a minority of students who are doing this. They are of the opinion that the girls are being objectified but that is completely incorrect."
Keelin Gavaghan, the 19-year-old accountancy student who has been named Miss LSE, added: "I fail to see what is wrong with feeling glamorous for one night. We hardly sold our souls."
One of those taking part in last night's UCL event was geography student Zoe Chambers, a 20-year-old from Hampstead who modelled at London Fashion Week this year.
She said: "The horrible truth is everyone is objectified in a number of ways. You can tell just by looking at posters for some club nights and things like that."
Mary Honeyball, a Labour MEP for London who sits on the European Parliament's women's rights committee, claimed the event stereotyped women. She said: "It does not seem right on many levels. It is dividing students, which is unfortunate, and it will exclude women who do not conform to a Nuts magazine idea of what is pretty."
A spokesman for LSE said: "It is up to students what they do in their private lives."
Reader views (21)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
I took part in the Miss LSE contest in question, and had a great time, met some fun girls, and raised a little money for charity.
Firstly, it would be great if people who post responses and criticize this event would take the time to get their facts straight before complaining all the time.
As far as taking a step back.. we are celebrating our feminity - we were not judged on simply looks, but also character and whit. The questions asked gave you a variety of possibilities to express yourself!
Furthermore, before taking the feminist stance you should consider 2 points:
1. We all have the right to expression, in whatever way we chose to do so, a right which exists due to our EGALITARIAN society.
2. There was a Mr. LSE contest held this week.
The notion that we were judged on body dimensions is completely wrong! We had girls ranging in height from 5"2 to 6"... and I personally am a UK size 12 - 14... hardly a match with what critics are implying the criteria was!!! There was a multitude of nationalities and ethnic origins represented by the girls, from German, Irish, Finnish, Armenian, etc. and both undergrads and postgrads took part. Does that not celebrate the many forms, shapes, origins, and diversity of beauty too?!
In the end, we took part because it was a fun way of getting to know other students, a good night out, a once in a lifetime student experience, and a great way of raising money for charity.
Feminists should focus their efforts elsewhere, o
- Bianca, London
'I think it all stems from jealousy. Just take a closer look at the women holding the banner..."Nul points" for each of them from me.'
'It'll be the one's who don't stand a chance complaining'
'silly feminist harpies'
'So saith Ruby Buckley, women's officer at LSE students' union. (18 stones!)'
I am so embarrased by these above comments. It is completely bewildering that opinions like these still exist(even in jest...you were joking, right?)Why is beauty and apparently lack of beauty bandied around as words of insult or as means to validate women? Why would anyone be jealous of a beauty contest? And why on earth would anyone's weight have any relevance to their opinions?
I remember reading 'The Beauty Myth' with a huge pinch of salt but it is worrying when you realise that some of it still rings true.
- S., London, UK
Hello? Have we gone back in time? Women being judged on the dimensions of their waists and breasts??
I thought we had moved on from this objectification of women a long time ago. The men who complain about 'feminazis' are only feeling threatened by the fact that women were starting to become equal. They don't like it so what do we get? Magazines like Nuts & Zoo that reduce women to surgically enhanced stereotypes and events like this ridiculous beauty pageant, that has been started by a man. It's very sad that young women are falling for this rubbish as well.
Guys - can't you just play with Lara Croft on your x-boxes instead of leering at women who need to validate themselves by parading themselves for your approval?
- Stephanie P, Bristol
It's interesting how people resort to all the same arguments in a situation like this: "ugly feminazis, jealous, wouldn't stand a chance, wait till they're out in the job market where they'll lose out to the pretty girls."
Having been at one of these protests (and due at future ones) and had these people jeer at me personally, I would much rather NOT be "beautiful" than pander to your pathetic vanity and lust for young women.
- Charlie, London
This appears just another reason for women to display themselves to achieve recognition of any sort. Women need to stop doing this in a demeaning manner to gain respect in our society. There will be no respect and recognition for women as people as long as they display as sexual commodities.
- Val Moore, Bracknell Berkshire
This does appear to be thinly disguised beauty contest. I do agree that it is degrading to have ones 'vital statistics' published. However, I would not object to such a contest if it were open to men as wellas women, on equal terms.
