From: Merhawie (merhawie@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Jul 16 2009 - 13:33:07 EDT
Hello Dehai,
I appreciate the perspectives on beauty pageant's in general and towards
Miss Eritrea 2009 in particular. I suppose my first point of disagreement
with some of the arguments is that the idea of beauty and intelligence are
mutually exclusive.
I strongly disagree with the assertion because although outer beauty is
literally skin deep, an inner beauty will always shine through. This inner
beauty could come as a result of the traditionally caring culture of
Eritreans or the piercing intellectual astuteness so many Eritrean woman
have.
Implied in your conclusion of course is that in the competition, a measure
of inner beauty will be ignored. Of course, how the committee is to deal
with this difficult measurement is a great question and we will certainly
have to see. If it is ignored then I believe that the committee has clearly
misunderstood what the Eritrean revolution that so many lost their lives to
create and defend was fought for. Of course on the other hand we must
recognize that there is nothing inherently bias against internal (and in my
personal opinion, intellectual) beauty in a Miss Eritrea style competition.
In conclusion, I would like to say that IMHO (in my humble opinion), just as
long as the cultural peculiarities of Eritrea (both traditional and modern)
are not trampled upon (as of course cultural revival is a key component of
the revolution and our independence) and the mind is shown to be just as
important as the body, there should not be any problem with the competition.
Thank you, and I look forward to the further discussion of these topics,
Merhawie
PS: We should also recognize that this infatuation with the female form over
mind is a problem that each man has compounded. After all, consider the
reward structure. A woman who dresses provactively will be much more likely
to catch the attention of man rather than the one who has focused strictly
on academics. Similarly this is the case for men who focus on sports, etc.
rather than academics. This partly an evolutionary problem, however, we of
course have free thought and make these choices consciously. Some of this
needs to taught in the home, but of course, not everyone's perspective on
this issues is the same and so just as in America, these values will be
argued. We should be prepared for this but not surprised. After all, could
you imagine Eritreans agreeing on everything?
PPS: Personally I also think that a minimum for this competition should be
that you must pass the 12th grade matriculation exam, however, I am sure
this could be a hotly contested point. Further, I think we should try to
improve the competition and bind our Diaspora populations much more to the
homeland by suggesting that our competitions abroad send delegates to
represent us. In these competitions we too could have a minimum education
level. It would be interesting, how do you all feel about this?