Beauty Contestants Exploitation

For many years now the old fashioned style beauty contests, fondly remembered by many, with bathing beauties parading around a swimming pool in bikinis and high heels has long been a thing of the past. The PC brigade and womens' lib movement soon put an end to what they saw as the exploitation of women and the promotion of the female form as a sex object. In many ways this was a huge mistake as beauty contests went on almost unnoticed by the public and media, driven underground to take place in seedy nightclubs, hotels and the occasional village hall or community centre. In this country we only saw the occasional glimpse of a Miss World winner presenting an award, disgraced wannabe wags on mind numbing reality TV shows, or on a chat show if she just happened to be Chris de Burghs’ daughter. This has unfortunately left this so called industry very much to its’ own devices.

In the old days we thought of the exploitation of beauty queens in the simplest forms. Pretty but no brains, men ogling at their beauty and their curvaceous figures, and being used as marketing tools for whichever contest organiser/promoter they had chosen to enter.
Sadly today the exploitation is much more subtle and sinister and not only involves the girl herself but her family, friends, colleagues and possibly even the residents of the town/city where the girl happens to live.

It works like this - the national organiser will sell an area franchise to a local heat organiser. They in turn will pay a license fee to enable their winner to go through to the national final, usually in the region of £1000 - £2000. Nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately after the local heat organiser has paid their license fee they can pretty much run their heat as they see fit. They can charge whatever entry fee to contestants they like. This is often dressed up in the form of finding a sponsor, i.e. a local business in the area that the possible contestant resides. Sadly that is often not the case, and if a girl is desperate enough to enter her family will usually pay the so called ‘sponsorship’ fee, anything from £50 - £1500. Once the sponsorship fee has been paid, then surprise surprise the entrant is then offered a fantastic FREE photo shoot of a lifetime. I am not going to say that the photographer doesn't do a good job; usually the photographer does a fabulous job, making what are very often quite plain girls with high aspirations into real beauties. But then it is in their interest to do so, as although the actual sitting is free, they will charge large sums for photographs/portfoli
os sold to the girls, and then pay commission to the local and national organisers. Sadly this scam is well known to work best with the girls who are not the best looking and stand less chance of actually being very successful in the modelling/contest circuit. They will nearly always buy the most pictures as they are not used to seeing themselves look so glamorous. Most of the real contenders already have large portfolios and often receive professional pictures free in exchange for the photographer to use the pictures for his/her own promotion.

Then the next big money earner, on both local and national levels, there is nearly always a text vote involved. The poor contestant is supposed to raise her profile in the local media, get as much support as possible so that she will get her supporters to vote her. Texts votes cost in the region of 60p-£1.00 per text, so it would have to be a very loyal town /city supporter to actually bother to vote. Again it is the poor old contestants family, friends and work/university colleagues who have to foot the bill, making it not a beauty, intelligence, or talent contest as the organisers would have you believe, but at best a local popularity contest, and at worst the girl with the wealthiest family wins. Many girls families run up huge bills in the hope that they will be able to fast track their daughter through to the next round of the contest, I was told of one girls mother running up a bill of over £500, in the sad delusion that if her daughter then won the text vote competition she would automatically get through to the national final. Sadly the organisers forgot to mention that the text vote (at this stage) only picks the final five. The organisers will still choose their favourite girl from that final five. If you challenge any of the organisers on this matter, they will always say the same sort of rubbish.

1/ All the girls knew that a text vote was part of the competition.

Not true. Most contestants would not be made aware of this until after they had paid their entry fee/sponsorship money which as a rule is non-refundable, so they don’t really have a lot of choice.

2/ If it’s good enough for X Factor, Big Brother, etc etc. Then it’s good enough for us.

All the organisers seem to selectively forget that programs such as these have massive national media coverage. Meaning that any demographic bias would be inconsequential. Where as their contests are lucky to get even local newspaper coverage, so the starting point is not quite the same.

Let us also remember, that although these text votes are not actually run by the organisers themselves, as with all competitions of this nature, as we have seen in many cases recently, this way of so called ‘public voting’ is open to abuse and rest assured as the vast majority of these organisers are in it purely for the money, they don’t have any reputation to up hold, they are not going to ask for an independent audit as that would cut into their profit.
If a girl is actually successful and wins a local heat, she will then more than likely have to go through all this again, only on a national level. If she didn’t fall for the photo shoot scam the first time, pressure will be put on her again as her current pictures won’t be good enough for the national program/website etc.

Another misdemeanour of this whole farce is that the organisers will always be involved with a charitable organisation of some kind. This is used purely to promote their contest and give it some credibility. Don’t get me wrong, usually the charity concerned does receive a donation from the contest, sometimes quite sizeable, so you can’t blame the charities for lending their good names to these types of contests. But all this money will have been raised by the contestants themselves, in their fight to become ‘Miss Charity’, and again be fast tracked into the final, as a rule no money will come from the actual organiser themselves, and some have in the past deliberately mislead the contestants and the general public into believing that the contest as a whole is being run solely in aid of their designated charity. I have only ever known this to be the case once.

