 |
Adele Wilde-Blavatsky |
By Adele Wilde-Blavatsky
"She is darker, stronger, looser, tougher, sexier. The maturing of a
woman who has continued to grow is a beautiful thing to behold.”
''How can an "ideal" be about women if it is defined as how much
of a female sexual characteristic does not exist on the woman's body, and
how much of a female life does not show on her face?”
-Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are used against
Women (1991)
The Tibetan exile community in Dharamshala, India will soon play host to
the beauty pageant, Miss Himalaya 2012.
The officially stated purpose of the event is "to bring women from the
entire Himalayan region onto one platform to celebrate the beautiful
cultures, people, and nature of the Himalayan region.' However, since the
creation of beauty pageants in exile in 2002, there have been mixed
reactions to the contest with particular criticism by the former Kalon
Tripa, Samdhong Rinpoche who stated it was ‘un-Tibetan’ and ‘against
Buddhist principles’. Other Tibetans in exile, claim that it is just a bit
of a light-hearted entertainment, some say that it is 'sexually
liberating', yet few have publicly stated how such contests negatively
define and effect the status and perception of women as a whole and its
role in raising awareness about Tibet.
The criteria for entering Miss Himalaya (as with other most other national
beauty pageants) are as follows:
-the woman must be 'between 17 and 25 years of age';
-'minimum 165 cm in height';
-'Unmarried and not having given birth'.
Such criteria demonstrate precisely the problem with beauty pageants: they
promote a very narrow, sexist conception of 'beauty'. The notion that
female beauty is related to a woman's marital and pro-creative status is
particularly offensive and outdated.
Speaking to Tibetans here, it is clear how growing up in what they term a
predominantly religious society, and the sexual hypocrisy and repression
that can go along with that, all too easily leads to a reactionary, yet
destructive, backlash where sexual ‘liberation’ becomes destructive and
objectifying. In fact, when the majority of media images and ideology
pumped into post-colonial countries like India, are those predominantly
produced by a small group of neo-liberal, capitalist misogynist men (and
women) from the USA, whose only interest in sex and women is to objectify
and make money from them, then it is hardly surprising that men (and women)
are led to believe that such images of 'freedom' are liberating.
Recently, I had an informal conversation with the organiser of the pageant,
Lobsang Wangyal who jokingly introduced himself to me as someone who
doesn't smoke or drink, but does two other things which are 'email and
female'. Wangyal seems like a popular, charming and driven man who is also
the editor of online publication, Tibet Sun. However, when I pressed him on
his motives for the contest, he justified it as a ‘confidence-building’
exercise for Tibetan women (seemingly oblivious to the fact that it puts
quite a strict age-range, marital status and procreative history on that
'confidence' development!). There was also some suggestion that it is
‘sexually liberating’ for Tibetan women to parade publicly in swimsuits in
a society where even wearing a miniskirt is a source of approbation. While
I agree that women should be able to wear what they want without
condemnation, the fact that he (and many others) see ‘wearing a miniskirt’
as liberating demonstrates how their notion of liberation are heavily
influenced by neo-liberal patriarchy.
Other justifications were that the women participated willingly and that it
was a source of entertainment that brought Tibetan people together in a
place where there was little else to see or do. While this may well be
true, it is not a sufficient justification for something which, as it
currently stands, is sexist and disempowering. For example, when I attended
the event in 2007, I was troubled to see how the audience openly mocked and
spoke about the female contestants and the hostility shown towards them. If
this was part of the 'entertainment factor' then it was depressingly
misogynist in its nature.
Feminist objections to beauty contests are well documented and summarised
well here byObject, the UK-based
organisation who recently protested against the Miss World Finals in
London, November 2011:
'We have nothing against women who choose to take part in beauty pageants.
However, we would say that the issue is not as simple as one of individual
choice. The mainstreaming of beauty pageants has an impact on all women.
