Melville CookeI CONSIDER the national female beauty contests to be instruments of keeping the perception of female beauty on the lighter shade of pale. As such, I usually pay the minor details such as who won, etc. as much attention as the processed results of dinner. After all, in the end it all looks the same.
This was the approach I took towards this year's Miss Jamaica World competition, despite what was construed as a 'controversial winner' in Tonoya Toyloy. That is, until I read her interview in The Sunday Gleaner of October 3. I got the impression of a person a gracious, determined person, confident but not overbearing, strong-willed, but not unyielding.
Ms. Toyloy is of a darker complexion than those we have been accustomed to sending overseas to represent Jamaica. Therein, I thought, lies the supposed controversy.
Then I read third-place Candace Thorbourne and second-place Carolyn Yapp's interviews with Nathalie Taylor in The Sunday Gleaner of October 17 and I thought, "Here we go again."
Thorbourne said: "Y'know, I really don't know why I lost. I won the talent competition and I know I displayed all the qualities that a Miss Jamaica World should have."
You lost because Toyloy was judged to be better. Pretty simple, ain't it?
Yapp's (good name) take on Toyloy was, "she's a wonderful girl but I don't see why she won. If it was intelligence, there were a lot of girls who were intelligent, like Linda Hudson, who's just as smart. And beauty? Well, there were other girls too but the judges picked the winner and I hope she represents Jamaica the best way she can in China."
Now that is canine to the mongrelth degree.
SARCASM
The sarcasm that drips from "I hope she represents Jamaica the best way she can in China" like froth from a rabid dog's mouth pools into an acidic bath of sheer vitriol when Yapp yaps about the public vote. She says: "I think they should cut it (the public vote) out. It's a money-making thing for Cable and Wireless and you're allowed to vote more than once, so it all depends on who has the most money."
That is like verbal limbo just how low can you go? Thorbourne was of the same opinion on the public vote, done online and by Cable and Wireless cellphones: "I think it (the public vote system) needs to be changed. They need to set up some kind of system where calls are better restricted. Otherwise, you can have one person dialling in a thousand times a day and that doesn't represent the entire public."
And there, ladies and gentlemen, we have the crux of the matter. The public vote. In Jamaica, we spend a lot of time keeping the darker skinned folk in line, from the exclusive parties to the corridors of real decision-making power (check what Hyacinth Bennett and Norman Horne have to say about that). However, if it is one thing said dark folk love, it is a cellular phone. They may not be socialites, but they sure as hell are 'cellulites'. Hence opening up the Miss Jamaica World vote to the public by cellphone (not even online) is like opening a socialite's Christmas party to the helper's zinc fence community.
As posted on the Miss Jamaica World website, Toyloy got 1,229 (976 text, 253 voice) votes, while Yapp got 710 (387 text, 323 voice) and Thorbourne got 506 (352 text, 154 voice). By the C&W vote, Toyloy was tops, Yapp fifth and Thorbourne seventh. Yapp's pick, Hudson, was second to last.
So, pray tell, did Jordanne Halsall, who got 1,070 votes, or Debbie Ann McKreith with 936 votes, also have some sort of advantage?
The essence of prejudice is what is established as the norm, such as the outline of a light-skinned woman being Miss Jamaica, the formalities of filling in the outline being completed each year. This may just give some of those who fit the sketch the unreasonable expectation that the crown is theirs by virtue of ante-conception activities.
Whether or not that was the case, the 'cellulites' seem to have thrown a ringtone into the works. And the judges turned the screws (no pun intended?).
PERCEPTION
I like Toyloy's take on the Miss World contest (which I still consider racist and a waste of time). "In Jamaica, based on socialisation and cultural differences, we may perceive a beauty to look a certain way. However, at Miss World that might not necessarily be the case. I think what will do it is cultural awareness, awareness of world issues, intelligence, confidence, grace, poise, style I am Jamaican and the last four letters in Jamaican say I can, so I can do it."
Gracious woman, that Tonoya Toyloy.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
