A beauty in a famous glamor contest poses without make-up to be ‘natural’. What next?

The 12 months 2018 was a unhappy 1 for Miss out on The united states, when they eliminated the swimsuit part from the pageant in a change away from contestants remaining judged way too much on actual physical beauty.

Julia Morley, who took more than Miss Excellent Britain from her spouse Eric in 2000, experienced by now axed the section in 2014, stating that women of all ages just walking up and down in bikinis ‘doesn’t do everything for the female, it does not do anything for any of us.’

This week, Pass up England contestant and politics university student Melissa Raouf went without make-up in the semi-finals, choosing to depend on only her pure beauty. It is the 1st time this has occurred in the show’s 94-calendar year heritage.

What next? No tooth whitener in a nod to situations when our rotten teeth fell out by natural means? Stop washing our hair mainly because grease is section and parcel of acquiring sebaceous glands underneath the follicles?

What is everybody acquired from beauty? At a time when girls are staying denied their pretty gender, this really should be a time to rejoice womanhood, not consign it back to the box where it lay dormant for hundreds of years.

I grew up observing elegance pageants on a modest black and white Tv set my mothers and fathers leased. I liked the other worldliness of them – a lifetime significantly away from the 1 I was dwelling developing up in a smaller village in Wales. The day my moms and dads swapped the outdated Tv set for a coloration one particular was one particular of the happiest times of my lifestyle and, ye gods, the initially time I saw Pass up Environment in all its rainbow glory, I imagined I would expire from enjoyment.

Stephen writes: ‘What’s everybody obtained versus attractiveness? At a time when females are remaining denied their really gender, this ought to be a time to rejoice womanhood’ 

This 7 days, politics student Melisa Raouf (still left devoid of makeup and suitable) made headlines when she turned the first at any time contestant to surface make-up absolutely free at the Skip England competitiveness

My mothers and fathers made use of to set my brother and me to bed at 6pm, in the guarantee that if we slept for two hrs, they would wake us up for the begin of the competitiveness at 8pm. Oh, the thrill of coming back again downstairs in our dressing robes and becoming authorized an additional two several hours in grownup time in entrance of the kaleidoscopic array of beauties!

I could only dream of at any time on the lookout like one of the hourglasses in a swimsuit. I was going to ballet lessons at the time and it was apparent from the start off that I was hardly ever likely to reduce it on the catwalk.

For the finish of phrase clearly show, the organization was divided into two sections – 32 snowflakes, who would don tutus and pink satin pumps, and 6 fishermen, whose costumes had been brown shorts, sandals, and a white and brown gingham major.

I was cast as a fisherman (I can continue to sense the elastic pinching my plump arms to this working day).

I nonetheless don’t forget the ’dance’ (I use the word loosely) when, rod in hand, I had to wander on to the stage with my fellow anglers, forged the net, check for a fish and shake my head when I learned the net was vacant. Then, we cast our nets yet again, marveled at the non-existent fish we had caught and marched off. That was it.

Years later, in secondary university, I was solid as Cinna the poet in Julius Caesar. Basically, the bard walks onstage, states some thing together the traces of ‘Hello, I’m Cinna the poet’, receives stabbed and is dragged off.

In faculty nativity performs, I was hardly ever going to be Mary – that was constantly the female with prolonged blonde hair. Even back then, my hair bore far more resemblance to Hitler’s than Marie Antoinette’s.

Stephen, who grew up in rural Wales, writes of her joy at remaining authorized to stay up late with her brother in order to enjoy magnificence pageants in their youth

Stephen writes that while watching attractiveness pageants as a youngster she could only aspiration of wanting like the contestants and their hourglass figures

Destined to devote my existence in the wings through my youth, I continue to grew up with an admiration of ladies whose figures ended up usually heading to be improved than mine and who were being prettier, taller (I am 5ft and, I consider, now starting off to shrink), and completely much more attractive than I could at any time hope to be.

I however admire them. Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Aniston, Penelope Cruz – I can only sit back again and marvel at the luck of the attract. And admire.

Of course, they all have pure splendor, but they also wear make-up for their respective jobs, and they are a darn sight far more interesting for carrying out so. I don’t go to a live performance or enjoy a Television set to see the ordinariness of my everyday overall look mirrored again at me.

I really do not want to see Dame Joan Collins with out her wig and sans make-up it may well be quite terrifying. I want her to be the superstar she is and not treatment how extensive she normally takes to paint on her slap. She is aged design and style glamour – and it is an uplifting strategy in a depressing age. If I wanted to check out World of the Apes, I’d obtain it.

I, like a whole lot of girls, truly feel greater when I have experienced my hair performed, set on my make-up and costume smartly. I know a whole lot of males who really feel the similar (make-up included) – glance at Ru Paul’s Drag Race, the most excellent exhibit that is a celebration of the artwork of make-up and costume – and swimwear, I may possibly include (and I will undoubtedly hardly ever seem as gorgeous as these guys).

Like it or not, the beauty marketplace is large, due to the fact most of us do not possess ‘natural beauty’ nor do we have just alright, let by itself perfect figures. Melissa Raouf is 20 she has high cheekbones and is, plainly, that elusive factor known as a normal elegance. Would that the relaxation of us were so blessed.

But we’re not. ‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’ explained the fantastic Passionate poet, John Keats. ‘Its loveliness increases it will never ever/Pass into nothingness.’ Amen to that. So, let’s keep on to love natural beauty, primarily at a time when there is so considerably ugliness in the environment.

And Ru Paul – preserve those swimsuits coming.