Debate over models general knowledge

Spectators have questioned whether the intelligence test was necessary at the pageant, whether the contest itself must be taken seriously or the whole thing must simply be dismissed as a flesh-peddling event for voyeurs.

The appalling ignorance of contestants in the Miss Zimbabwe preliminaries held at the East End Hall, Harare Exhibition Park in Harare two weekends ago has raised serious questions about whether the Miss Zimbabwe beauty pageant should create role models, and whether they should be taken seriously.

When asked who the permanent secretary in the ministry of Tourism was, one model answered: Thank you for the question. Mondiregererawo vana veHarare. To be honest with you I do not know the answer to that question.

Yet another contestant, asked what she understood about drug abuse, answered: “When you take too much alcohol.”

Typically, the most prominent output of the Miss Zimbabwe pageant is a brand ambassador whose skyrocketted fame can be used for a definite period of time by the Tourism ministry, which usually sponsors the event. However, Miss Zimbabwe is no longer the big deal it was, because a very small fraction of Zimbabwean models make it really big.

Observers told Showbiz this week that the tremendous media coverage fuelled the pageant’s hype. That happens because a large number of people are interested. And such large numbers are created not by the intelligence factor, but by the physical beauty element, argued one observer.

Aneni Mada, a blogger wrote: “Many of the girls failed to answer simple questions about current affairs in Zimbabwe and this got me wondering if this was symptomatic of a generation that has had to go for long periods of time with no teachers, no electricity for evening study and absentee parents in the Diaspora trying to make ends meet.”

University student Kuda Moyo said: “Models are products, not ideal women. The good qualities – grace, intelligence, courage, confidence, love, care, feminity are things we get to see only in meagre quantities in a beauty pageant but they are available in plenty among the women we know personally: our friends and colleagues, that simple mom back home, those school teachers we remember from our childhood. The only thing that’s available in plenty in a beauty pageant is that same thing – female flesh – which has always topped the list of men’s desire, but has never, and will never, be considered at par with the qualities I have mentioned.”

Model Mercy Shamuyarira said: “There is nothing wrong with selling flesh. Beauty pageants would fail to be so extravagant in absence of these lusty viewers. Modelling would have failed to reach such high-profile status in Zimbabwe in the absence of this extravagance. How seriously should such events be taken? I don’t know!”

A bank executive who declined to be named said: “We deeply idolise our moms – or saints like Mother Teresa – because it’s created of the greatest of all qualities: love, which connects to the soul. We idolise intellectuals, politicians, teachers, scientists, bankers because of the quality of the next order – intelligence and brains, which connects to the mind. We idolise models because of their beauty and celebrity status, which connects to the body. The preference order is rather clear.

The bottom line is that the Miss Zimbabwe pageant used to be about choosing a representative for our nation that exemplifies what it means to be a young Zimbabwean woman: successful, independent and confident – someone that little girls could look up to as a true role model.