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St. Cloud State University
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Pageant gets real
By Nyssa Dahlberg
Published:
Monday, October 20, 2003
"If the definition of beautiful gets any thinner, nobody would fit."
"Well behaved women rarely make history."
These slogans were printed on T-shirts sold by the Women's Studies department at the Love Your Body Pageant Wednesday.
"This pageant has never been done in the past. The Women's Studies program got the idea to do a nontraditional beauty pageant from a Web site," said Women's Studies intern Jennifer Kotila.
The pageant consisted of five women contestants: Stephanie LacQuay, Krystee Decker, Roxanne Stotko, Karen Freed and Ruth Sherman.
"Today we are going to show that all women are beautiful and all people are beautiful," said Women's Studies intern and pageant emcee Seal Dwyer.
The pageant consisted of four rounds. The first round was Feminist Trivia. Dwyer asked questions about women's rights to vote, the first woman to run for president, the first woman to run for congress and questions on equal rights.
"What percent of 8-year-old girls have tried a fad or crash diet?" Dwyer said. Fortunately, contestants answered this question correct. Unfortunately, the answer was 80 percent of all 8-year-old girls.
The second round was "Why I Chose My Outfit." In this round the contestants were asked why their outfit makes them feel comfortable and what their outfit said about their personality.
"This is what I wore yesterday. It was laying on my floor so I just threw it on. I'm also wearing my 'I'm a dyke' pin because I'm very open about myself and I don't like it when people always assume I'm straight," Decker said.
The third round was "Don't Assume I Can Cook." The contestants were told to be seated at a table with four bricks labeled sexism, racism, ageism and homophobia. The women were then asked to create a structure using two pieces of paper and tape that was capable of holding up all four bricks. Four out of the five contestants were able to create such a structure.
"We gotta keep fighting. If two little sheets of paper can hold up all four social issues just think what our society could do," Dwyer said. "This proves that women are capable of doing science and engineering."
No pageant is complete without an interview round. So the fourth and final round was the "Interview" round. Contestants were asked to pick a number to receive their question.
"This pageant is a positive forum because I didn't have to wear a swimsuit or evening gown and it's a great celebration of women," Stotko said.
"Don't judge yourself on your reflection. Know that you are a beautiful person and think of yourself as people who love you think of you," said Freed.
"All women are beautiful and I was in this pageant to honor all women," Decker said.
The winner of this pageant was determined by a team of three judges. Their decision was that every woman is awesome and they all deserve prizes. Contestants received prizes from the organizations that sponsored the Love Your Body Day Pageant which include: Great Clips, Fitzharris, Bonanza, Midtown Fitness, Green Mill, Books Revisited, Burger King, Jeff's Tattoo, Perkins, Curves for Women and Fantasy Gifts.
"I love my body and I don't look like the traditional woman. I'm very comfortable with my body. If just one person is inspired to look differently at themselves after watching the pageant, then we have succeeded," Dwyer said.
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