Introduction
The concept of beauty has been known to differ amongst nations and one community’s idea of beauty may not necessarily be the same for another. This difference in perceptions is what makes human life as intriguing as it is. With regard to beauty, most of the differences that are exhibited from community to community are as a result of the variances in cultures.
According to Tjale and De Villers, culture comprises of “a system of shared ideas, concepts, rules and meaning that shapes people’s way of life” and it stipulates how the society should experience and view the world and relate to it (31). The people of the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular exhibit especially interesting concepts of beauty. These perceptions of beauty are as a result of Saudi Arabian citizen’s cultural and religious way of life which plays a primary role in the country’s affairs.
While there is no universally acceptable standard of beauty, beauty pageants try to come evaluate people on a standard that is acceptable to the local community. These being the case, Saudi Arabian beauty contests offer us a glimpse at the perception of beauty in the Middle East. This paper shall set out to analysis issues of beauty in the Middle East and in particular Saudi Arabia. The principles that govern the perceptions of beauty shall be discussed and examples given to reinforce the claims made.
Beauty Pageants and Saudi Arabia
In modern day society, beauty pageants are used to rate the beauty in females. These pageants consist of a number of contestants and judges who evaluate the relative beauty of the participants based on some preconceived standards of beauty. From this evaluations, one of the participants is crowned as the “most beautiful” or ‘most handsome”.
The motivation behind beauty pageants are probably from views expressed by proponents of beauty pageants such as Paglia who affirms that “we should not have to apologize for reveling in beauty as beauty is an eternal human value” (qtd in Lawson and Ross 1).
These pageants therefore involve the public parading of the members of the society who are perceived to be the most beautiful. Most of the contests proceed to reward this particular people for their outstanding beauty. It is therefore clear from this that pageants reveal a particular societies notion of beauty.
Pageants do not have a traditional history in Saudi Arabia and as such, they are more as a result of influences from the international community than any other single factor. This is because from generation to generation, cultural practices are bound to change as time and environment influences manifest themselves in the lives of the people in the society.
As such, the pageants witnessed in Saudi Arabia borrow heavily from the western ones in terms of judges and there being set standards from which the overall champion will be chosen. However, despite the beauty pageants being primarily a “foreign” concept, they still maintain some aspects which make them resound with Saudi Principles.
Animal Beauty Contests
Despite its vast wealth mostly obtained from its oil reserves and the high levels of industrialization, Saudi Arabia has for many years resisted the pressures of the western cultures and it was not until the 2000s that the first beauty pageant was held in Saudi Arabia.
This pageant was not the typical western pageants characterized by a parade of beautiful girls adorned in trendy clothes and exquisite jewelry; the pageants contestants were animals. While this may sound like an anomaly, it is well in line with the regions conservative nature and refrain of beauty contests.
A report by Othman on Islamic perceptions of beauty pageants elucidates the view with which most Saudi Arabians view contemporary beauty pageants as showcased in most westernized countries. According to the report, most Muslims did not condone beauty contests which they regarded as “exploitative to women and reduce them as sexual objects.” However, a contest involving animals is acceptable and actually in line with the country’s traditions.
A report by Hammond for Reuters indicates that animal contests, and camel beauty pageants in particular are very popular in Saudi Arabia. The camel beauty contest attracts hundreds of camel owners and thousand of spectators and it is the biggest of its kind in the world (Borthwick). These contests include all the components that you would expect in a typical beauty contest; judges, participants and a crowd to cheer them on.
The organizers of such pageants indicate that the pageant is in reverence to the camel which is a legacy symbol for the desert tribes. Owing to the fact that Saudi Arabia is situated in a desert region, the tradition communities who resided in the region were mostly nomads and camels were a most essential part of their lives. It is these creatures that provided the means for transportation over the vast expanses of the desert owing to their ability to go for days without water or food.
However, the contests are not entirely run for sentimental purposes and there are huge monetary attachments to the events. The contests are also used to generate cash for their respective investors much like a typical beauty contest made up of women would anywhere else in the world. Hammond confirms that “camels are big business and delicate females at the show could sell for a million riyals.”
In addition to the sale of the animals, Prizes of up to 14 million Euros have been said to be issued out to the winners of the particular categories in which the camels are placed (the observer). These huge monetary incentives have invariably led to a commercialization of the contests and wealthy businessmen have been said to invest heavily in the festivals because of the high returns promised.
Saudi Arabia’s Miss Beautiful Morals
For all its conservativeness, Saudi Arabia has its own version of a female beauty contest. Considering the great lengths that the country goes to ensure the segregation of men and women, a beauty contest is a remarkable undertaking for the country.
A law that proposed a ban on male from women’s apparel stores highlights the strict nature of the laws in Saudi Arabia (Abu-Nasr). As such, a beauty pageant that inevitably involves a mixed audience observing the various participants is a groundbreaking event in the country. However, this contest is unlike any other.
To begin with, the contest is duped “Miss Beautiful Morals” setting the virtuous tone that the contest adopts (Central). The standards for these unique Saudi contests are worlds apart from those that a typical beauty contest uses. Without a doubt, most beauty contests lay more emphasis on physical factors such as youthfulness and body proportionality as can be surmised from the reveling cloths and seductive manner in which the contestants act as they display their bodies on the catwalks.
A report by the Los Angeles Times reveals that as opposed to adorning “backless evening gowns and swimsuits”, the 200 contestants that participated in the 2009 Saudi Arabia contest were “draped in a black robe with a headscarf” as is fitting of a decent Muslim girl.
