Mrs Hercus critical of beauty contest plans

Press, 28 August 1984, Page 5

Mrs Hercus critical of beauty contest plans

The Christchurch City Council could spend its time and money on promoting Christchurch in far better ways than lending support to the “Miss Asia-South Pacific” beauty contest, according to the Minister of Women’s Affairs, Mrs Hercus. The beauty pageant will be broadcast live from the Christchurch Town Hall on November 10. It will be televised in about 15 countries to an estimated audience of 50 million people. At a meeting of the City Council’s cultural and public affairs committee on August 21, members voted in favour of taking advertisements promoting Christchurch in publicity material about the quest; recommending that the Christchurch Town Hall reduce its hire charges for the event; and indicating publicly its support for the competition. The committee had been approached by the South Island Film and Production Company, a Christchurch firm which has the franchise for the quest, for cash sponsorship and for help in getting business sponsorship. Mrs Hercus said yesterday that beauty contests

“are not a particularly attractive means of promoting women, and they should not be encouraged. "I can think of far more positive ways for the Christchurch City Council to promote Christchurch and Canterbury,” she said. The Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, said that from a “hardnosed business” perspective there would be considerable publicity value in the “Miss Asia-South Pacific” contest for Christchurch. The 90-minute programme would.include segments with the 30 contestants filmed in Christchurch and other New Zealand cities. Sir Hamish emphasised, however, that the City Council was interested in advertising, not sponsorship. “I don’t see the support of such contests as fields for local bodies to be financially involved in.” However, this was an opportunity for Christchurch to promote itself internationally, he said. The City Council’s buying of advertising space would “provide coverage for our scenic attractions and help to build up our tourist activity.” Sir Hamish also said he felt that there was a great

deal of community interest in such contests. “I would think there is still a considerable amount of public interest in reputable international contests of this nature, and I’m sure that the recent success of a New Zealand girl in the ‘Miss Universe’ contest was of considerable significance to New Zealand,” he said. Sir Hamish said that further discussions with the promoters would be held before a final decision was made. Mrs Hercus and Sir Hamish were commenting on reactions to the beauty quest by the National Organisation for Women, and New Zealand Labour Youth. The Christchurch spokeswoman for N.0.W., Mrs Betty Roberts, said that the image of these beauty contests was highly damaging to women, and that her organisation was shocked at the City Council’s endorsement of the “Miss AsiaSouth Pacific” contest.

“There will be no change in the attitudes in our society which result in violence towards women while we foster the idea that women are important only for their bodies,” she said. "Surely we are not so insensitive that the pro-

motion of Canterbury takes priority over the exploitation of young women ... If tourism depends on exploiting women, then the price is too high.” The acting president of New Zealand Labour Youth, Mr Callum Reid, said that if the Labour Government was committed to gender equality and a society free from sexism, the Government should actively discourage “one of the most visible and popular forms of sexism, the beauty pageant. “In particular, Government departments, such as the Government Tourist Bureau, and Government corporations, such as the Tourist Hotel Corporation, should not be involved in staging or promoting such pageants,” he said. Mrs Hercus said that as far as she was aware, no present Government body provided financial support for such contests, and that the discouragement of beauty contests was not "an appropriate sphere for Government action.” She preferred to rely on the process of “community persuasion” using education in its wider sense to “positively portray the role of women in society.”