Cooper

The noise has died down about the winner of the 2009 Miss Jamaica World contest but the issue is still live. There must be a sensible solution to our annual problem of who to pick to represent us as 'Miss Jamaica.' Is a problem. Our beauty contests have a way of revealing a very ugly side of our society. Jamaica is a very race-conscious place.

Is all very well and good for the natural scientists to tell us that human beings are basically the same and there is no justification for the fanatical belief in 'race.' The social scientists, on the other hand, will remind us that race is a social construct: it's a 'difference' we have all been brought up to see as socially significant.

So every year we ask ourselves this very loaded question: 'Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of us all?' And we all know the usual answer: 'the fairest.' But in an 'out-of-many-one' society it's simply not fair that it's only one type of beauty that is almost always privileged as the winner.

So why don't we just agree to judge beauty in clearly distinct racial categories? I suggest five types: 'African,' 'Indian,' 'Chinese,' 'European' and 'Out of Many, One.' And I use the quotation marks to suggest the fact that these terms are quite arbitrary. There's not going to be universal agreement on who exactly fits which type.

Only one out of many?

Take for instance 'African'. I don't think your average black contestant is going to want to identify herself in this way. It takes a special kind of confidence for black women who've been raised in Jamaica to recognise the distinctiveness of our kind of beauty. Most of the contestants that I would put in the 'African' category would probably want to put themselves in the 'Out of Many, One' box.

I once heard a sad story about this black woman who is proudly describing her daughter in these rather off-colour terms: 'she so fat and nice, she not black again; she turn brown.' Thus our problems with skin bleaching. The Institute of Jamaica is hosting a public forum on the subject today at 2 p.m. at Liberty Hall.

My positively race-conscious Miss Jamaica competition could work in one of two ways. Each year, contestants all of the same racial type, would compete against each other. One year African, the next European, every type in turn. Equal opportunity. Affirmative action.

Or each year we could have contestants of all the racial types competing in segregated contests. Each contestant would be judged in the usual categories, according to the standards of her own racial type. Not someone else's. The contestant who got the highest individual score, whatever her racial category, would be the overall winner.

This second option might be harder to manage. There would still be a sense of competition between racial categories. But just think of all the money the promoters could make running five beauty contests each year instead of just one!

'To di World'

And it wouldn't matter if the judges of international beauty contests can't see the beauty in our Miss Jamaica. We would be confidently sending a message 'to di world' that we acknowledge the beauty in all of our women: 'red and yellow, black and white.'

This beautiful recognition of racial difference is not as way-out as it seems. It's been done before although with different political intentions than mine. I was telling my friend, Linnette Vassel, a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Mona ('yes, a brand name, real-real university'), about my solution to this beauty contest problem. She sent me an extract from her MPhil thesis in history for which she had done substantial work on race and identity in Jamaica.

This is how Lynette sceptically puts it: "The celebration in Jamaica in 1955 of 'her 300th anniversary of happy association with the British Commonwealth of Nations' (Jamaica 300) was a fitting opportunity to promote the myth of racial equality in Jamaica and through the very popular form of an islandwide Star beauty contest". The contest was organised under the leadership of Theodore Sealy, editor of The Gleaner. Its theme was 'Glorify the Jamaican Girl - Ten Types, One People.'"

Tough woods and fruity scents

The types were Miss Ebony, the black girl; Miss Mahogany, the dark-brown girl, Miss Satinwood, the light-brown girl; Miss Golden Apple, the fair girl; Miss Apple Blossom, the girl of European descent; Miss Pomegranate, girl of Mediterranean descent; Miss Lotus, girl with both parents Chinese; Miss Sandalwood, girl with both parents Indians; Miss Allspice, girl with one parent Indian, Miss Jasmine, girl with one parent Chinese.

Analysis of the symbolism of these types is a whole other story. Let's just say I couldn't help noticing that the darker women were named after tough woods and the lighter ones after flowers, fruits, spices and incense. That alone should tell you which ones would be most likely to win this 'ten types, one people' competition.

In my equal opportunity beauty contest everybody is a winner - hard wood and all. Miss Jamaica Universe 2007, Zahra Redwood, is a splendid example of African beauty in all her dreadlocksed glory. So let's just pretend that 2009 was an 'Apple Blossom' year for the Miss Jamaica World contest; and an 'Allspice' year for Miss Jamaica Universe. Hopefully, we'll all be ready for other types of classic Jamaican beauty next year. Or, we could just emancipate ourselves from beauty contests.

Carolyn Cooper is professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona. Send feedback to: karokupa@gmail.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.