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Choosing symbolic kings and queens for May Day and other festivities is an ancient custom in Europe, where beautiful young women also symbolized the nation, virtue, or other abstract ideals. The first modern pageant was staged by P. T. Barnum in 1854, but his beauty contest was closed down by public protest (he had previously held dog, baby, and bird beauty contests). He substituted daguerreotypes for judging, a practice quickly adopted by newspapers, which held photo beauty contests for many decades. The first “bathing beauty” pageant took place as part of a summer festival to promote business in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in 1880. Contests became a regular part of summer beach life, with the most elaborate at Atlantic City, where the “Fall Frolic” attracted contestants from many cities and towns in competition for the title of Miss America. They eventually added preliminary eliminations, an evening gowns competition, musical variety shows, and panel judging by panel. Still, the contest was hardly considered respectable entertainment and was shunned by middle middle-class society. Pageants did not become respectable until World War II, when beauty queens were recruited to sell bonds and entertain troops; scholarships and talent competitions accompanied closer scrutiny of contestants’ morals and background.
The modern beauty pageant can trace its origin to the Miss America pageant, first held in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1921, under the title "Inter-City Beauty" contest. The following year, the title was renamed as Miss America. Other contests include the yearly Miss World competition (founded by Eric Morley in 1951), Miss Universe (founded in 1952), and Miss Earth (founded in 2001 with environmental awareness as its concern) which are the three largest and most famous international beauty contests. Women from around the world participate each year in the competitions for these titles. The organisers of the major beauty contests represent their contests as being events of world importance. Many other people consider beauty contests to be titillating entertainment events of no great importance.
Many feminists regard beauty contests for women as degrading to females in general, as well as to the women who compete in them. A common comparison made by feminists is that beauty contests are like a cattle market for women. They have particularly objected to swimsuit rounds in competitions, where the contestants parade dressed only in swimsuits and high heeled shoes . Partly because of this, beauty contests have declined in popularity since their peak in the 1960Events January-February January 1 Independence of Cameroon January 9 Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt January 11 Chad declares its independence. January 14 Ralph Chubb, the gay poet and printer, dies at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire. January 23s. These criticisms were presented in high-profile complaints against the Miss America contest in the late 1960s.
The contests are highly controversial and regularly attract demonstrators. An extreme example is the 20022002 is a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). 2002 was the first palindromic year since 1991 and the last until 2112. 2002 was also designated: International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains National Science Year in the United Kingdom Miss World contest, which was held in NigeriaThe Federal Republic of Nigeria is a country in West Africa. It borders on Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, Niger in the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the south. Major cities include the capital Abuja, the former capital Lagos, Abeokuta, the country of the 2001 winner, until mass riots which killed 200 and a fatwaA fatwa ( Arabic: ) plural 'fataawa', is a legal pronouncement in Islam, issued by a religious law specialist on a specific issue. Usually a fatwa is issued at the request of an individual or a judge to settle a question where fiqh Islamic jurisprudence, against a female journalist caused the organizers to move it to London.