On Monday, 17 December 2018, the most beautiful woman in the Universe will be crowned. Well, the most beautiful woman on Earth, since there has yet to be a non-Earth contestant. But if aliens did (or do?) tune in, what would they think about the ritual of the beauty pageant? What does trying to choose the “most beautiful woman in the world”, a highly charged and problematic endeavour, say about us?

While some might dismiss beauty pageants as frivolous, scholars have studied beauty pageants and how race, idealised femininity and culture intersect on the pageant stage. The early Miss America pageants, the precursor of today’s contemporary pageants, stipulated that contestants had to be “of the white race” until 1940. Today’s pageants, though, have thankfully come a long way from their racist past; the Miss Universe crown has gone to women outside of the Western hemisphere—while also throwing up new segments for followers to obsess over.

The national costume segment

The international dimension of the Miss Universe pageant has resulted in one of the most fascinating aspects of the competition: the national costume segment. If the choice of Miss Universe reveals what we think about beauty, then the national costumes are a unique manifestation of nationalism.

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Deborah Germaine Augustin is a writer born and raised in Malaysia. Formerly the Membership Engagement Manager at New Naratif from 2018 - 2021. She dreams of a world where we all have freedom of movement. Follow her on Twitter @dbgermane.