Recycling of beauty queens: Is it a good practice?
Recycling of Beauty Queens: Is it a good practice?
Recently, the official page of Femina Miss India posted a picture of Miss Grand India 2015 Vartika Singh, asking the followers to mention the pageant where she should be sent again. Of course, it need not mean that Femina Miss India is sending her to another pageant for sure. But this did trigger discussions about the possibility of “recycling of beauty queens” for India. When an organization sends girls to more than one pageant, it is called recycling of beauty queens. For example, Miss India 1993 Namrata Shirodkar was sent by Femina Miss India to Miss Universe and Miss Asia Pacific in the same year. She couldn’t win either of the pageants, but did well in both.
Is ‘recycling of beauty queens’ a good practise? Should India adopt this practice coming forward? Here we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this practice and then come to conclusions.
Advantages of ‘Recycling of beauty queens’:
- It makes sense to give a second chance to a girl who shows good potential.
- The experience of the first pageant can be very helpful to the girl in her second pageant.
- The girl is pageant-ready at her second attempt. The organization will have to pay less attention to her as compared to situation wherein a fresh girl is sent in second pageant (Less expenses for organization)
- The girl already has a fan-following because of her participation in first pageant. This can be helpful at the time of her second pageant.
Disadvantages of ‘Recycling of beauty queens’
- If recycling of beauty queens is done too often, fresh girls will be discouraged from applying.
- At times, fans get bored of seeing the same girl again and again. The freshness is lost. The girl has nothing new to offer in her second pageant.
- If a girl has achieved some success in first pageant and fails to attain similar success in second pageant, it would be embarrassing for her. For example, Zizi Lee of Aruba was 1st Runner-up in Miss World 2001 but did not place in Miss Universe 2004.
- It is said that some pageants (like Miss World) do not prefer girls who have been to other pageants.
Thus, there are many pros as well as cons of this practice. In our opinion, recycling of beauty queens should be done only in exceptional cases where the girl in question is really deserving. In our opinion, Miss Grand India 2014 Vartika Singh definitely falls in this category.
Image Credits: Facebook pages of girls in pictures