History Main / BeautyContest

* Also serious business in Latin America. Since the region produces some of the most beautiful women on the planet, it's no surprise that it not only has several beauty pageants in individual countries, but it tends to dominate international contests as well. How seriously do they take it? When Steve Harvey accidentally crowned Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, in the 2015 Miss Universe pageant and had to take it back, she minced no words telling the media how humiliated she felt and she even considered suing, and Harvey received ''death threats'' from her countrymen. It took him inviting her to his talk show and publicly apologizing for her to forgive him. [[note]]The Philippines won that year, by the way, although the candidate was half-German.[[/note]]

* ''Anime/OkamiSan'' had a beauty contest episode, and all of the main female characters competed. [[spoiler:The crossdressing Otogi Bank president was the winner.]]

* ''LightNovel/OkamiSan'' had a beauty contest episode, and all of the main female characters competed. [[spoiler:The crossdressing Otogi Bank president was the winner.]]

* ''Series/CSIMiami''[='s=] child beauty pageant episode had much better costuming and featured [[spoiler: a sex-offender running the pageant who kidnapped one of the kids; if I recall correctly he's the one Horatio infamously allowed to fall to his death]].

* ''Series/GilligansIsland'', episode “Beauty Is as Beauty Does". Mary Ann, Mrs. Howell and Ginger fight to become “Miss Castaway". With the Skipper, Mr. Howell and the Professor each coaching and rooting for a different girl, the deciding vote is now up to Gilligan!

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "[[Recap/RugratsS1E5BeautyContestBaseball Beauty Contest]]", Tommy Pickles' father and grandfather, Stu and Lou, disguise Tommy as a girl and enter him in the Little Miss Lovely contest, unknowingly competing against his cousin, Angelica. Tommy's disqualified after Didi shows up and outs Tommy in anger. In a HilariousInHindsight moment, Lou realizes he could have just rooted for Angelica the entire time. She ''is'' his granddaughter, after all!

In order to promote inclusivity and tolerance, most recent fictional depictions of a beauty contest will usually feature a very racially diverse cast. Thus, in addition to the sweet, blonde and blue-eyed all-American GirlNextDoor (and her rival, the similarly complected but mean AlphaBitch), expect the finalists to include a [[SassyBlackWoman sassy black girl]], a [[SpicyLatina fiery Hispanic girl]], a [[AsianAirhead ditzy Asian girl]], and perhaps a [[MatzoFever clever Jewish girl]], as well as at least one [[LipstickLesbian cute lesbian girl]] (who may or may not be public about it just yet).

* This happens in an episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', infamous for being banned because of James giving himself a giant pair of inflatable breasts.

* In ''Manga/{{Airmaster}}'' the [[GagBoobs big-chested]] airhead with a crush on Maki wins a beach beauty pageant thanks to a very convincing imitation of a Holstein cow. It has to be seen to be believed.

* This happens in an episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', infamous for being banned because of [[GagBoobs James]].

* ''Film/CarryOnGirls'' from the ''Film/{{Carry On|series}}'' series is based around a beauty pageant in which a group of angry women try to stop it with hilarious consequences.

* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': In "Dancing with the Angels", Jerry and Theresa enter Max, [[GenderBender who's been transformed into a little girl named Maxine]], into a beauty pageant as a CoolAndUnusualPunishment for not telling them that Alex, Justin ajd Harper snuck off to an angels' club with Rosie. To make matters worse, Maxine won the pageant.

-->-- '''Augusta Prodworthy''', ''Film/CarryOnGirls''

* As mentioned multiple times earlier, {{Drag Queen}}s have their own pageants, usually held by individual {{gay bar}}s, though there are regional and national competitions as well. In the United States, where pageantry is a huge part of drag culture, the "Big Four" are Miss Gay America, Miss US of A, Miss Continental, and Entertainer of the Year. Many of these pageants have separate competitive classes to be more inclusive, such as Miss US of A '''At Large''' for [[BigBeautifulWoman plus-sized queens]], Miss Continental '''Elite''' for contestants over the age of 40, and possibly a drag king division as well. Whether or not UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} performers are allowed to compete varies by pageant; some allow it, while others mandate that the contestants cannot have had any feminizing surgery or take hormones, leading to a BrokenBase as to whether the policy is discriminatory or simply seeks to even the playing field.

** Subverted in the episode "Princess vs Princess". Misty and Jessie enter the Princess Festival, assuming it's a Beauty Contest. Of course it does start off with the contestants on stage in formal wear...only for the judges to then reveal it's actually a Pokémon tournament.

* ''Film/MissCongeniality'' is a comedy crime thriller about a hard-nosed {{Tomboy}} cop who goes undercover as a pageant contestant in order to uncover a murder plot--she ends up doing relatively well in the competition and even befriends some of the other contestants.

