HARARE - Beauty pageants are making a huge comeback in Zimbabwe, albeit in an unconventional fashion. The beauty queen comeback is not just about stunning, tall, thin models strutting around in high heels. No longer is the world of beauty pageants confined to competitions such as Miss Zimbabwe, Miss Summer Strides, or Miss Colleges.
Today, quirky competitions like Sarah Mpofu’s ‘Miss Big Is Beautiful,’ ‘Miss Big’ arranged by Emily Sibanda to the ‘Miss Big Matofotofo’ by Lwazi Mbowa are taking centre stage.
Recently, Miss Biggy Matofotofo crowned its queen in Malawi after the organiser took the pageant across the border. Held in Lilongwe, the event attracted millions of television viewers, with viewers treated to all the trimmings of a conventional beauty pageant.
Mbowa explained that beauty contests were popular because of the importance people place on beauty.
“This is a new thing that we introduced,” she said. “Our first goal is to build the confidence of the big African women who could not take part in these other pageants because of their big bodies. Most of them lack confidence and we believe that after confidence building they will be able to achieve bigger things,” she said
In Zimbabwe, ‘super-slim’ is no longer a pre-requisite for most beauty pageants. The Miss Biggy pageants for ‘fabulous and thick’ women is fast becoming the number one rated modelling pageant. Organisers say the show is all about proving that big girls can have as much fun as small girls. And this has been amply demonstrated by the former Miss Big Matofotofo Harare, Monica Chikasha, who has regularly courted controversy with her raunchy Sele dance at music concerts.
Regardless of what is in store, one thing is already clear; beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.
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