THE PHILIPPINE PAGEANT CULTURE

By Jetset Alejandro

 (Editor’s Note: In our readings, I came across our old blog [essentialbeautiesphil.blogspot.com, March 4, 2006] which was dormant after so many years. There is an article written by yours truly in March 4, 2006 and found it still conforming to the present realities of beauty pageants. I am reposting this article with minor revisions to be more up-to-date.)

Beauty pageants galvanize the Filipinos and they troop to the pageant arena carrying their fanaticism that would literally cause pandemonium in the coliseum. The yearly pageant Binibining Pilipinas in search for the Philippines’ representative to the Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Tourism Beauty pageant is no different. At the homestretch pageant fans seem to be more in the know and heated brickbats appear on message boards sometimes becoming so irritatingly repetitious.

Beauty pageants have become ordinary and have practically become a way of life among Filipinos. Adding more color and pizzazz to the activity is the penchant of pageant fans of pitting one candidate to the other; of pitting one supporter against the other supporters. Filipino pageant fans never seem to acquire the innate objectivity of looking at beauty. They speculate. They gossip. They destroy others’ personalities. They denigrate the contest to a cockfighting mode. They scorn about the results of the pageant. They shout “lutong-macao” if they do not like the outcome of the judging. They concoct conspiracy theories. They mouth invective.  As you hear more, you admonish them but the more they say something more. Say it and you will find it in the Filipino pageant fan. Then they settle down.

When the international pageant comes to the fore, you will find them either lambasting their own candidate or yet quietly supporting them through text or internet votes. And when the candidate loses, it is a heyday of brickbats and criticisms. Yet when the candidate wins, even the biggest critic sings alleluias and praises hosanna to the candidate. Some others would still exhort their bitchy tongues and say the unkindest words. Just take Janine Tugonon’s first runner-up finish and sterling answer to the Question and Answer portion; she was still thrown the worst criticism: “They do not need a cum laude as Miss Universe, they needed a beauty and she is not!” But still you can’t argue with victory. For victory is sweet. Janine has proven that she is made of sterner and better stuff. She has proven the doubting Thomases that she has the qualities to make it to Miss Universe after all. She may not be the winner but she is part of the last two standing there. She is not a clapper after all. So the Filipino pageant fan retreats for awhile in silence, only to spring back with utter loudness and hue.

This phenomenon had become cultural. Nowhere probably in the world would you see this reaction except in the Philippines. Not even in the United States who had the recent Miss Universe gloated over their victory. Only in the Philippines this happens. Even a first runner-up enjoys the adulation of the crowd with matching motorcade and confetti to boot. She graced all most all TV shows. She made courtesy calls to different offices. She graced political gatherings. She was given Congressional Resolutions for making the country stand tall among all others. 

The Filipinos penchant for beauty pageants might have been ingrained on them when Miss Gloria A. Diaz, a 17 year-old petite lady was crowned the first Filipino Miss Universe in 1969. Since then, the people went gaga over beauty queens. Slowly, beauty pageants were institutionalized even in the smallest political sub-unit. Pageants have become an ordinary fare for every Filipino. There is a Mutya ng Palengke, Mutya ng Ngiti, Mutya ng Busilak, Mutya ng Niyog-Niyogan, Binibining Sapatero and many other variations. Then, they even start so young like the Little Miss Philippines, Little Miss Barangay and the like. Filipinos loved to be called beautiful. In the days of the Conjugal Dictatorship, only the Good and the Beautiful was espoused. And practically, the great days of beauty pageants were basically rooted in the philosophy that “To be beautiful is to be great.”

Beauty pageants are political statements so to speak. In all reality, the Filipinos would like to excel in the world of beauty because it is a very good cover-up for the rotten inside of what really is happening to the country. We may be beautiful outside but rotting in the inside. Truly, the brickbats and foul-mouthing are but symptoms of a greater problem in the country and is greatly rooted out in its malevolent culture.

Dissecting our thesis further, the dissolute gay culture in the country which had been tolerated and proliferated to no end has contributed a lot to this kind of status with regards to beauty pageants. Gays are gays. They are a creative lot. Their dreams of becoming beauty queens have come into realization in gay beauty pageants. But becoming beauty queens even just gay queens is not real. And always, the effect is subliminal and is always reflected on their work. They start grooming girls to become beauty queens. They create these girls in their perceived likeness and ergo they fight for these girls when they compete because it is in their feelings that they are the ones competing. I know of someone who had groomed so many in girls in beauty pageants and comes the Question and Answer portion, he imagines being the one grilled during this segment. Philippine beauty pageants have become life itself.