first judging night: sulu/sarong competition

26 Nov 2009 1 Comment

by shallow in special event, thoughts Tags: miss south pacific, beauty pageant, engara gosselin, miss cook isalnds, sulu, sarong

i believe (and this is just me) in lieu of a swimsuit competition, miss south pacific has a sulu/sarong category which states among its conditions “worn in such a way that it can be used in the beach for swimming” or something to that effect. that’s almost like a pc term for swimsuit, right? i’m just comforting myself.

if i’m not mistaken other conditions state: it must be no longer than three (3) meters and should provide enough coverage to be deemed as modest.

now, modesty has always been such an extremely subjective value to me (please note that traditional dress in many pacific cultures involve topless women), but i must say fiji has evolved to become an ultra-conservative society. i just hope the male judges in the panel gave the highest marks to miss cook islands and miss tahiti (who both certainly have the goods to bare their legs and their midriffs). because men are men and if they choose to be prudish now, i enjoin all their male friends to pick on them until they own up to having zero hormones.

miss cook islands in her sarong

and they didn’t simply walk across the stage and back. part of the criteria for this category is how the ladies interpret the story behind their sarong. a voice-over narrates the significance of their attire to the island culture.

in terms of that, i also like miss cook island’s interpretation best. she depicted planting dalo using environment-friendly materials. towards the end, the voice-over tells us that planting dalo is no easy task especially for a beauty queen, on which cue she gamely wipes imaginary sweat from her face, “inadvertently” rubbing mud on her cheeks and forehead. the story culminates in a nice dip in the sea after a hard day’s work. cute, right?

i’m glad it’s not one more of those cloying “save the earth” orations. i know environment awareness is crucial, but stop ramming it into our ears, we get the point already. just tell us about how ordinary people like me can actually make a difference without being all al gore on us. let’s just talk about planting dalo and hitting the beach after work.