Feminism and Beauty Pageants

The new Miss South Africa was crowned recently at the annual bash at Sun City. Her name is Nokuthula Sithole, a student at WITS University, one of the most prestigious ones in the whole of Africa, even the southern hemisphere. An interesting piece was written in the Sunday Times newspaper, Big platforms – Feminism may have come and gone, but the Miss SA pageant is still standing. And the journalist spent time speaking to, observing the contestants beforehand.

The one comment that got me laughing was how they all wanted to use this platform to do good deeds, give back to the community or help disadvantaged people. All noble statements, but empty in my opinion. We all have the Selfish Gene so wonderfully described by Richard Dawkins. We humans, because of the genes that make up our bodies, have a need to SURVIVE and REPLICATE. And it is easy to know that these women are young ladies who are still learning the ways of the world, etc. They are only now coming into their own and have many more lessons to learn about life, love, and people. The winner, or for that matter, all the finalists, may think they are something special, but they will sooner or later find out they are not. Beauty is common; it is God’s gift to women. The same way that purpose and ambition are God’s gifts for men. So these women who are models and have doors opened for them would be wise to take time out, learn more about themselves, develop a real personality and not depend only on physical appearance, and most importantly, make sure they have something else besides their physical appearance they can use to generate an income. If they don’t, they will be stuck in lipstick heaven forever, trying to be eternally young and married to a wealthy man, who may never know how to bring out the woman in them.