BEAUTY COMPETITIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3801, 18 January 1927, Page 79

BEAUTY COMPETITIONS.

DEMORALISING EFFECT. (FROM OUit.OWN COBBESPONUENT.) SYDNEY, January. The beauty competitions which have been figuratively overwhelming Sydney and its suburbs for a long time have evoked the wrath of th e National Council of Women, and prompted it, at the instance in the first place of the Catholic Women’s Association, to take a definite stand against them. Even beauty competitions, when one gets them ad nauseam, can sicken people. This is how Sydney generally feels about them. The Queensland and Victorian National Councils of Women are acting in concert with the body in this State, in protests against these competitions. The attitude of the National Council, broadly, is that these competitions, and the publicity to which the participants are subjected, are demoralising to young women, and tend to give them a false view of their responsibilities and of the qualities which they ought really to value. If, it is stated, girls would only reflect how unworthy these standards would appear if applied to young men, they would hesitate before allowing themselves to be judged in such a way. Whether people agree with the views of the National Council or not in this matter, the fact remains that it is the mouthpiece in New South Wales of 50 affiliated societies, with many thousands of members. Its protests therefore can hardly be dismissed lightly.