Argentine City Takes Beauty Off Its Pedestal

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/world/argentine-city-takes-beauty-off-its-pedestal.html

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BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s obsession with certain standards of female beauty has contributed to some of the world’s highest rates of eating disorders among women. Attention to female beauty is so prevalent here that a former Miss Argentina trying to maintain her youthful appearance recently died of complications from plastic surgery intended to make her buttocks firmer.

One Argentine city, citing eating disorders and unattainable ideals of perfection, has decided it has had enough of the country’s uncompromising expectations and has chosen to ban beauty pageants from its municipal festivals.

Pointing to shifting views about such competitions here, the vote this month by the municipal council of Chivilcoy, a city of about 60,000 on the lowlands of the province of Buenos Aires, has won plaudits from women’s rights groups and even from some former pageant contestants.

“If the only value is beauty, that’s bad, I don’t identify with that,” said Nadia Cerri, 41, director of Miss World Argentina and a former pageant contestant. But she added that an all-out ban goes too far. “We don’t oblige anybody to take part in the contests,” she said.

Ms. Cerri said that in recent years the Miss World Argentina competition had tried to place greater emphasis on factors apart from physical appearance. A winner must perform well in categories such as social responsibility, for which she might be required to show awareness of social issues like sex trafficking in her home province. Contestants must also demonstrate knowledge of general culture, including current events, and exhibit a talent, which can be a skill like acting or painting.

Ms. Cerri said that the judges in some smaller pageants were sometimes exclusively men — local officials “who only value a catwalk in a bikini.”

“So, in that sense, I think it’s perfect to regulate them,” she added.

“Beauty is not something that can be objectified,” said the text of the measure approved by Chivilcoy’s City Council. “Organizing a competitive scenario of this kind creates a discriminatory and violent situation.”

The authorities in Chivilcoy said they planned to replace the traditional pageants with a community service prize for volunteers from ages 15 to 30, who would be recognized for their work in improving the quality of life in the city, where the economy is largely based on farming and cattle ranching.

Beyond Argentina, pageant organizers have adopted other changes. For instance, the Miss World competition declared this month that it would not feature a swimsuit round for the first time in 63 years.

Criticism of beauty pageants has also been increasing elsewhere in Argentina. In the province of Mendoza, a previous winner, Yamila Estefanía Escudero, 18, successfully sued regional authorities after she became pregnant and then was prevented from crowning her successor. Ms. Escudero’s lawyer argued that the prohibition was a form of discrimination.