The idea that it is okay to judge women on the basis of their appearance
and that there is one objective beauty that women can be measured against,
influences the way that all of us feel about ourselves as women and the way
that men view and treat women. '
So there is nothing unique to Tibetans about this brand of sexism. However,
there is some element of truth in what Samdhong Rinpoche said about it
appearing to be 'un-Tibetan' and 'un-Buddhist'. There is a feeling,
although it may be part of a romantic 'Shangri-la' myth, that Tibetan
culture is steeped in Buddhist values and principles and so does not
sexually objectify women and respects them as equals in terms of being a
human being. That said, Western Tibetan Buddhist female practitioner and
academic, June Campbell, has challenged this romantic and self-preserving
notion; exposing the sexual exploitation and objectification even within
the Tibetan Buddhist monastic system itself.
So what does the current Kalon Tripa (Political Leader), Lobsang Sangay
think of the contest? I requested an official quote from his office but
received no reply.
Here in Dharamshala, it was difficult to find a Tibetan woman to publicly
criticise the competition, even though many agreed privately that the
contest was not genuinely empowering. The reasons for that are complex as
Tsering Dolkar eloquently stated in her essay Tibetan Women:
'Tibetan society is a patriarchal society and like other similar societies
women are mostly at the receiving end. However, the scale on which we
measure women’s rights have been influenced by what is considered “not
right” in other cultures, international standards. Accordingly we pride
ourselves on being ahead of backward practices since we overlook the fact
that international norms and advocacy is a general umbrella and in fact
many discriminatory practices exist in forms that are unique to the context
of that particular society. These practices and outlook are often submerged
into our consciousness and subconscious. Moreover the coping mechanisms
that we have built over centuries against such practices help naturalize it
to a point where we fail to identify it as discriminatory and thus we
become victims of internalized oppression. These overt and covert beliefs,
practices, are in Buddhist principles a transgression on the potential of
mi lus rinpoche, the precious human life. '
The reticence of Tibetan women to publicly express their disagreement with
the contest is not that surprising either. As Dolkar herself states:
'Comments against Tibetan cultural practices and belief system are
misconstrued as a threat especially in diaspora where we have taken great
pains to preserve our cultural identity.'
Also, some Tibetans I spoke to appeared to have been overly influenced by
western patriarchal distortions of feminism as 'anti-men', including Dolkar
herself.
In 2010, a male Tibetan intellectual, Tenzin Nyinjey, also wrote an article
about women's emancipation in 'Will the Real Tibetan Woman please
stand up?'. He argued that:
'There's no disputing the fact that Tibetan women are not as free and
independent as those in the West. But, in comparison to their counterparts
in India and China, Tibetan women's status is a lot better; in short they
have more freedom and rights than those enjoyed by women in these
countries. One important reason could be Tibetan Buddhism, which,
theoretically at least, preached love, care and empathy, not just to fellow
humans, but also to all other sentient beings as well.'
Although Nyinjey's article tends to focus on the sexual liberation of women,
the author himself states that this was his first attempt to write
something on this topic and he would have written it with a wider
perspective today.
In terms of the contest itself, one Tibetan woman living in the States (who
asked to remain anonymous) told me that:
"What is extremely disturbing about this contest is that, the
objective of the contest, and the execution are poles apart. The definition
of Miss Tibet, that represents Tibetan woman all around the world, is
stereotyped . This contest, in no way, projects the real Tibetan woman, and
continues to succumb itself to the conventional norms of any other beauty
contest."
Tenzin Seldon, 23, the first Tibetan American Rhodes Scholar who was raised
in Dharamshala and recently graduated from Stanford explained that:
"I have seen that it does provide a large-scale platform for women
(specifically, contestants) to self-express, receive recognition for their
many talents, personally and professionally develop, and increase their
self-esteem/confidence. At the same time, having worked with young children
for years now, I have first-hand witnessed how many bright young girls are
socialised subconsciously to overvalue their self-worth based on their
physical appearance. And this is wrong on so many levels. I hope that we as
a conscious society take every step to ensure that physical appearance and
semi-sexualised adult mannerisms are not the only factors that play into
judging the female or male contestants."
