Dozens of women protested outside the final of Miss University GB on Monday night in Cardiff. They gathered outside Oceana nightclub in Greyfriars Road, in Cardiff city centre, with placards and leaflets with slogans such as “Mark my essays not my looks” and “Lectures not letching”, before the final was due to begin at 6.30pm.
Olivia Bailey, NUS National Women’s Officer led the chorus with verses such as, “That is not what empowerment looks like, this is what empowerment looks like,” and “1,2,3,4 we won’t take this any more, 5,6,7,8 women’s bodies aren’t made to rate.”
Olivia Bailey said: “Women have campaigned hard over the last century to gain access to University, and to win the right to be judged on the strength of our opinions and not our looks. Beauty pageants such as Miss University GB undermine these hard-fought gains and send the dangerous message that it is ok to value women purely on a narrow conception of beauty that bears little relation to the majority of women.”
The NUS Women's Campaign was keen to point out that this was not a protest against the individual women who are participating in the competition and they respect their right to be involved and we wish them all the best in the competition.
The protest was aimed at Miss University GB, and against organisations that seek to profit from the objectification and commodification of women. They were protesting the mainstreaming of an industry that places an expectation on women to conform to an unrealistic and one-dimensional standard of beauty, and against the spread of sex object culture in students’ unions across the country.
NUS Wales Womens Officer, Estelle Hart, who organised the protest with Olivia, said: “This protest was a part of our on-going campaign against the objectification of women. There has been an explosion of these events but they publicise a corporate and dull image of women that is designed to please men.”
Related Links