History Main / BeautyContest

* In the ''Anime/{{Moldiver}}'' episode "Metamorforce!", Mirai Ozora and Mao Shirase participate in a swimsuit contest as part of ZIC's celebration for announcing the Tokyo Restored Car Grand Prix; the former wins first prize while the latter wins second prize. It's also where Amagi/Machinegal uses his HumongousMecha to try and steal the P-34 machine.

* The [[OffModel infamous]] fourth episode of ''Anime/LostUniverse'', Millie wins largely because [[FailedASpotCheck all the other contestants were too busy running for their lives when terrorists attacked]].

** A purer example comes from that of Mrs. Arrow in ''F-Zero GX'', with the possible subversion in that she's a female bodybuilder, so [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyfymoXQx_o said contest]] is judged moreso on physique than beauty ([[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071107035112/fzero/images/0/09/Mrsarrow.jpg but she's not lacking]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MsdjhC7EPIin the latter either]]). Oddly enough, no other contestants are shown (Octoman and Michael Chain are also shown posing in their own videos, but they obviously don't count), so there's no way of knowing if she actually won.

* In the United States, the two highest-profile pageants are Miss America and Miss USA, the difference between the two being that Miss America is a standalone pageant and one of the longest-running in the world, while Miss USA finds the American contestants for Miss Universe and Miss World[[note]]Interestingly, the United States territories (Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, etc.) will enter the Miss America pageant but not Miss USA. Instead, they'll directly enter the international pageants to represent their territories, and Puerto Rico in particular has won Miss Universe several times[[/note]]. Several American actresses got their start in beauty pageants, such as Lee Merriweather (Miss America 1955), Creator/KristinChenoweth (runner-up for Miss Oklahoma 1981), Creator/MichellePfeiffer (Miss Orange County 1978), Creator/LyndaCarter (Miss World USA 1972), Creator/HalleBerry (Miss Ohio USA 1984, runner-up for Miss USA), Creator/JeriRyan (Miss Illinois 1989), and Music/VanessaWilliams (Miss America 1984) [[note]]The first black Miss America, she gained all the fame ''and'' notoriety you can expect from such a milestone.[[/note]]

* '''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, and the country has been thematically connected to Miss Universe itself ever since the very first winner in 1952 married a Filipino man. 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]].

** And it's not even to mention the pageants held for gay and trans contestants explicitly.
* 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 Pia Wurtzbach, the winner, was half-German; typically Pinay contestants with white fathers have better chances of winning.[[/note]]

* There apparently is one going on in the SchoolFestival in ''Manga/GokinjoMonogatari'', but the characters ignore it rather spectacularly.

** The show also takes a page from pageantry by awarding "Miss Congeniality" to the kindest queen of the season. Originally, fans voted on the recipient, but this practice was criticized by the queens since viewers would simply pick the fan-favorite regardless of her personality. Come Season 10, irregularities in the voting system caused the results to be scrapped and the show had the queens themselves vote for Miss Congeniality like in actual pageants. Viewers accepted the winner, Monet X. Change, since she likely would've won the fan vote anyway, and the show has done it this way ever since.