* Book 4 of ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'': [[HalfHumanHybrid Satyrane]] holds a tournament to determine the strongest, most-skilled knight, followed by a beauty contest for the knights' ladies. The prizes for the winners would be a magic girdle… and each other! The beauty contest entrants are judged for their beauty but the magic girdle can only be won by [[MyGirlIsNotASlut a chaste and faithful soul]]. The princess they pick to win (who's really a clone -- long, sad story) tries over and over to put it on but can’t, and even though second-place can wear the prize, the princess-clone keeps the prize and the win for herself. The winning knight passes up the prize of a date due to being secretly [[SweetPollyOliver female]].

* ''{{Series/Bones}}'' - Brennan was surprised that the little girls had already learned, basically, how to be AlphaBitch[=es=] in the first grade. The pageant shown was [[NoBudget hilariously low-budget]] compared to the real thing (for starters most of the kids used their own hair instead of wigs and their dresses were normal party dresses instead of sequined mini-ballroom dance contest monstrosities).

* ''Series/WonderWoman'': In "Beauty on Parade" Diana enters a beauty contest that the BigBad is using as a cover to try to assassinate General Eisenhower. Diana joins over Steve Trevor's objections that they'd need [[ClarkKenting "...a really gorgeous girl. Someone who looks great in a bathing suit."]] ([[IdiotHero Of course, there are]] [[SelectiveObliviousness other explanations for this idiocy]]). No introspection is made on how Diana disappeared from the pageant and Wonder Woman [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame wins it]]. Apparently, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome catching bazooka shells out of midair]] won the talent portion.
* The ''Series/InTheHeatOfTheNight'' episode "The Fairest One Of All" featured one of these, with a contestant committing suicide and a fellow contestant being horrified to eventually learn that her StageMom was behind it--she was so hell bent on her daughter winning that she arranged for someone to drug the girl, take nude pictures of her, then blackmail her into dropping out. When the other girl did indeed win, she stormed off the stage, flung the sash and crown at her mother, snarled "You wanted it so bad, here it is!", then stormed out. (Her mother had been pushing her into these pageants for years even though she wasn't really interested, and worse yet, she was friends with the other girl and practically wanted her to win, even explicitly saying, "This should be ''her'' crown.")

* The book of Esther in ''Literature/TheBible'' sets the story in motion when King Ahasuerus decides to find a new queen with what amounts to an empire-wide beauty pageant. (Runners-up got to be in the king's harem.) The winner, of course, is Esther. OlderThanFeudalism.

* The ''other'' notable beauty contest from the Attitude Era was the Miss Rumble contest at the 2000 ''Royal Rumble'' - featuring celebrity guests as judges. After lots of {{Fanservice}} - including The Kat showing off a bikini made of bubble wrap - Wrestling/MaeYoung predictably interrupted and [[FanDisservice bared her breasts]] (which had prosthetics on them to make them even more repulsive) - and was declared the winner. Note that Mae Young was in her seventies at the time.

* ''Webcomic/RPGWorld'' did one combining it with BeachEpisode, and of course Hero turns out to be the [[AttractiveBentGender attractive redhead who received a third of the votes to win]].

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' has the crew delivering the crown to such a contest. Leela thinks the whole thing is sexist and stupid... until [[AssumedWin she thinks she won by accident]] when Zapp Brannigan, one of the judges, calls out her name in surprise. Though, keep in mind that the contestants include a giant anemone and an apparent energy lifeform.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' episode "Peggy's Pageant Fever" had Peggy enter the Mrs. Heimlich County beauty pageant to win a new white pickup truck, only to find out that she was not as attractive, talented, or prolific at childbearing as her fellow contestants. Though her friend Nancy was a judge, they stop speaking to each other when Peggy implies that obvious blonde beauties don't deserve to win. Peggy hires a coach to help her succeed and even receives a stunning makeover, but can't get over her awkwardness. In the end Hank paints his truck white so that Peggy does not need to go through with the pageant and ultimately humiliate herself.

* As mentioned multiple times earlier, {{Drag Queen}}s have their own pageants, usually held by individual {{gay bar}}s, though there are regional and national competitions as well. In the United States, where pageantry is a huge part of drag culture, the "Big Four" are Miss Gay America, Miss US of A, Miss Continental, and Entertainer of the Year. It is interesting to note that many of these pageants have separate competitive classes to be more inclusive, such as Miss US of A '''At Large''' for [[BigBeautifulWoman plus-sized queens]], Miss Continental '''Elite''' for contestants over the age of 40, and possibly a drag king division as well. Whether or not UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} performers are allowed to compete varies by pageant; some allow it, while others mandate that the contestants cannot have had any feminizing surgery or take hormones, leading to a BrokenBase as to whether the policy is discriminatory or simply seeks to even the playing field.