The aim of the contest as articulated by one of the organizers was to gauge the commitment of the participants to the Islamic morals. The contest which ran over a number of weeks involved the contestants being supervised by a panel of female judges who made inquiries as to their devotion to their parents and their following of the teachings of Islam.
The founder of the contests asserted that the contests were self-styled to be an absolute opposite of “the decadence in other beauty contests that only take into account a woman’s body and looks” (Abu-Nasr). This demonstrates the strict and religious culture adopted by the Saudi Arabians.
The contests emphasis on the obedience to parents also highlights the gravity with which respect for one’s parents especially by girls is held. The concept of the pageants is embraced by the participants and a former winner indicates that the joy is not so much as in winning the contests as in obeying one’s parents. (Abu-Nasr).
Discussion of Beauty Perceptions in the Saudi Community
The Saudi Arabian society is primarily made up of Muslims who have a very strong traditional attachment to their religion. Their faith dictates the socially acceptable code of conduct for the people and on this basis, the western perception of beauty as is advanced through beauty pageants has been viewed as highly immoral and degrading to the woman.
It is for this reason that the contests in the Middle East show a greater inclination to personality than to the aesthetic attributes of a woman. Dr Ahmed, a reporter with Islam on line indicated that the morally appealing contests were aimed at showing that “beauty has nothing to do with nudity and obscenity.” This is the exact message that the Middle East beauty pageants were trying to sell to the Muslim faithful in particular and the society at large.
The pageants in Saudi Arabia are in high contrast to the Western shows as a result of the religious basis of Saudi Arabia. The Muslim beauty contests are especially strict and a contestant is not supposed to reveal any ‘awrah – which is “the parts of the body which should not be exposed in front of others.” (Ahmed). This suggest that to the Middle East communities, beauty is not simple a matter of being pretty but in fact goes far deeper to include character and a respect for the religion.
Khadra Mubarak, the founder of the contests in Saudi Arabia reinforces this perception of beauty in the region by stating that “the idea of the pageant is to measure the contestant’s commitment to Islamic morals” he goes on to indicate that the pageant number one will not necessarily be a pretty face for the judges and by extension the community “cares about the beauty of the soul and the morals” (LA-Times)
Western beauty standards can be and in fact have been used as the basis for excluding minority races from the dominant images of beauty. This is especially the case in 201th century America where the concepts of beauty as advanced by Hollywood were used to infer racial superiority of the white to the blacks. With such undertones in mind, perhaps one can hail the Middle Eastern views of beauty as more progressive since they have more do to with personality that one’s physical attributes
However, opponents of the contents still insist that inasmuch as the Middle East pageants demonstrate the difference in perception of beauty in Saudi Arabia, the very fact that the community has embraced this western idea is an indication that the society’s views of beauty are more inline with western perceptions than the Saudi Arabian community is willing to admit. While this is a mere speculation, as it currently stands, the Saudi concepts of beauty remain worlds apart from those of most of the Western world.
Conclusion
This paper set out to highlight the unique concepts of beauty in the Middle East and with particular reference to the situation in Saudi Arabia. To fulfill this, a critical look at beauty pageants which highlight a particular society or culture’s standards on beauty has been taken.
From this paper, it is clear that the beauty contests of Saudi Arabia are miles apart from those in Westernized Countries. Of particular significance is the importance that the people of Saudi Arabia attach to their camels as can be demonstrated by the beauty contests held in their honor. These contests highlight the desire by the Saudi Arabian community to preserve their heritage even in the face of enormous pressures from the western cultures mostly through the media.
The Middle East goes contrary to the common wisdom expressed by most scholars who infer that “as the prosperity of a nation increases, its greater wealth allows people to consume more leisure goods like pageantry” (Lawson and Ross 6).
In this region, the cultural and religious compass of the people is the driving force to their definition of beauty and while the people of Saudi Arabia have the capability to increase their cosmetic appearance, their deep religious and cultural values prevent them from undertaking this vain measures. As such, the animal contests continue to play a significant role in the social calendar of the Saudi Arabian population.
Works Cited
Ahmen, Damir. “Brains not Body Criteria for Tatarstan “Miss Muslim”. 2006. Web.
Abu-Nasr, Donna. “Here She Comes: Saudi’s Miss Beautiful Morals”. 2009. Web.
Abu-Nasr, Donna. “Saudi Women Train to Sell Lingerie.” 2009. Web.
Borthwick, Malcolm. “How do you Judge a Camel Beauty Contest?” 2010. Web.
Hammond, Andrew. “Saudi Tribe Holds Camel Beauty Pageant.” 2007. Web.
Huffington Post. “Saudi Beauty Pageant: ‘Miss Beautiful Morals’.” 2009. Web.
Lawson, Robert and Ross, Justin. “Economic Freedom and Beauty Pageant Success in the World.” Atlantic Economic Journal 33(4): 485-486. 2005.
Los Angeles Times. “Saudi Arabia: An inner-beauty Pageant.” 2009. Web.
Othman, Norani. “Islam and the State in Malaysia: A Problem of Democratization and Pluralism.” 2000. Web.
The Observers. “Saudi Arabia’s “Miss Camel” Contestants Accused of Fame Seeking.” 2010. Web.
Tjale, Adele and De Villiers, Louise. “Cultural Issues in Health and Health Care: A Resource Book for Southern Africa.” Juta and Company Ltd, 2004. Print.