The next big money earner for these organisers is the actual show final. Tickets for these events range greatly in price anything from £20 to £250, and even though there would be no show without them, certainly at national level, there are no complimentary or discounted tickets made available for the contestants’ family and friends. Once again they have to dig deep to support their daughter. When organisers are questioned about this, they blame the show overheads. Whilst it can be very costly to stage such an event, chances are for many items i.e. venue, sound and lighting, stage set, choreographer etc, some sort of sponsorship deal will have been done, in an attempt to ensure that they will actually pay for as little as possible.

Sadly on most occasions that a girl completes an entry form for one of these contests, she is often regarded as 'the goose that laid the golden egg'. A carrot will be dangled in front of her offering the possibility of success, fame and fortune, but she may have to jump through many expensive hoops, to get to that end. In deed it is worth remembering that the vast majority of these contests, other than the prize package they advertise, have no modelling contracts or work set up for their winners, it is purely on the luck of what the actual winner is like as to whether she will make any money from winning.

It is unfortunate that we live in a ‘celebrity’ driven age, unprecedented amounts of people becoming famous for absolutely nothing, and it is sad that the likes of Paris Hilton, Abi Titmuss, and Jordan have become some of our young girls role models.
It is through the dream that such celebrities promote, that these types of contests seem to becoming increasingly popular. I am not going to say that they are all bad. In fairness to them they do promote a much healthier body image, than the worlds’ catwalks, Victoria Beckham and her ilk. I am also not opposed to any woman being able to use her natural assets to her advantage, and if it opens doors for her, then why not. But surely we do have to safeguard the young and impressionable from unscrupulous business men and women who are selling a dream. The sad fact is that for every girl who does make a success in this industry, thousands and thousands will have had a costly failure. To end here are a few tips on how not to be one of those failures.

1/ BE REALISTIC - If you want to take part for a bit of fun and the experience then fine. But if you are serious about trying to make this a career, then you or your poor old family have to be brutally honest.
Firstly, as we have seen with the ‘size zero’ debate, few beauty queens make it into high fashion modelling, rightly or wrongly they are just too large.
Secondly, whilst the organisers will tell you there are no height or weight restrictions, (remember they will say that as they want as many entrants as possible), the truth is few girls over a size 10-12, and under 5’8’’ will be successful.
Finally, take a long hard look at previous winners, and compare yourself to them. No one’s saying that they’re better than you; they just look a certain way and fit particular criteria, could you?

2/ DON’T PART WITH ANY MONEY UNTIL YOU KNOW ALL FACTS - There are still some organisers who are not after every last penny they can get out of you, so do your homework! Contact them directly and ask what format their contest takes.
Is there an entry fee and what do you get for that fee?
Is a text vote part of the competition at any stage?
If you are successful, will you have to find your own sponsor?
In all honesty if they are asking for any more than £50, say no thank you.
I would always advise NOT to take part in any text vote competition. If you really feel you must, then be aware it is a gamble, and like all gambles only lose what you can afford to lose, because lose will be the most likely outcome.

3/ PICTURES - You will at some stage need to invest in some decent pictures. So if you are offered a complimentary photo shoot by all means take it, but don’t feel pressured into buying the pictures, and only buy if you are really happy with them. Don’t believe that by buying the most pictures or buttering up the photographer will give you more of a chance in the competition, it won’t. Also don’t just use any local photographer without doing your research. Most will specialise in weddings, and will have little or no experience in fashion photography, so check their websites if they have one, or ask to see samples of their work.
It might be worth contacting a university or college in your area, to see if they have photography as part their syllabus. If they do they may sometimes require models for shoots, and you may get some innovative and artistic pictures for a fraction of the normal fees. As with everything - BE CAREFUL. This area of the industry is notorious for certain photographers to try and snare young girls into glamour work, or even ****, with the promise of fame and fortune as the bait. DO NOT do anything that you are not happy to do, and if possible always take a friend or relative with you to any shoot.

5/ COSTS - As with everything nowadays there will be legitimate costs involved. You will need outfits, make-up, hairdressing, travel and possibly pictures. If you get through to a national final, you will have a whole wardrobe structured around the show to find. So be prepared, and have a budget ready.

4/ MODELLING – As previously stated very few beauty queens make it into fashion modelling. If that is your dream, and you are the right shape, height and have the right look, you are far more likely to be discovered at somewhere like ‘The Clothes Show’ than at any beauty contest. Again do not sign up for any agency that asks you for a fee. If an agency really thinks you have what it takes, they will want you on their books and you will make money together. If in doubt contact the top agencies directly. Agencies like ’Storm’, are always looking for new talent and will give you a sometimes brutally honest assessment of your chances, but at least you will know the truth.

