Beauty pageant

A beauty contest is a competition between women, based largely though not always entirely on their physical appearance.

The Miss Universe and Miss World competitions are beauty contests held yearly. They are considered the most important beauty contests in the world. Beautiful women from around the world participate each year for these titles.

The process of electing Miss Universe is a long and hard one. Countries which want to participate must first hold contests in each city to elect a candidate to become the country's representative in Miss Universe. Then the country must elect a candidate from within the women selected by each city. For example, in Finland, Miss Helsinki must compete against the women selected by the other Finnish cities. Once a country has selected a candidate from among the women selected by its cities, that candidate goes on to compete for the title of Miss Universe and there, whoever wins, is recognized as the world's most beautiful woman.

According to the organisers, The Miss Universe contest isn't won just on looks. Women who aspire to become Miss Universe must be intelligent, well mannered and culturally rich. Many times, a candidate has lost the contest because she did not have a good answer to a question on the contest's question and answer round. It is like this because the organizers of Miss Universe want the representative of the world's women to represent women in a dignified way.

The Miss Universe contest also has rules: Each contestant has to be between the ages of 18 and 30, she must not be married or pregnant, and she must not get married or pregnant during her reign, if she does become Miss Universe. Breaking any of those rules would disqualify the contestant.

The contest has been held since 1952 and the first winner was Armi Kuusela from Finland. There are 5 Venezuelan Miss Universes, 4 Puerto Rican Miss Universes and 5 Americans. Many other countries have won the contest once or twice.

One Miss Universe, 1981's Irene Saez ran for President in Venezuela, losing to Hugo Chavez. Another one, Cecilia Bolocco of Chile, 1987's winner, is married to former Argentinian President Carlos Menem. And yet another one, 2001's winner Oxana Fedorova of Russia, became the first one ever to leave her crown, making first runner up Justine Pasek of Panama, the first Panamanian ever to hold the title.

The Miss Universe contest's central offices are in New York, and the contest is held in different cities each year.

The contests are highly controversial and regularly attract demonstrators against it, in 2002 severely in Nigeria.