Photo By: Anton Pablo, A Classmate  Of This Writer From The University Of Santo Tomas, Liberal Arts, Freshman.

ON BEAUTY PAGEANTS
By: Iris P. Concepcion

I had been following the Miss Universe pageants to view women who seem to be out of this world. Sculpted perfectly, they are built as if from the gods of Mt. Olympus who had descended upon Earth in designer gowns.

I found the recently concluded beauty rites charming in that it has weeded out the flimsy contours to the shallow connotations usually attached to pageants.  It is to my eyes' bias perhaps but I saw and heard the Top 5 candidates mouthing off values unhaltingly like reverence for God and that often violated word, "respect."

The normal course of exchange under this premise is to scout women in their bikini swimsuits and putting the bets on who is going to snatch the crown. I viewed the pageant here in Thailand in English but I had heard overdubs done by a curious voice pair in translation.

Like the spread of tweets on the website, I view the proliferation of effecting positive changes in the littlest actions and words that we may undertake or speak whether we are donning heels or mere slippers. Watching women with talent and graceful poses create another vibe for the womenfolk, that of forwarding their personal causes even when blessed with 36-24-36 vital statistics.

The Top 5 contestants are pretty but from the outset, one would already be aware who can pull this off without sweating the coaching benches with innate breeding and grit when allowed to face the world.

The most beautiful persons I have seen upclose are stunners because of their fortitude, ability to change when prodded, spunk and absence of ill will whenever they face another sprightly, sunny morning. They have good words to spread about people they know of and are not selfish of their time in calming tense-filled situations.

They have clear notions of what is right and what is wrong and shall not sulk when pricked.

Strong women become stalwarts of nurture and shall never point, even if they are mere toy guns, at children below five years old during the Christmas season simply because these kids have golden hair and are adorned with the most winsome, bedimpled smiles. It is the fact of simians: being naturally beautiful invites hate and envy. There should be a book with percentage data sheets to validate my assumption.

I saw the faces of these women today. I saw who had used junk food and stepped on toes as decent, humane actions  to irk the needy. Inevitably, pride, greed and bad manners lost to clearcut sanity. The judges had spoken in an even manner and called spade a spade.

A woman, to me, is essentially a person who sees things on a positive way, watching his vista with her graceful breasts, adoring lips and caring eyes.  The picture above can only be an ode to a woman who should see the universe along these edges of somber threads, captured in lights of piousness and reverence.

I wonder when they shall produce a male counterpart of Miss Universe to world stage with the same probing of anatomical circumference meant for women. I have enough proof to show that males, when cornered, resort to genitalia threats to assert their maledom. It is silly, shallow and irreverent. It has gone on a trite feedback now. What they are missing are the saner, more humane links that are present here in Thailand. This is a new ground, God is King here and women are treated responsibly. Even the mounting of the Miss Universe pageant, walled enough not to be hacked, is dignified without the usual shrieks and yellings reserved for horsefightings. Here, education is sweeter as it is brought out of the classroom and into a lifestyle psyche.  It is numbing and humbling for the once haughty to be facing these faces of somber and serene gangs of warriors who would rather clean your tubs than scissor your bedsheets when caught in a wrong step.

This is not a terrain for mob thinking. If you insist on continuing doing your usual routine of crabby missteps, you might get a surprise of a cake with icing on top. Sugar free and shipped directly by the owners of Mrs. Fields. This is decorum. If you could not tow it via boat ducts, find the finest shores instead where more domestic helpers are looking for you for great benevolence. Help them out as women should do instead of letting them pay atrocious amounts to earn their decent keep. I know these people and am one with them. You demean them, we just have to increase our bunions of cake frostings to thaw your conscience.

Miss Angola who won the title, stood for this. No translation foul-ups can stop this woman from saying her innermost gut to the world.

A piercing friend thus capsulized the entire proceedings as the triumph of both brains and beauty with the ominous words: ‎"They finally got some smart and gorgeous ones. The dumb tank must be running low."