While Fiji should continue to celebrate its culture through festivals, beauty pageants should be removed stated Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) coordinator Shamima Ali.
Ms Ali made her views known in response to the adverse publicity surrounding Fiji’s participation in the Miss Pacific Islands Pageant.
She said the organisation had long opposed beauty contests due to the harm and exploitation they believed caused to women and girls.
“We are not saying that women do not have a right to take part in these contests, what we are saying is that contests like these exist, not in a vacuum,” Ms Ali said.
“But in a large mainstream culture in which women are presented for visual consumption for the benefit of the male gaze, look at the sexualised vulnerable images of women used to sell luxury goods.”
Ms Ali said FWCC had, over the years, received complaints related to pageants, including allegations of sexual harassment, coercive sex, internal conflicts and poor treatment by managers and coordinators.
She said the organisation had provided counselling to young women who were traumatised by their experiences.
“There should not be competitions of this manner. We can have festivals without having this beauty contest, because that’s what it is.
“Beauty pageants where women are being pitted against each other. And also, it’s about whose idea of beauty are we looking at? What are we looking at?
“Some of the criteria, she shouldn’t have had a baby, she shouldn’t be married, and things like that. Who are we who judge women like this?”
Ms Ali said if pageants are promoted as empowering platforms, they should genuinely empower women by providing scholarships, opportunities for personal development or support for charitable causes, rather than focusing on competition based on appearance.
