Beauty and Brains

Filipinas are not strangers to beauty contests, whether local or international. Several Filipinas have made their country proud by winning titles in these events. We have Gloria Diaz who was the first Filipina to bring home the Miss Universe title in 1968. We also have Ruffa Gutierrez who was the second princess in the Miss World 1993 pageant. Among the other Filipinas who brought home titles are Lara Quigaman and Melanie Marquez. They proved that Filipinas can, too, be competitive in a contest of beauty…and brains?

The recent Miss Philippines-World 2008 chose the country’s entry to the Miss World pageant. Janina San Miguel, one of the aspirants, came up…ah..how do I put this… short during the Q&A portion. Not only did she make grammatical errors, but she was giggling while doing it as if she meant to do it. As if she didn’t give a damn about the Q&A portion. The error did not only give humiliation to herself, but to her country as well as her “moment” went on to youtube and has over 2,000,000 hits. International comedy stints are also mocking the vid, such as the tv show, “Attack of the Show”. She now follows the path of Caitlin Upton, South Carolina’s entry into the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant, who gave a “far out” answer during the Q&A portion. She also went on to YouTube, now a hit video, garnering millions of views. Both of the actual event itself and parody videos, which depicts her as a dumb ass. Or as how American men would call it, “million dollar body ten cent brain”.

As if the grammar error was enough, get a load of this Janina won! She is now the official Philippine entry into the Miss World pageant. This means she would in a worldwide event, where the language used would be English.

With Janina as the winner, we wonder what really is the deal with beauty contests. Is it really just about beauty?