Evolving beauty standards

Among women, every day is a beauty contest — although I don’t know how many of the female population would admit that.

Unfortunately, standards of beauty had always been pegged on Western standards from the very beginning. Perceived prettier than most therefore — to this very day — is the fair-skinned woman with an aquiline nose.

Yes, the Westerners had always felt superior even in the beauty department. Even when the search for what is said to be the first official beauty contest here in the Philippines — the quest for the Carnival Queen — there had to be two winners: an American and a native woman. In the first ever carnival celebration in 1908, the first two queens were Pura Villanueva for the Philippines and Marjorie Colton, representing the American women living in Manila.

Of course, the concept of beauty eventually evolved — though very slowly — through the decades (take note: not years). In the ‘50s and ‘60s, when beauty contests were big, it was rare for Asian women to win in international competitions, which was why the victories of 1965 Miss International Gemma Cruz and 1969 Miss Universe Gloria Diaz became such huge celebrations. The city of Manila even proclaimed an Araw ni Gemma upon her triumphal return from Long Beach, California where she was crowned a world beauty.

Prior to her departure for the contest, there were actually skeptics who doubted her chances at bagging the international title because — despite her towering height (5’10”, though she says she grew even taller after that and is supposed to be a 6-footer now) — she had always been on the Pinay side.

In the case of Gloria, she shared an interesting tale with us a quarter of a century after she became Miss Universe: “When I was named Binibining Pilipinas, people protested,” she recalls. “That was why when I won Miss Universe, eh di hinimatay sila (they all fainted).”

Although I know the Aspilleras (Gloria’s maternal side that spoke Spanish) to be mestizaje, there is hardly a trace of Caucasian features in her — unlike our other Miss Universe, Margie Moran, whose Occidental ancestry makes her look more of a Westerner, fair skin, freckles and all. Although not at all dark-skinned, Gloria is basically brown-complexioned and in those days was not exactly the best bet to send to Miss Universe.

Beauty watchers around that time, in fact, had always wondered why Congo and other African nations even bothered to send delegates to Miss Universe.

In time though, black beauty became fashionable and the first black international beauty queen was crowned right here in the Philippines: Papua New Guinea’s Eva Arni, who won Miss Asia in 1975. Eva later became the leading lady of Joseph Estrada in Alas Singko ng Hapon, Gising na ang mga Anghel.

After she relinquished her crown in 1976, she was sent to Miss Universe in Hong Kong, but did not even become a semi-finalist. It wasn’t till the year after that Miss Universe eventually decided to give the crown to a black beauty: Janelle Commissiong of Trinidad & Tobago.

Beauty searches continued to evolve after that. Then in time, there was even a beauty contest for men. During the pre and post-war years and even decades after that, men competed only in bodybuilding competitions. Alfie Lorenzo (yes, showbiz’s much-feared, but beloved Alfie) was even Mr. Luzon in 1959.

Prior to the Ginoong Pilipinas competitions, young good-looking men with great physique (no six, eight packs required yet — even the standards for abs changed) were invited to join the Summer King and Queen contest in the mid-‘70s.

Today every town and barrio has its own male pageant during fiestas. Even the Binibining Pilipinas Charities, Inc. has acquired the local franchise to the on and off Mr. World search.

Then, how can we miss the Miss Gay competitions? Even that is mandatory in every fiesta these days.

The mode of selecting the winners also changed through the years. In the old days, it was mostly selling of ballots and this was probably the reason why Imelda Romualdez (later to become the powerful Mrs. Marcos) kept losing because she then belonged to her clan’s poorer side of the tracks.

Eventually, a distinguished panel of judges was made to sit down and select the winners and this practice went on for decades and basically functioned efficiently, except for some minor protests here and there, most likely from sore losers.

With the advent of text messaging, there were changes again in the way winners were chosen. Then came on-line voting. This is so unpatriotic of me, but how else could the Philippines have won those series of Miss Photogenic special award in the Miss Universe contest?

The last beauty search I witnessed (I was actually there to host) was the Picture Flawless finals held last week. A project of Flawless lady boss Rubby Sy, Picture Flawless was launched four months ago and about a thousand aspirants (those who availed of Flawless products and services) tried out. The list was eventually trimmed down (and that was with a lot of difficulty) to 23 (there was a tie in the male division).

Basically, this was how the male and female winners were selected: Part of the 80 percent of the score came from text votes. Also a huge fraction of the 80 percent was the voice of the Flawless clients from the various branches all over the country (even in the Visayas). Flawless patrons were given the option to select who they thought were deserving to win. The remaining 20 percent of the total score came from a panel of judges appointed by Flawless.

During the voting period, the finalists were also made to undergo a series of Flawless treatments, including photo-gen to trim or sculpt faces and abdominal areas (even the thighs for women) and given Flawless products to further smoothen their skin.

By finals night, all 23 were already picture flawless, but there could only be two top winners: Robert de Claro and Julieanne Susie Arcenio. Both are nursing graduates and Rob already has had experience at modeling. Will they pursue showbiz careers?

It’s too early to tell because it had only been a week since they were crowned, but for sure their winning could lead to better opportunities in life.

After all, beauty titles had always been used as a springboard to brighter career options. That is the only thing that remains unchanged in the constant evolution of beauty standards and competitions.