In Continuum.

Whatever happened. 

It's true, the woman above is the 2008 Miss Universe winner, the most beautiful woman of 2008 until 2009 comes along. She has about a year to enjoy her status as the most beautiful woman in the world, or rather the universe, until the next beautiful woman comes along and dethrones you. She'd have to put on that plastic smile when she puts a crown on next year's winner, give her a peck on the cheeks, and then see all the limelight on her while she fades quietly into the background. Seriously, who cares about the winner of Miss Universe anyway, not to mention the past year winners. That is the harsh reality of beauty contests, your status only really lasts that long. Even if you can somehow remain the desire of photographers around the country for a longer time than all the other past winners, your age is going to catch up with you sooner or later. The crown is going to gather dust at home, and you are going to find yourself being neglected after a couple of months. I suppose being a model for Victoria's Secret makes you a little more bankable, but I suppose anything for that fifteen minutes of fame, right? In this case, a year of fame until the next winner comes along. Speaking of which, Venezuela usually does very well, whatever happened. 

Anyway, it used to be about the looks in the past, until this contestant came along and ruined it for everybody. You need to have the brains and the looks, and you thought the world was already unfair when an empty vessel could win a beauty pageant. They want somebody smart to represent the competition, someone with substance and could carry herself well with aspects of herself that are more than just her looks. We all love to watch beauty pageants, but I personally cannot care less about who the winner is at the very end. I love to watch beautiful people, of course, but you can't help but ask yourself "so what?" at the end of the competition. As beautiful as they are, the winners almost always look somewhat the same, as if they were built out of a template somewhere. They do a little alterations here and there, change the hair from blonde to brunette for one year, and then change the skin color from white to black for another year, and then you'd be able to see the pattern. If you look like that, you are probably going to win, and that is usually the case. All you need to do is to show up in an evening gown, show a little skin in the segment afterwards, smile all the time, hope for world peace. Half your work is already done. 

I have no problems with beauty pageants, but then I do have a problem with someone or some event trying to tell me who is beautiful and who is not. Every time they crown somebody as the winner of some beauty competition, I almost always do not agree with them - ever. Sure they are beautiful, but they are almost always made to look that way, to act that way, to say those words. I don't really need somebody to tell me who is beautiful and who isn't, because I have my own perception of beauty, as far as I am concerned. It is the same as how people organize those drawing competition for children, or photography contests out there every once in a while. How do you take pieces of art and compare them to each other, and say that which is better anyway? How do you decide who is number one, number two, and number three, when all of them probably has equal qualities to be the winner? I don't think beauty should be quantified like that, ranked in terms of number three, number two, and number one. So is the person who gets number four not nearly as beautiful as the first three contestants? If so, by how much? It's difficult to decide, which is why I find the whole idea of a judging penal ridiculous. To me, they are all astounding. 

In a smaller arena, a similar story lives on. This Saturday is going to be the masquerade event that I spoke of earlier, or the beauty pageant that my dear friend Kevin has been forced to participate. I suppose, however, it is for his own good, because he does have the edge over other contestants in more ways than one. What started out as him being reluctant to join has transformed into him being actively involved in picking the appropriate suit, the appropriate shirt, and just going through a full-body transformation - which includes an artificial tan. He is going all out this time, and I suppose it is a good thing for him to break out from his comfort zone. It'd be strange for him, I am sure, to take off his clothes in front of a giant crowd in the club, but I think it is only going to serve him well in the future. Anyway, with that said, the friends and supporters are all behind him in this competition, and we were even there when he rehearsed for the actual day with his fellow contestants on Tuesday night in school with a professional instructor. Remember those scenes in America's Next Top Model when you see those instructors saying harsh things about the contestants, and the girls breaking down into tears? Well, it's real, that much I can tell you. They didn't breakdown or anything, but the instructor didn't hold anything back either. 

For those people who are familiar with the whole beauty pageant thing, may I ask why are the cat-walking instructors always the most unlikely person to be an instructor? Here we have a short and stout male instructor, probably not much taller than my shoulders, dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans and then demonstrating how to walk to the contestants. It wasn't a particularly desirable sight, and it's not like he was particularly fantastic at it anyway (J. Alexander, anyone?). Anyway, it began with the contestants all doing a walk down the makeshift runway, and all of them had to walk n a certain way and in a certain shape around the "stage". It kind of reminded me of my days with the Drama Club, when you had specific number of steps to take from this side of the stage to the next, and a shape you had to follow in order to execute a certain scene. All of those, on top of remembering what to say and what to do with your body language - let's just say it wasn't easy. Which was why I knew how difficult it must have been for the lot of them, though they were fooling around for the most part. The girls were OK, in fact I was pleasantly surprised by how good the girls were. Not perfect, but good enough. The boys, however, they were "monkeys" and "geese". 

At least those were the animal analogies given by the instructor - let's call him SS, since he is short and stout, and also because I didn't catch his name. He specifically pointed out the male contestants this way," The one in red and the one in pink, and that other one in pink too. You guys are all monkeys!" So he compared the contestants of a beauty pageant to monkeys, I am sure that is going to be a morale dampener. One of the pink guys he pointed out, sadly, was Kevin, whose walk down the makeshift runway seemed just a tad stiff and awkward. It wasn't helped by the fact that the boys kept messing up where to walk, where to stand, how to stand, and all those little details that most instructors are so particular of. You see, everything becomes amplified onstage whether you like it or not, at least that is what I learned from being in the club for four years. You stand up there, and every little movement becomes crystal clear to the audience and the judges down below. You need to get everything right, and there isn't a room for mistakes. It is OK if you are going to make certain mistakes, but be serious about getting it right. What pissed SS off at that time, or rather what pisses most people off usually, would be if the people that commit the mistake cannot take things seriously. They didn't take it too seriously. 

Initially, other than supporting my friend Kevin at the pageant, I really wanted to check out the ladies - who wouldn't want to? Right now, I am more eager to see how the boys pull it off on the actual day itself, because it is going to be a herculean task I wouldn't want to miss. It'd be some kind of extreme makeover, to see how the boys turn from runway amateurs to professional models on a stage. The ladies are still going to be a highlight for me (I am voting for Nicole), but the boys - do the gender proud, people. In the meantime, I have gotten myself a new shirt from Esprit for the event itself which I like quite a bit. Speaking of which, I really should get a membership card from there, I am falling for the clothes. Anyway, I am sure most of us cannot wait for the event on Saturday, because it is going to be quite a blast. More than just the beautiful people, I suppose it'd be great for the lot of us to just hang out for one day in the weekend before we have to get down to business all over again. I mean, Jeremy is going to a club, I suppose there isn't a reason for you not to go. That alone is saying a lot. To Kevin, I hope this competition works out for you, even if you do not win at the very end. There's more to winning the competition, if you know what I mean. The very best of luck!