Pageant queen

Let’s face it … it must really be quite hard to find yourself in the middle of the stage, being constantly judged from head to toe during a beauty contest and at the same time act like you’re having so much fun. To be fair, we really have to hand it to all beauty contestants for having the courage to participate in such events in the very first place, where you’re not only being watched but also being scrutinized.

Everyone’s a definite winner as soon as you try out for a competition and while I’m far from being an expert on pageants, I often find the question-and-answer portion to be the most interesting, as it is the part where, often enough, people tend to make their final decisions on the ultimate title holder.

First and foremost, and I’ll say it again, contestants must be so awfully nervous knowing that every single action, smile and breath is observed, what more every word. It’s no wonder that contestants go through rigorous training prior to the main event. Just the other day, I happened to have come across snippets of the recent Binibining Pilipinas pageant and I couldn’t stop thinking about the answer to a question on physical assets. To be specific, Ms. Universe Gloria Diaz asked, “Which physical asset would make you win the pageant?” and as I watched the clip a few times over, I began to feel a little confused about what was being said and particularly, how the question was being answered.

As far as I was concerned, the question was so simple and, in my opinion, the answer should have been just as simple. I was also reminded of former Ms. International Melanie Marquez on her winning answer during the Ms. International pageant in 1979. While she was asked which one of her body parts (physical assets) would she change, she answered the question with a twist by saying that she wouldn’t change her “long legged.” I remember so many people making fun of this answer but in reality, if one really thought about it, Melanie answered the question by letting people know that her legs were her prized possession and she was proud of it. This obviously explains why many years after, we still remember what she said.

Confidence, as they say, is the key to unlocking your inner beauty and even when you’re dressed to impress and ready to conquer, your character will always be your best asset and this is something that is felt by everyone around you. Having said this, perhaps, as a judge, Gloria Diaz saw an opportunity to draw out what could have been an apparent match to a sense of beauty that was already there. It was a chance to showcase how confident one thought she looked on the outside and how one could hold up on her own. I sense that somehow, it seems we may have focused so much on trying to showcase our inner beauty and I feel that most contestants are being programmed to have the answers that will be most suited to this idea.

It also seems like there has been so much emphasis on trying to mold contestants to incorporate in their answers the importance of being more beautiful on the inside rather than focusing on the physical aspect and no one saw coming the question that was asked by Ms. Gloria Diaz. The fact is, inner beauty cannot be seen; however, its effects can be felt at all times. Inner beauty emanates naturally from a person while physical beauty is something more tangible and could easily be the main focus for a contestant’s victory.

For any contender, every moment counts. How comfortable or uncomfortable you are with yourself shows and, while it is not uncommon for contestants to seek advice from their mentors, it would have probably been good advice to tell their trainees to try and keep things as simple as possible without being too engrossed by the idea of inner beauty and buckling down (too much) to good character.

It is certainly true that good character will always outweigh a beautiful face; however, we are still talking about beauty pageants and questions such as the one that Ms. Gloria Diaz asked at the Binibining Pilipinas pageant 2024 deserves a straight up answer. Why was Melanie Marquez unforgettable? She kept it simple. While she didn’t exactly tell us which body part she wanted unchanged, she did tell us the part she never wanted changing and she owned it. Her answer was short, sweet and funny. A truly unforgettable pageant queen.