Beauty pageant
This article explains the original term; for the metaphor in economics derived from John Maynard Keynes, see beauty contest (Keynes).
Miss-Wahl is a redirect to this article. For the German TV crime thriller see Wilsberg: Miss-Wahl.
In a beauty contest, candidates compete against each other and are judged by a panel on appearance or other characteristics according to a point system. The first-place winners are often crowned beauty kings with illustrious titles. For women, the title is often Miss (or Mister for men) plus the name of the state, country or region, city or institution (although there are numerous exceptions) Miss America, Miss Austria, Miss France, Miss Germany, Mister Germany. In addition, the winners of the assessment usually receive prizes and also achieve an enormous advertising effect.
The best-known competition is the Miss World contest. In the German-speaking area, the competitions for Miss Germany, Miss Austria, Miss Switzerland and Miss Liechtenstein are also known. Competitions for men are less popular. In Switzerland, however, the election of Mister Switzerland is also popular. There are also competitions for children, minorities, places, animals, flowers or vehicles.
On 19 September 1888, the first European beauty contest took place in the Belgian spa town of Spa. 21 of the total of 350 female applicants reached the final, where an exclusively male jury "examined" them in camera. The 18-year-old Bertha Soucaret from Guadeloupe was crowned the most beautiful woman; she received 5000 Belgian francs as a prize.
The first beauty contest in Spa in 1888
Winners of Miss Earth 2007
The biggest competitions
By number of contestants, these are currently (or were temporarily) the seven largest international beauty pageants:
| Miss | Miss | MissInternational | MissIntercontinental | Miss | MissTourism | MissSupranational | |
| Year | since 1951 | since 1952 | since 1960 | 1973–1983/1986–1991/1991–0000/ | since 2001 | since 2004 | since 2009 |
| 2001 | 93 | 77 | 52 | 33 | 42 | - – | - – |
| 2002 | 88 | 75 | 47 | 33 | 53 | - – | - – |
| 2003 | 106 | 71 | 45 | 34 | 57 | - – | - – |
| 2004 | 107 | 80 | 58 | 54 | 61 | 55 | - – |
| 2005 | 102 | 81 | 52 | 61 | 80 | 72 | - – |
| 2006 | 104 | 86 | 59 | 45 | 82 | 86 | - – |
| 2007 | 106 | 77 | 61 | 41 | 88 | 108 | - – |
| 2008 | 109 | 80 | 63 | 57 | 85 | 113 | - – |
| 2009 | 112 | 83 | 65 | 56 | 80 | 98 | 36 |
| 2010 | 115 | 83 | 70 | 58 | 84 | (postponed to 2011) | 66 |
| 2011 | 120 | 88 | 67 | 60 | 95 | 92 | 70 |
| 2012 | 116 | 89 | 69 | 53 | 80 | - – | 82 |
| 2013 | 127 | 86 | 67 | 59 | 88 | 43 | 83 |
| 2014 | 121 | 88 | 73 | 68 | 84 | - – | 71 |
| 2015 | 114 | 80 | 70 | 62 | 86 | 52 | 82 |
| 2016 | 117 | 86 | 69 | 63 | 83 | 33 | 71 |
See also
- Product Queen
