Following the controversy-ridden Miss South Africa pageant entrant Chadima Adetshina matter, who it has turned out that she is not a South African but a Nigerian using the identity of a South African woman which was stolen by her mother, some of our readers have actually called for a total ban on beauty pageants while others are of the opinion that pageants must continue to exist.
FORMER NEWSPAPER EDITOR PHALANE MOTALE-
The Chadima Adetshina matter is water under the bridge now since it has been resolved the way it has been resolved.
I believe beauty pageants must continue to exist and nit be banned as wine people nay suggest.
I believe the essence of beauty pageants is to celebrate the totality of the beauty of a woman.
However, this celebration goes beyond looks and projects qualities such as intelligence, confidence, charity and charm among others.
Beauty pageants are necessary because they teach women many skills and how to present themselves.
These pageants are empowering because they can be used as a platform to showcase diversity, intelligence and leadership and due to these pageants women like Jacqui Mofokeng, Peggy Sue Khumalo, Basetsana Makhalemele and many other ladies who have won the Miss SA title have gone on to become eminent persons in the society.
Our recent Miss Universe has proved that pageants can be used to advocate just causes like the fight against GBV, hunger and racism, and they can also be used to empower other women.
KEKELETSO KHENA OF # NOFAITHINTHE SYSTEM
The Chadima Adetshina issue is a matter of fraud and that in itself is problematic.
It’s very unfortunate that she has had to bear the brunt of her mother’s illegal actions which rob her of the right to become a naturalised South African.
For me the tone of her speech when she announced her withdrawal from the Miss SA contest is concerning, this as she says she is stepping down for the sake of her family’s safety, thus making South Africans who complained about her non-naturalisation as a South African violent people.
This means that by virtue of South Africans knowing about the fact that she is not a South African and is actually a Nigerian, then South Africans are threatening her life.
I dislike this notion by Nigerians who want to portray us as xenophobic simply because they don’t want to follow the rules of this country.
There are rules in every country and if you break those rules you are committing a crime, and if you commit a crime you are undermining the sovereignty of that country. We can argue about the legitimacy of the borders which were created by Colonialists, but even in the case of the land being under African kingdoms you don’t go to someone’s kingdom and do as you please; you follow the rules of that particular kingdom and when these people come into our country and don’t follow the rules that becomes problematic for me.
On the issue of the banning of beauty pageants my take is that they are a measurement of beauty and beauty standards, but the question arises as to who actually holds the yardstick for measuring beauty.
These pageants are a patriachal process and the fact that the Miss SA pageant is run by women and that the judges are also women doesn’t take away from the fact that it is a man-driven process that measures women against one another to decide which women are good enough.
You are measuring a human against others not in terms of their abilities and intellect and how they add value to the society, and the standard for the so-called beauty is set by some faceless patriarchs.
These beauty standards conjure up the days of slave trade when those who were about to be sold into slavery would be ordered to smile so as to determine how many good teeth they possessed; how bright their smile was; to stand up straight to determine their height and use these criteria as an indication that they would be good slaves or not.
These beauty standards were not created by women themselves and are a commercialisation of women and at the end of the day capitalism wins.
It is nonsensical as to what we put women through in these pageants; judging how chiselled their noses are; what waist size they are; the length of their legs and thus leaving other women out of these pageants.
And for those women who are not size 6, we create alternative, less prestigious beauty pageants called Plus Size models.