‘Miss . . . or Myth?’ Film Leaves That Up to Beholder : Documentary: The treatment of beauty contests provides high camp but also forms the backdrop for footage of feminist protests that began in 1979 against the Miss California pageant.

There they are, in a black-and-white clip from the ‘50s--five former Miss California pageant winners singing “How Do We Look?” in a hammy production number.

In another vintage newsreel-style clip, a narrator announces the “lovely damsels parading their pulchritude” and intones, “Look! They’re lining up to be judged.”

And there’s Karen Valentine--remember “Room 222”?--as the 1965 Miss Sonoma County, mugging her way through “Wouldn’t Anybody Like to Meet a Sweet, Old-Fashioned Girl?”

The scenes play as high camp in the 1986 documentary “Miss . . . or Myth?” but also form the backdrop for footage of feminist protests that began in 1979 against the Miss California pageant.

The film was screened Monday at the Newport Center Library and served as the focus of a discussion led by Jane O. Newman, director of the women’s studies department at UC Irvine.

In addition to vintage clips, “Miss . . . or Myth?” includes footage of the “Myth California” protests in Santa Cruz, site of the contests until 1985, and interviews with protesters, former pageant winners and pageant officials.

The unself-conscious tone of the pre-controversy clips clashes with scenes of protesters splashing vials of their own blood on the steps of the pageant site, marching with bathroom scales chained to their ankles and vomiting the products of pageant sponsors.

“Every year, 2 million girls are born in the United States,” one ‘50s announcer offers. “Some grow up a little prettier and a little shapelier.”

But the “lovely damsels” are not always the products of pure nature, according to some former contestants interviewed in the film. Especially in this age, when pageants have become competitive high-stakes affairs, contestants pad their breasts, tape up their buttocks and fall victim to varied eating disorders in their race to win the crown and the accompanying scholarship money, prizes and--most important--media exposure.

The 1985 Miss California, Lisa Davenport, defends the pageant in an interview with filmmakers but admits to being a former bulimic.

Another mini-drama that played itself out this month in Orange County also illustrates the competitive extremes of the pageant biz. The reigning Miss Buena Park, April Lynch, was stripped of her crown when it was discovered that she had enrolled in classes at Cypress College to establish her eligibility for the contest but never attended.

Lynch, 26, angrily said after losing her title that she had been misled by pageant officials about the rules. In her last year of eligibility for Miss California--”This was my dream,” she said--Lynch was first runner-up in five other local pageants before winning the Buena Park title.

Winners of local pageants compete for the Miss California title and the chance to go on to the Miss America competition.

Defenders of the pageant say it rewards talent and intelligence as well as beauty and point out that the pageant pays $6 million in scholarships annually.

Protesters in the film say the pageant promotes an arbitrary and unnatural standard of beauty. The pressures to conform to this ideal--a “thin, white Barbie doll,” as one activist put it--can lead to eating and social disorders, they say.

They also draw a direct link between the pageant and rape, saying the objectification of women contributes to sexual violence.

Beauty pageants turn women into “objects to be consumed,” one protester said. “They’re not human.”

At the 1985 pageant, Ann Simonton drew widespread media attention when she protested by wearing a bathing suit made of pieces of raw beef. A successful model from age 14, Simonton was gang-raped at knifepoint one day after her 19th birthday and turned her back on her former lifestyle.

“Judge meat, not women,” Simonton chanted before she was arrested for pouring blood on the pageant building.

“That we promote violence is a laugh,” one angry pageant spokeswoman said. Pageant officials are given equal time in the film but often end up shooting themselves in the foot.

Protesters “disapprove of beauty, intelligence and talent putting their best foot forward,” said one organizer, who then went on to add that the contest encourages women to be “good wives and mothers.”

Later, another organizer defended the pageant against allegations that it discriminates against minority contestants by offering a half-baked and blatantly racist excuse about the physiological differences between black and white women.

Davenport, the 1985 winner, called many of the protesters “fat” and expressed general disgust: “They don’t take care of themselves. Some of them aren’t even clean.”

The turnout at Monday’s noon screening was sparse, but those who took part in the discussion clearly sympathized with the protesters. Newman personalized the discussion by asking participants to reflect on how societal standards of beauty affect their own self-perception.

The event was part of a library film series partly funded by the California Council for the Humanities. The next film, which examines societal stresses within the United States during World War II, will be screened 11:30 a.m. May 9 at the library, 856 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. A discussion will be held. Information: (714) 644-3183.