BEAUTY CONTESTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20283, 16 December 1927, Page 15

BEAUTY CONTESTS.

THE UGLY SIDE OE THEM. Beauty contests, bathing beacn pageants, and similar displays tending .-o exploit feminine pulchritude for commercial purposes are sternly denounced by the National Council of Catholic Vvomen as dangerous both to the young women themselves and to public morals (says the Literary Digest of October £i) Not a dissenting voice was heard, we read in despatches, when the resolution was put to the 400 women present at the seventh annual convention of the council in Washington. On the contrary, the hall resounded with vociferous cries ol “ Ay! ay! ” In presentino the resolution, Mrs George V. MTntire, of Chicago, president of the Catholic Big Sisters, and other speakers, we read in the Washington Post, termed such ocauiy contests “ a backward step in the civilisation if the world.” Frequently, it was said, the desire “or money and publicity influenced fathers and mothers to enter their daughters as contestants, and speakers cited numerous examples of moral delinquency in young women following beauty contests. This protest (observes the Boston Post) “is as timely as it is commendable. Whether it effects anything practical or not, it does put upon record a large ind conscientious body of Americans as opposed to these annual exhibitions of feminine semi-nakedness oefore crowds of ogling men.” And to the Post it seems to be true that if anything of harm happens, “ the parents are the ones responsible, not the girls.” The Washington Star is similarly moved, saying that other organisations should follow the example of the National Council of Catholic Women, for the purpose behind the displays of the feminine form, we are told, is one of exploitation. ‘‘ Thinly camouflaged as ' artistic,’ they arc merely lures for crowds inspired' by unworthy motives and desires. They are an unwholesome influence. They do incalculable harm to participants and be holders. And high credit is to be given to the organisation of women now recording this protest. " Standards of public propriety have been lowered decidedly by these exploitations, for which in every case a commercial purpose exists. As a result of wide-flung organisation, these contests affect hundreds of communities in the preliminary stages. Spectacles that a few years ago would have been denounced as intolerably shocking are now made an annual feature of urban life. It is evident from tli fi action of the National Council of Catholic Women that the point of tolerance has been passed, and the reaction is evident from this unanimous expression of feeling on the part of the delegates to the convention that, it is to be hoped, will spread generally, and cause so pronounced a condemnation that these unseemly enterprises will be discontinued in obedience to unmistakable public disapproval.” Reaction will *ct in some clay, as it always does, observes the Schenectady Union Star noting the profligacy that dissolute monarch® brought on Puritanism.