I was unable to get an official quote from the Tibetan Women's Association,
although a TWA member of staff told me that in 2002, the organiser had
approached the TWA for a support letter which they had provided on the
basis that they thought it would be a platform for the women and to represent
Tibet as country.
Ironically, one of the few public Tibetan feminists is Jamyang Kyi, a woman
living in occupied and heavily censored Tibet, who was detained in the
aftermath of protests that swept across Tibet in March 2008. During her
detention she wrote a book, "Mixture of Snow and Rain, Joy and Sorrow
of Women", (za mo’i skyid sdug gangs ma char) the first feminist
critique of Tibetan society, which is widely influenced by Western feminist
writers. The book is filled with her observations of the treatment of women
in Tibetan society, where wives are treated no better than servants, who
attend only to household chores. Kyi questions why it is that while a monk
enters a house, automatically a higher seat is offered but when a man
enters a room even a nun has to give her seat for the man. She asks Tibetan
women to question if they were just born to be “only housewives” and how can
the Tibetans fight for justice when injustice is perpetrated against women
in their own community.
Scandal has also dogged the event. In 2011, there were accusations from
the contestants that the organiser had cheated on the result and when
confronted with this on Australian television, he bizarrely stated that the
'judges' mark sheet' was 'stolen' on the night; also revealing that 75% of
the judging is in his power. Dolma, one of those contestants, (who was told
by Wangyal to 'get lost') subsequently stated that 'Miss Tibet is not
empowering to women' and 'the only way it could have any value is if it
were run by a woman'.
So what is the answer here? Is there a way to continue the more
'constructive' aspects of the contest without it being sexist and
patriarchal? Ways forward could include the organiser (ideally a woman)
removing the 'Miss', taking out the swimsuit section, having an open age
range and allowing married women and mothers to apply. This would
immediately change the narrow conception of 'beauty' to one which is more
'Buddhist' and about valuing women in other ways than youth and so-called
'purity'. As a libertarian and pro-sex feminist, it is not that beauty
contests should be banned altogether. However, they could be made into
something much more representative of what Linda Wolf calls 'full woman'.
NOTE—Adele Wilde-Blavatsky is an independent scholar, writer and
activist based in Dharamsala, India and London, UK.
|
Aha moment reading Ms.Adele! Finally someone came with what is exactly in our mind. So true crab Ms. Tibet or Ms. Himalaya foundation! I totally agree that we don't have to xerox copy international beauty peagent rules and regulations! We have to showcase authentic Tibetan Beauty in general and culture in particular. Or else the charm and popularity will vanish actually it sounded cheap and shallow already. Build a strong foundation with a purpose not just to align with modern beauty.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many other junk salvage orchard shows thesedays, soon Ms. Tibet or Himalaya will end up with those!
Wonder why miss Himalaya because Miss Tibet is canceled, citing solidarity with the Tibetan selfimmolations ??
ReplyDeleteThumps up to all the participants, having guts to stand up itself is a great move. I agree with the writer here - why age and marital status barrier for eligibility.
ReplyDeleteAs the previous commentator stated, strong foundation with the purpose is a must. Beauty with Brain!
Well thought writing. This is in our mind but we don't communicate this openly. Why do we even hesitate or shy out to go watch this show? Why do guys normally look down on bikini competition? We shouldn't be rusting here, but the organiser has bigger role to make people aware of the purpose of this whole contest.
ReplyDeleteso so true! We need to learn the true meaning of beauty contest.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to find out what blog system you have
ReplyDeletebeen using? I'm having some small security issues
with my latest blog and I would like to find something more safeguarded.
Do you have any suggestions?
My blog post ... search results (http://www.strategies-research.ufg.ac.at)