Holocaust Survivor Beauty Contest

I am linking to so many places because I think something very clever happened.

No, I am not addressing the “objectifying” of women as physical beings.  I still meet women who want to enter beauty contests.  They are usually not counting the money from winning the scholarship.

Once upon a time, when I was between states and between licenses, I actually coached a beauty contest winner.  I taught her how to answer the insipid questions beauty pageant hosts ask.  Most of them were about what she wanted to do in life.  It was not hard for me to research past questions (the internet was already alive and well) and figure out it was helpful to express an interest in helping retarded children.  To my utter amazement, before I searched this, I had learned she was actually interested in — helping retarded children.  Maybe this says something about beauty pageant contestants.

She was adorable, of course, and came in as first runner-up for Miss California.

Me, I have never been a beauty contest contestant.  As a matter of fact, I spent most of life being grossly overweight and only was able to vanquish that demon relatively recently. One of the judges for the contest was actually a psychiatrist, who specialized in holocaust survivors.

The truth of the matter remains that women, of all ages, are largely judged on appearance.  It just is a reality of life.  Me, I have never spent a lot of my internet time following up on make-up-do’s-and-don’ts on the internet, but I do occasionally look at beauty stuff.  I remember the woman in one of my classes (a real estate agent) who lectured me on how no matter what I tried to do I would get farther in life if people saw I was attractive, first.

I remember one of my two female professors in medical school who sat me down and explained to me that in France, no matter what my academic achievements, I would be judged by “what I put on my back.”

I remember the half-smile of surprise of seeing myself in the mirror, once someone who actually knew what they were doing (not my mother, who had learned it from her mother) put some make-up on me.

They say only ten percent of their rating system was physical, and one judge was a psychiatrist specializing in holocaust survivors, and women laughed joyously at rehearsals.

So although a woman from a group of Israeli holocaust survivors’ group said something about the whole thing being “macabre,” I am more with those who call it an “affirmation of life.”

The women seemed, from both photos and accounts, to be having a pretty good time.  Nobody can deny they deserved this, at the very least.

Nobody commented on what I consider the most powerful effect of this event.

Look at the diverse types of press, in different countries, that covered this. The Israeli have found a way of keeping the Holocaust alive; of bringing the story out of history into the present.

Who cares about controversy?  History lives, a history that should not be forgotten.  I was taught, as I hope every Jewish child is taught, to say “Never again.”

I remember hearing a while ago that Germany was the only country in the word that actually had a law that the Holocaust had to be taught in the schools.  I was happy, really happy to hear this.  I want people to know what humanity can do, so that it does not happen again.

I remember telling a woman of color, not long ago, that Jewish women were natural allies of women of color.  I know it was a while ago that we Jewish folk were slaves in the land of Egypt, but more recently, we were victims in the holocaust.  The conversation ended (as many of mine do) with a big fat hug.

Those (mostly Jewish) Israelis made the world remember the holocaust, and gave nice makeovers to senior women.

To me, this is good.

Never again.

Please