By Danny Fairweather
Beauty pageants are after all, not clean as organizers make out.
While this week’s Miss World pageant being staged in India was marred by the sudden withdrawal of Miss England Milly Magee who alleged objectified and exploitative overtures towards the contestants, an allegation vehemently denied by the organizers, Magee’s allegation of abuse is not just an isolated one. Only last week Miss USA Noeli Voigt and Miss Teen USA Sofia Srivastava gave up their crowns one day apart alleging they were I’ll treated, abused, bullied and cornered.
Both announced that their health was their wealth and that in no way they would compromise their mental and physical wealth.
In the wake of their abductions with the runners-up too declining the crowns in a solidarity move with the two, it is noteworthy that the main pageant body Miss Universe were non committal in side stepping the issue. An apparent pointer to not standing up against wrong and a veiled acknowledgement that such universal pageants do go against the fabric of moral ethics.
In such a trend of can of worm events that compelled two beauty queens to throw their crowns out of the window, the throwback of three such bad happenings one after the other in quick succession does reflect the murky, dark side of beauty pageants that all is not beautiful within.
The Miss World controversy hit a low when Miss England Milla Magee abruptly walked out of the pageant plunging the greatest beauty show on earth into a cloud claiming that contestants were objectified for the flesh in rooms.
The sordid abusive aspect to Miss England’s allegations by and large turned the beauty pageant in India into a nasty row with clamors raised for and against Miss England Magee.
While the British media has given wide publicity to Magee’s claims that she felt objectified by the very nature of the exploitative trend of happenings with contestants having to go through the unsavory part of have ng to dine with wealthy middle aged sponsor men, the organizers in India have been pushed on the back foot to defending and upholding the dignity of an ages old universal pageant that an entire world of dreamy eyed aspiring lasses look to mount a successful career.
Organizers have vehemently denied Miss England’s allegations by stating that a review of the pageant filming had nothing of the sort and that Magee had in the contrary requested to be released from the pageant on personal reasons.
However, Magee remains glued to her claims that contestants had to wear makeup and formal wear all day and were assigned to entertain wealthy male sponsors at dinner, describing the experience as degrading and exploitative”
A British tabloid claimed contestants were allegedly asked to “socialize with middle-aged men”, which the organizers have termed “baseless and completely fabricated”. Miss England 2024 Milla Magee has withdrawn from the ongoing Miss World 2025 pageant being hosted in Telangana, citing personal and ethical concerns.