Beauty contests

Press, 9 November 1984, Page 12

Beauty contests

Sir, — Where is the evidence for Betty Roberts’s contention that beauty contests lead to health problems in women? I cannot accept that events which take place only a couple of times a year could have so much influence on anyone. If females are so susceptible to media images, surely they are more likely to be influenced by the weekly newspaper stereotypes of voluptuous sexy nudes. These images,. reinforced by television films and X-rated videos, are certainly more potent and offensive to most women. Referring to anorexia even the medical profession cannot agree on likely causes. However, feelings of inferiority and uselessness, together with rejection of establishment and family values play a more significant part than any specific desire to be ultra-slim. The women’s movement would be more credible and creditable if it got its facts and priorities right — Yours, etc., H. M. TAIT. November 7, 1984.

Sir, — Telling the other sex what to do is not confined to men. Regrettably, if every activity which could lead to an unpleasapt or even fatal illness were banned, the world would be a colourless place indeed; so would a world without the fashions and cosmetics with which women set out to attract men — an effect of the deep-seated biological urges implanted bv Mother Nature (or is it Parent Nature?). Professor Freeman points out that environment, e.g. education or theory, overdominates biology and ignores sex patterns built up over thousands of generations. Mesdames Batchelor and Stevens reveal how much disagreement there is among women over many feminist claims; much can be blamed on the materialism of the age. Finally, thanks to David Lattimore — at

least he did not suggest a bit of anorexia would do me good, as an unkind old boy did. — Yours, etc., VERNON WILKINSON. November 7, 1984.