To Be a Miss

The Venezuelan people’s first experience with democracy came about through a beauty contest. In this Latin American country, which was still a dictatorship in the 1950s, it was a novelty for a working-class beauty queen to beat a rival from the elite. Now, beauty contests are big business in Venezuela. showcases the coaches, agencies, plastic surgeons and even a manufacturer of the hotly contested beauty queens’ crowns. But above all we see the young women trying to escape the poverty of everyday life by competing in beauty contests. In a small room shared by two sisters and a cousin, a Barbie doll hangs like a trophy on the wall. This is the sisters’ goal: to achieve the Barbie look. They go to the gym twice a day, eat far too little and take part in countless competitions. The success of Venezuelan women in international beauty pageants encourages them to hope for a better future. Nevertheless, there are also critical voices from the university – not surprising when we see the preliminary rounds of a contest being held in a plastic surgery practice.