MANILA, Philippines – There is more to a campus beauty contest than just young men and women prancing on stage in their elegant evening wear and swim suits to compete for a crown.

On the contrary, beauty pageants can bring out the best in a person, attests Muriel Adrienne Isidore D. Orais, Nursing student from Velez College in Cebu City and a beauty queen.

“Honestly, I am not a person who likes to join pageants because one of my greatest fears is standing on stage and talking to an audience. But all of us should face our fears and experience something new in life and this is one of the advantages of joining beauty pageants, which I had gained and developed. It enhanced my self-confidence and trained me in public speaking,” says Muriel, who recently bagged the nationwide search for Olive C Campus Model Search.

Muriel is a late bloomer in the pageants arena. It was only when she entered college when she realized that she wanted to do something special with her life.

“My first beauty pageant experience was terrible! I had the confidence to walk, but I did not do well in the question and answer portion. Yet I still won,” she recalls.

Beauty pageants changed her life, she says. After winning one title after the other, Muriel says she has become a bundle of energy and confidence.

“My friends and schoolmates teased me at first when they found out that I was joining Mr. and Ms. Nursing. It was my mom who wanted me to join pageants and I realized that beauty pageants can be a form of education. It is a venue to develop self-confidence, personality and skills,” she says.

PAGEANT 101

While campus beauty pageants are remotely related to academics, they certainly form part of a student’s campus life as they have become a tradition in most colleges and universities. As winners are often featured in student publications, beauty pageants somehow legitimize and promote their acceptance in the academe.

Celebrities Miriam Quiambao and Charlene Gonzales started out as campus beauty queens at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) before moving on to winning first runner-up and fourth runner-up, respectively in the Miss Universe pageants.

Not known to many, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago was a former beauty pageant title holder herself at the University of the Philippines!

“ Campus pageants are something fun and worthwhile. Students need a break from their stressful school works. Aside from its many perks, like the prizes that come with winning the title, beauty pageants also give a person experience, different levels of excitement, and an escape from the daily routine of life,” says pageant expert Nicholo Paulo Ventura of Missosology.org.

Missosology is the biggest pageantrelated online forum with four million hits daily and 20,000 members. As an administrator, Ventura deals with day-to-day problems of members from different parts of the globe who continue to flock to the forum for a healthy, informative and fun pageant interaction. He was also active doing regional, local and international beauty pageant coverages for Missosology.

“In the Philippines, pageants are already an institution that refuses to fade away. Every school, sitio, barrio, barangay, local town and city holds and conducts its own beauty pageant yearly. It’s part of our culture. The victories of Filipina women in international pageants like Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International somehow surpassed the hardships and simple lifestyles that most Filipinos led. The winnings of Gloria Diaz, Margie Moran, Ruffa Gutierrez, Melanie Marquez and Maria Venus Raj not only solidified, but also reinforced and strengthened the Filipino’s passionate love for beauty pageants,” he explains.

RAISING BEAUTY QUEENS

Noticeably, Filipinos’ eyes are glued on their TV sets everytime a beauty pageant is on, yet we are not necessarily considered “pageant fanatics.”

“Beauty pageants are just something that most Filipinos are interested in. Filipinos are adverse to ugliness around them. We adore the true, the good, and the beautiful,” adds Ventura.

The Philippines had been producing beauty queens for a long time, in fact, we have been raising them!

“Girls competing in local or city beauty pageants are normal for each town during fiestas, school anniversaries, fund raising and other events that require someone to promote a certain cause and what not. In a third world country such as the Philippines, poverty-stricken Filipinos want to see beautiful things, and beautiful women are not an exemption,” he relates.

BEAUTY KINGS

There is more than meets the eye within the beauty pageant circuit, according to Anjo Resurrecion, a Pscyhology student from UST. Anjo was a runner-up in the Search for the Ideal Thomasian Personality.

“At first I joined beauty pageants because people say I may have a chance at winning. But I soon realized after being exposed to a lot of beauty pageants that it is not only for fame or about having a pretty face, it also broadens your awareness about a lot of things – from political, social, to environmental issues,” he says.

Although Anjo doesn’t expect to bag a title all the time, there’s always the pressure to win. “If I lose, that’s my way to be grounded in reality. There is pressure, even more so once you win the title since people will look up to you. So you have to project a good image all the time. Your schoolmates will see your college through you.”

Based on Anjo’s experience, the question and answer is the most nerve-racking part of any beauty pageant. “It is no doubt the most difficult.

As it is, there are already a lot of things going through my mind, the right answer, maintaining poise, etc. Even if I already have an answer in mind, it’s just hard to express everything under pressure,” he adds.

For Mr. Centro Escolar University Goldmon Aquino, an 18-year-old Management student, it is always fun to join beauty pageants. “I always remember the chants and the screaming of ladies. That was the best part for me. You become an instant celebrity in school,” he quips.

In addition, Goldmon sees beauty pageants as a way to a career in modeling or showbiz. “At first I never thought about it, but after joining the pageant everything changed. A lot of opportunities came up, and now I am part of a band. I’m hoping to make it big in showbiz as well,” says Goldmon, who is a member of the boyband 1:43, with Anjo Resurreccion.

CONTROVERSY

While beauty pageant supporters say there is more to winning a beauty pageant than simply honing good looks, pageants still get criticism from those who see them as sexist, a vanity trip, or a mere contest for showbiz wannabes.

“For some, beauty pageants are relegated to the realm of ‘low’ culture and believed to be as just another form of entertainment that should not be taken seriously. Most feminists argue that a beauty pageant exploits and constructs women as commodities. In my opinion, pageants are not offensive.

It could only become offensive to people who are bound by their belief, religion and culture,” ends Ventura.