Excerpts from an article in today's Star newspaper pg N22 entitled "Beauty is Power" inspired Miss Malaysia pageant.
PETALING JAYA: This year’s Miss World Malaysia theme “Beauty is Power” is inspired by the likes of Cleopatra and Nefertiti, queens who brought the entire empires to their knees.
“The theme shows that a beautiful woman is a powerful woman,” said pageant organiser DDBPR managing director Chong Wei-Hsiang.
Are you freaking serious?? Although not said outright, the underlying message to the tagline and the statement implies that only those that possess beauty are powerful. F*uck off would you?
So what does this mean, a woman who doesn't fit society's norm of beauty is less powerful? Erm... are you for real?? Lord i'm so infuriated I can barely type a lucid sentence.
A great beauty? Let's be honest, not really right? Who is she? Eleanor Roosevelt. Wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Cited to be a shy, awkward child, starved for recognition and love, who grew into a woman with great sensitivity to the underprivileged of all creeds, races, and nations. Her constant work to improve their lot made her one of the most loved--and for some years one of the most revered--women of her generation. (credit: The White House) Even she wrote in her autobiography ...no matter how plain a woman may be, if truth & loyalty are stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her...."
More examples (and I think their names speak pretty clearly for themselves:
Mother Theresa
Indira Gandhi
Coco Chanel
Condoleezza Rice
Princess Diana
Aung San Suu Kyi
Oprah Winfrey
Need I say more? Not the typical drop-dead gorgeous version of beauty but does that mean they're not powerful?? HELL NO!!!
We've strived for years and years to teach girls that it's not everything to be beautiful. I mean what is beauty (read post I wrote awhile back on it here.) It takes character, determination, intelligence, strength etc to be powerful. If beauty equals power then why they hell do I not run the country by now? And why does Angelina Jolie not run the UNIVERSE by now???
It is statements and methods of thinking like THIS that set women's progress back by leaps and bounds. We teach our children, our daughters/nieces/cousins etc that beauty is within. Err.. well according to our local beauty pageant it isn't! Someone should be shot. Seriously.
Hmm.. maybe we should all sign-up for some plastic surgery, become beautiful (which by this definition means immediately powerful) then we can all run the world. I call dibs on America. Anyone else??
Too much to type.. Too much bile in my throat..
Love
Drama Mama
xoxo
2 comments:
I understand your fury...however you may be looking at this on a superficial basis. The whole theme "Beauty is Power' is meant to encapsulate beauty in its entirety - inside and out. Perhaps you should delve into deeper thought about this?
Hi Anonymous, understood that many might think I'm over-reacting. Have you seen the editorials/ads in FACES September magazine regarding this campaign?
I don't think I can be called superficial after seeing that.. Stay tuned.. my next post will show you what i'm talking about.
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