Critics: It’s Just Another Beauty Pageant

There’s Miss Galaxy, Ms. Fitness USA, Fitness America Pageant and most recently the Professional Women’s National Physical Fitness championship. What’s the difference? To women’s rights groups, there is none.

Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, is against any competition in which a woman’s appearance is judged subjectively.

“Pageants in any form that focus on scoring women like cattle are abusive and to be looked at as archaic,” Bruce said. “I don’t care whether it is traditional beauty contests or bodybuilding. It’s sad in general women don’t have enough self-esteem to say no to this type of garbage.”

Lynnore Lawton, the director of communications of the Women’s Sports Foundation in New York, questions the motive for swimsuit and evening gown competitions in the fitness contests.

“It’s almost as if the only reason they’ve included any athletic endeavor is to keep (organizers) from being the bad guys,” she said.

Competitors find no fault with the format.

Debbie Dobbins, 30, of Costa Mesa, who tied for second in the 1993 Miss Galaxy competition and placed third in the 1993 Ms. Fitness USA contest, said “the physique” rounds gives competitors an opportunity to showcase a body achieved through arduous conditioning.

Kimiko Tanaka, 28, of Marina del Rey, a host on ESPN’s “Bodyshaping” who will compete in this month’s Galaxy contest, agreed.

“In art, you have a contest to display your work,” Tanaka said. “When you’ve trained so hard and spent so much time and energy to sculpture your body into an art form, it’s a positive thing to want to display your art.”

The differences in fitness pageants are slight:

* Miss Galaxy is based on a swimsuit and obstacle-course competition. Each event is weighed equally.

* The Ms. Fitness format consists of three rounds--swimsuit, evening gown and fitness routine--each counting a third.

* Fitness America is also judged on three rounds of equal value, with a twist. It has a swimsuit and fitness routine, but the evening gown portion also has an interview segment.

* The Women’s National Physical Fitness championship is based 50% on swimsuit, 25% on evening gown and interview and 25% on fitness routine.

The Ms. Fitness final is scheduled for Feb. 12-13 at El Camino College. The $125,000 event will be televised internationally.