I couldn't have put ths editorial better my-self! I have just come through the very costly "Miss England" 2007 thing with my daughter who also did extremely well to have got in to the top 7 fnalists - as much as it's a great and proud experience BE-WARE! everthing written above is SOO what goes on. It really is't all that! My daughter will go on to have much more intellectually sucessfull experiences than anything this "business" scam could offer her!

I am somewhat appalled and bemused as to why an article that I have written on how beauty contest organisers exploit the vast majority of their contestants for purely financial gain has received hardly any interest from the media, which I half expected. Yet the Daily Mail thought it appropriate to cover a story about the new Miss England being deaf in one ear.

The Miss England organisers knew that Georgia had this disability two years ago when she entered the competition before, and got into the top 12. That year Hamassa Kohistani won the title. At that time being the first muslim winner of Miss England almost caused a media frenzy, and gave the organisers the high profile they craved to promote their redundant competition. In many ways her reign backfired badly on them, as Hamssasa was notoriously difficult to work with, would not do many of the photo shoots requested of her, and used her faith to self promote and even make uninformed and potentially dangerous quotes to the press concerning our government.
Last year the title went to a typical 'English Rose', Eleanor Glynn, who was 'luckily' turned down by many top model agencies, again ensuring that the organisers got their publicity through the size zero debate.
It seems this year they have sunk to even greater depths, by using a girls disability to try and get themselves some media attention. I have no doubt that the mail covered the story in as someone on your comments board stated 'a triumph over adversity' angle to lift peoples spirits, and let's be honest we don't get many of those these days. But rest assured all the organisers would be interested in is the column inches, or interviews they can get through this poor girl.

Just how stupid are the so called Miss England Organisers to allow themselves to look so foolish on their own website? I had the misfortune to be at this event. It was hilarious, altough I don't think it was mean't to be. The poor girls looked so uncomfortable, it was like Bollywood meets Bangor, and neither could save the other. Please please let's stop our beautiful young people from making fools of themselves all in the name of Miss England Inc!! Natalie seems to know her stuff.

Isn't it a shame that you cant just be happy for Georgia.
I wondered who exactlty Natalie Smethwick is??? I bet shes just a bitter mother of one of the contestants that didn't win...try telling the Charities that are involved that were just using them. I have organised Miss Cornwall for the last four years and the competition has raised nearly £16,000 for the Newquay Lifeboats, which has helped save many lives.
What has Natalie Smethwick done that shes so proud of???

Well thank you for your interest Ms Chapman. Not that it is any of your business but I have done a great deal to be proud, not least raising three very beautiful and intelligent daughters all of whom would not dream of lowering themselves to enter such tawdry competitions. I believe yours was the heat that was held in a lap-dancing club?!
I became interested in this farce when one of my daughters was approached at ‘The Clothes Show’ to take part in one of these heats, and one of her friends actually decided to have ago, and found it to be extremely costly and demoralising.
Had you read my article thoroughly, you would have seen I have no problem with any one wishing to do this kind of thing if they wish; it is after all still a free country as far as I am aware. What I, and many people I have spoken to since I started researching this subject, am extremely opposed to is the exploitation of young and often impressionable young girls.

It is interesting that the only basis for your argument as one of these so called organisers is to play the charity card as nearly all of you do. Whilst I’m sure the lifeboat charity you mention were extremely grateful for their donation, I am also sure that the £16,000 raised is a meagre drop in the ocean compared to what some of the organisers make. One of my daughters is a national fund raiser for an international charity, so I do know what potentially can be raised from this type of event, and I have no problem with that. It is the organisers who see fit to rip off their contestants at every opportunity that I do have a serious problem with.

I also find it interesting that you of all people have had the audacity to even question anything that I have written, as it is your sister Angie Beasley that is the Miss England national organiser, so it will be of no surprise to anyone that you have a vested interest in keeping these redundant competitions alive. Indeed I know that your sister is one of the people behind Miss Teen Queen, which was also represented at ‘The Clothes Show’ is that so even younger girls can be taken advantage of ?

As for wishing Georgia well, I do sincerely. She is a beautiful girl, and deserves every success, especially since it seems that the Miss England organisation have sunk to even greater depths and see fit to exploit the poor girls disability just to get a little media attention. That is really tragic and absolutely nothing to be proud of.

I am an area organiser for a Miss England heat. Firstly I do not have a text vote, I personally do not agree with it. Secondly I do not ask or offer any girl a photographic shoot, there is no need. Yes we do ask the girls to get a sponsor, the event does need to be funded. we have a licence to pay for and venue, choreographer, photographer, programmes etc does not come free. I wish it did! Of course the organisers make some money out of it, would you work for 6 months for nothing? I very much doubt it. Its a bit like horse racing, if the horses didn't like it they would stop!Girls take part because they want to, all costs to them are mentioned upfront and it can be as cheap or expensive as they make it. Most contestants are not so called models but girls next door who just want to have fun and a new experience.