* '''Extremely''' SeriousBusiness in the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, probably because the country excels at few other things (save perhaps for boxing and singing). Filipino popular history is full of successful winners and runners-up of innumerable such contests—not a year goes by without someone at least partly—in fact, ''usually'' part—Filipina making the news in an international beauty pageant—and contestants are often treated like goddesses at home, almost ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]]''-style, and becoming targets for advertising/film/television contracts collectively worth millions. The aforementioned Miss Earth pageant, for one, was first conceptualized in the Philippines in 2001. The tradition is most likely traceable back to U.S. colonial rule (which introduced proto-pageants such as the Manila Carnival), combined with the Spanish-influenced love for quasi-religious town fiestas, and is perfectly reasonable given Filipinos' [[ForeignCultureFetish colonial]] [[CulturalCringe mentality]].

* As mentioned multiple times earlier, {{Drag Queen}}s have their own pageants, usually held by individual {{gay bar}}s, though there are regional and national competitions as well. In the United States, where pageantry is a huge part of drag culture, the "Big Four" are Miss Gay America, Miss US of A, Miss Continental, and Entertainer of the Year. It is interesting to note that many of these pageants have separate competitive classes to be more inclusive, such as Miss US of A '''At Large''' for [[BigBeautifulWoman plus-sized queens]], and Miss Continental '''Elite''' for contestants over the age of 40. Whether or not UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} performers are allowed to compete varies by pageant; some allow it, while others mandate that the contestants cannot have had any feminizing surgery or take hormones, leading to a BrokenBase as to whether the policy is discriminatory or simply seeks to even the playing field.

* Book 4 of ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'': [[HalfHumanHybrid Satyrane]] holds a tournament to determine the strongest, most-skilled knight, followed by a beauty contest for the knights' ladies. The prizes for the winners would be a magic girdle… and each other! The beauty contest entrants are judged for their beauty but the magic girdle can only be won by [[MyGirlIsNotASlut a chaste and faithful soul]]. The princess they pick to win (who's really a clone -- long, sad story) tries over and over to put it on but can’t, and even though second-place can wear the prize, the princess-clone keeps the prize and the win for herself. The winning knight passes up the prize of a date due to being secretly a [[SweetPollyOliver a woman]].

Historically, these events have usually been strongly heteronormative, and thus AlwaysFemale, although there is also a tradition of drag pageants in the gay scene, where [[DragQueen female impersonators]] and their fans can enjoy the same sort of thing. Should a man [[{{Crossdresser}} disguised as a woman]] nonetheless happen to compete in a straight pageant, he'll usually end up [[AttractiveBentGender doing quite well]]--at least until he gets caught and subsequently disqualified. Depending on the time period, and/or how conservative the organizers are, a [[LipstickLesbian pretty lesbian]] among the participants may face similar problems, especially if she gets [[InappropriatelyCloseComrades too close]] to other hopefuls. More recently, transgender women have begun to feature in beauty contests, although this is still somewhat controversial in real life. Due to the potential struggles LGBT+ beauty queens face, this setting can sometimes be used as an approximate adult equivalent to the way PromIsForStraightKids works for a high school story.

* Book 4 of ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'': [[HalfHumanHybrid Satyrane]] holds a tournament to determine the strongest, most-skilled knight, followed by a beauty contest for the knights' ladies. The prizes for the winners would be... each other! The beauty contest entrants are judged not only for their beauty but their [[MyGirlIsNotASlut purity]] and are tested by a magic girdle that can [[VirginPower only be worn by a virgin]]. The judges apparently don't share the author's views on chastity, however, and stubbornly declare a princess (who's really a clone -- long, sad story) the winner over the one girl the girdle will fit. The winning knight passes up the prize due to being secretly a SweetPollyOliver.

* '''[[UpToEleven Extremely]]''' SeriousBusiness in the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, probably because the country excels at few other things (save perhaps for boxing and singing). Filipino popular history is full of successful winners and runners-up of innumerable such contests—not a year goes by without someone at least partly—in fact, ''usually'' part—Filipina making the news in an international beauty pageant—and contestants are often treated like goddesses at home, almost ''[[Literature/TheHungerGames Hunger Games]]''-style, and becoming targets for advertising/film/television contracts collectively worth millions. The aforementioned Miss Earth pageant, for one, was first conceptualized in the Philippines in 2001. The tradition is most likely traceable back to U.S. colonial rule (which introduced proto-pageants such as the Manila Carnival), combined with the Spanish-influenced love for quasi-religious town fiestas, and is perfectly reasonable given Filipinos' [[ForeignCultureFetish colonial]] [[CulturalCringe mentality]].

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' features such a contest for rare gear and an optional party member. Sadly, there are no graphics, so you'll just have to imagine the sight of Carver sashaying around in nothing put boxer shorts and a pot lid. There's also some PingPongNaivete displayed by your friends, who wonder why one creep likes to sit right next to the edge and look up...

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' features such a contest for rare gear and an optional party member. Sadly, there are no graphics, so you'll just have to imagine the sight of Carver sashaying around in nothing put boxer shorts and a pot lid. There's also some PingPongNaivete displayed by your friends, who wonder why [[PantyShot one creep likes to sit right next to the edge and look up...]]

* As is ''Film/{{Smile}}''.