Beauty pageants invade the Arab World, dominate all kinds of other activities

With a governmental policy of supporting tourism, the sector improved but was coupled with a boom of beauty contests.

In Lebanon, dozens of beauty pageants were selected. Miss Summer, Miss Resorts, Miss Lebanon, Miss Zahle, Miss Aley, Miss Lebanese Expatriates Miss Some Alumni Dinner and so on were sponsored throughout the summer.

"These contests represent the newly emerging cultural activity that comes with globalization and its consumerism off spring," according to Elie Farhat, a sociology research assistant at the Lebanese University.

Not all contests offered generous gifts for its crowned princesses. So why did these girls participate?

According to Farhat, the Lebanese society "is extremely aware of the looks of its individuals to the extent that people judge each other based on the external image." Farhat added that such criteria for deciding social relations was certainly "regressive."

He argued that even though such contests tend to give themselves an image of testing personalities, such tests never reflect the intellectual ability of participants.

Tamara Lian, a participant in one of the numerous beauty contests, told Alternative that she "had a nice body, tan and cute face." She added that she ran for the contest and was crowned first runner-up even though she deserved the queen position.

"Members of the committee knew the girl who was crowned queen and this was enough." Lian also said that she participated because she "had fun and it was a chance to reveal my beauty."

When asked about the commercial side behind such contests and whether this commerciality would overshadow her intellectual brilliance, Lian answered: "Who cares? It's fun and no one expects you to read a book before you run for a beauty contest."

Lian also said that she was planning to become a model.

"No I don't care for politics, but perhaps when I become a famous model, I can champion some causes and promote peace," Lian replied to one of Alternative's questions.