Miss Santa Cruz Protest and Beauty Pageants

I am writing in response to the editorial “Beauty in Opportunity” (June 17). The writer suggests that beauty contests are to women what professional sports are to men: a fantasy that quickly gives way to the realization that it represents unrealistic goals. I suggest that the writer’s analogy is invalid. In professional sports the line between fantasy and reality is clear and unmistakable. It is obvious to everyone but the most self-deluding of weekend warriors that professional sports can be played only by a select few lucky enough to be born with natural talent, and the lack of that natural talent becomes painfully clear after the first few strike-outs or missed baskets.

Beauty on the other hand is a more intangible and elusive goal. It is much easier for a woman to persuade herself that with just a little more effort she could look like Christie Brinkley than it is for a man to persuade himself that with just a little more practice he could be Magic Johnson. There are also not entire industries devoted to selling men products that claim to make them sports greats. Women on the other hand are deluged with millions of dollars worth of advertising every year that claims to offer to make cover girls out of them. Athletic greatness is obviously only for the few, but beauty is made to appear within the grasp of any woman willing to pay the price.

This dream of beauty--as defined by fashion magazines and cosmetic companies--is promoted by beauty pageants like the Miss California contest. The contest promoters try to preserve the illusion that the contestants are ordinary girls next door involved in a friendly competition. As the writer of the editorial observes, however, beauty contestants are in fact professionals engaged in often ruthless competition with each other. The writer speaks as if this fact were common knowledge, but I seriously doubt that this was so much the case before Miss Santa Cruz staged her protest.

As the editorial points out most men lose their dream of becoming a sports star after the first twisted ankle. A woman may develop a life-threatening eating disorder before she realizes that a 23-inch waist or a rhinestone tiara are also unreal fantasies.

MARY WALKER

Cypress