- Deborah, Ashby de la Zouch, UK
I thought the whole point of the femminist movement was to let women have choices. If these women are beautiful enough to enter these competitions then good luck to them. They've been given a gift and they're using it.
- Beth, Fleet UK
I am Eleanor James, the SOAS Women's Officer. I have to add something to that embarrassing misquote currently doing the rounds in the press....
At university we are meant to be on an equal platform to empower us through non aesthetic or sexual means, and I see this pageant is part of a backlash against the fragile gains that feminism has won. This is an outside entertainments company, making profit out of putting our students on a platform and judging and criticising them as a sexual object. It is paying male students to objectify female students, measuring them as cattle at a market. The student that best fits the commercial stereotype wins a dress designed for her (!) and the title of “Miss SOAS”, a student representative that we have not elected. This systematic degradation of women is being done in our name. It has to stop now.
- Eleanor James, London
I would not waste my time attending a beauty pageant - but if other citizens in a free society choose to do so, that is their business. It is a lawful activity.
There is an increasingly authoritarian and Stalinist steak in young left wing students who believe they have the right to shut down any event that they disapprove of.
I attended a lecture on the European Union at LSE last year that was nearly shut down after 20 Trotskyite students objected to the speaker, who was ex-BP, and decided that 400 other people should be denied the right to free assembly and free expression.
These trendy PC students increasingly look to me like the Nazis of the 21st century. But they lack muscle and use insidious moral bullying instead.
- Danny, London
"We come to university to be judged on academic ability and not on external characteristics."
Wait until you leave university then you will have no choice on how people judge you - get over it girls, this is life.
- Agent, London
It was so degrading and innapropriate that 400 students applied! If they think we should ban this then let's ban student union drinks promotions as we all agree that's bad right? I agree that in a democracy you should be able to do what you want, without disturbing others. Nobody has to go to these events and they are not funded by the University.
- Mark, London
I think it all stems from jealousy. Just take a closer look at the women holding the banner..."Nul points" for each of them from me.
- Jock, London
We have the next generation of protectors of democracy flexing their muscles here: say, do, think what you like as long as I approve of it. The most depressing statement really came from MEP Honeyball who objectes on the grounds that it divided students. Surely, that is a point of university, to hear and debate many different views and perhaps change your own as a result of what you learn and rationalise. Which I presume is what the protestors and participants are doing.
- Helen, norwich
The event is meant for all the students to socialise , get together and to have some fun , away from their busy academic schedules. The contestants have to answer smart questions. Long dresses are the norm , no bikini. All the fuss about waist / breast measurements are totally not true.
The looks are only to complement the personality and how the contestant conduct herself.
- Mark, UK
To Elly James: I may be ignorant of rural ways and mammalian anatomy, but which animals are measured around their waists and breasts? I bet few of the chaps enjoying the sight of these pretty girls dressed up would make such an insulting comment. Throw on a bikini, love, and cheer up, life gets a lot tougher when you graduate.
- Keith, Kings Cross, London, UK
A 'minority' object, let me say that again, a 'minority'object! If only everything in this country was ignored by the 'minority' and acted upon what the 'majority' wanted instead of the other way around, we wouldn't be in the state we're in now.
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
It'll be the one's who don't stand a chance complaining
- Martin, Reading, UK
It is just a bit of fun and nobody is obliged to participate so where is the harm? A lot of guys would rush to take the opportunity to show off when/if a similar thing is set up for them! As for conforming to an ideal of what is pretty, forget this too as we all have our own ideals. Incidentally, not every guy's ideal is a size zero babe! So boring people give us a break and let us have some fun. You should really try it sometime!
- Daniel, London
I am right you are wrong, you will do as I say because I am right.
All those university 'academics' who have entered the competition through their own volition are cattle, have no minds of their own and must do as I say, because my point of view is right and only my point of view is right.
So saith Ruby Buckley, women's officer at LSE students' union. (18 stones!)
- Frank, Home Counties, England
So long as they have a Wet Y-Fronts competition the night after to even things up, I can't see anything wrong with it . . .
- Roz, Chamonix, France
Funny to see that silly feminist harpies still inhabit the Students Union at universities everywhere - and then no doubt onto some kind of cushy non job where they can force their deranged views onto others at a left wing council. What a bunch of killjoys!
- Huw Morgan, London
