BEAUTY CONTESTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1930, Page 25

BEAUTY CONTESTS

A SHAR^ ATTACK

ARTISTS' VIEWS

What'use aro these beauty contests? asks C. E. W. Vcvinson, tho famous artist in article in the "Daily Express." ' ' ■' ■ ■ ' : Beauty in a woman causes her troublo enough, though I do not suppose any woman would sacrifice it; she is nioro than willing to bear such a cross. It does seem unnecessary, however, to thrust competition upon suffering' womanhood in the form of these international beauty contests. I remember some ten years ago I was asked to be a judge of one of these affairs, and' I had the misfortune to have to look at thousands and thousands of photographs of women. They became increasingly ugly day after day, week after week, until towards the end of the competition I was quite unable to look at any woman at all. I:am convinced that the judges eventually awarded the prize to a girl who was almost invisible, but invariably burst intoteaj's every time sho looked at us, arid was.led'away in a streaky condition, with her eye-black mixing with her lipstick. VICTIMS OF UKGE. • This experience possibly makes me prejudiced against theso competitions; but I see that .already worse tragedies havo happened in connection with the latest international competition, and it is important to remember that wo only hear of the suicides and thefts. This public rivalry must open tho doors to a great deal more that is unpleasant and undesirable.- It is more than understandable that any young woman getting over her growing pains of adoivj&ounto ohouid desire to exhibit herself in her first glory. Ninety-nine out. of. .a -hundred of the so-called stage-struck or film-mad girls are merely the victims of this particular urge, which has nothing whatsoever to do with tho desiro for any form of artistic or dramatic expression, or interpretation of character. Thoso should be the.first essentials, rather than the last for any girl who'is sufficiently foolish to imagine that sho has histrionic ■ gifts. Theso beauty compcti tions are indirectly encouraging unfortunate women to .imagine that beauty is sufficient, in spito of tho fact that every day wo havo proofs that any woman who dares to face the mad scramble in any form of public life

| must be equipped with a brain as sharp as a needle, a ruthless opportunism, and a skin as thick as a rhinoceros. A FEW SACRIFICES. She must be propared to sacrifice time, squeamishness, friends, and virtue to her ambitions. - Few complaints are more pathetic than that of tho woman who has limelight under her skin; she rivals the morphine taker for deterioration of charaeted and complete loss of moral sense. The Mohammedans aro possibly kinder to women than we are. They prevent this natural and adolescent mania for self-exhibition by compelling their women to hide themselves behind a veil. I once knew a great theatrical agent who was in the habit of telling every girl who applied to him for a job, to marry, no matter how bad, rather than take on a job, no matter how good. According to him, hundreds of gii'ls had in the course of his career thanked him for the advice, because they preferred in the end to triumph with their private lifo rather than to succeed with the public. I believe these beauty competitions originated with the "real estate" agents of America, who used the female of some small town to boost the female of some smaller town, and so advertised the locality in which .they intended to speculate. Thcso modern prototypes of Paris always took care to see that the apple was heavily loaded, and that the girl and tho gold and tho beauty all came from tho samo spot—where their real estate interests lay. BALEFUL AFTERMATH, Perhaps it is as well that the winning girl in s competition nevor knows that tho reasons for her bcauty_ are often more than skin deep. It is, in fact actually tho aftermath of these competitions which is so peculiarly ba'eful in Us effect on both tho winners and the losers. They began to realis. that neither the winning nor the losing of competitions seemed to make the slightest difference to their persona 1 lives on their return. It is the sense of .utter disillusionment felt by tho "most beautiful woman in tho world," which eventually drivos her to live en stolon goods or die with gas fumes.