Avatar Beauty Pagaents?

Well, if everyone was like you, we could say goodbye to the SL economy . . .

Pep (Are you still wearing your default initial avatar then?)

Another great point by Pep. Is that your correct nickname, Pep?

My thoughts, I was wondering if this emphasizes the female beauty too much and negates a woman's capabilities and intelligence being on par with a man?

Also, I did read one article in a SL Fashion Magazine. The woman in the article was also involved in the RL fashion world and she found SL's fashion/model/beauty industry to be far too clicheish and snobbish if not downright silly because it was often a circle of friends as opposed to a qualified team of judges with rl fashion experience and/or knowledge. She did leave SL to continue to pursue her rl fashion career.

I asked 'cause I met Miss Sweden and I didn't know how to address her. Anyhow, the title sure seemed to give her a lot of attention from male avatars and probably lindens/money and perks!

I imagine that to win a pageant one needs to be a blonde with bubbly curls and busty curves, dressed in pink and white frills. Since I'm a wiry, athletic brunette I'm probably not pageant material anyway.

A few things come to mind. (^_^)

All that alpha hair...

All those six-source facelights...

Floppy flexi clothing that would probably rupture your pancreas in reality...

'Clip-clop' gravity defying high heels...

Bling!!!...

... And then consider the stuff the models will be wearing. =^-^=

I can enjoy beauty without ranking people into winners and losers.

What the point? It's not real!

Actually, I have changed my mind, because there are certain types of beauty pageants I have enjoyed.

Drag pageants are fun to watch. And they are fun not because the participants represent some sort of unattainable beauty ideal. They are fun because the participants are so creative, and it is their creativity, not necessarily beauty, that is celebrated.

Of course I realize that a drag pageant would have a very limited audience anywhere. However, if you have some type of pageant that does not objectify people (avatars), and instead focuses on their creativity, then you do have something that potentially would interest a liberal feminist like myself.

(In fact, one of the reasons that I spend some of my time at Second Life's transgender hangouts is because there is so much diversity and creativity in the avatars I see there, that it is fun for me to watch. It is much more fun than the blues and jazz clubs to which I used to go- great music, but geez, everyone just started looking the same to me.)

Unfortunately, whether is right or wrong, people are ranked by beauty everyday, not just in a pageant and not just in SL, it's just become part of life.

I'll take that to mean you *have* changed your original avatar.

Pep (And therefore share the aforesaid shallow obsession with appearance and Lookism?)

I dont care personally, some people I know that have entered the contest and worked really hard to get the perfect AV and the votes.
I dont mind voting for my friends as long as I dont have to pay

/me has a tag with SL Super Duper Model

Does it help me with the ladies? Heck no!
Did it get me any perks? Heck no!
Is it true? Pfft no way

LMAO that is so true, every time i look at him i thought where did he get that hair, now i know thanks for pointing it out

I created my own shape, and for a while my own skin. But finally, I just had to accept the fact I'd never be a great skin artists, and instead worked to heavily modify an Eloh Eliot skin.

I care about my appearance. But to me, the fact that I created my appearance (at least substantially) is more meaningful and important to me than having the best look.

And I do smile every time someone compliments me for being pretty and original. I'd never win a beauty contest, but I'm happy and content.

Given this explanation, a cynic might assume that your original comments were made from bitterness and anger.

Pep (Since it appears you do share the aforesaid shallow obsession with appearance and Lookism?)

If they *were* about creativity those contests would be great. But they are not. It's all about replicating RL beauty ideals. So that is really boring. The only difference is that RL beauty queens are actually women while I suspect that in a SL pageant a major part of all parties involved (contestants, audience, organizers) are really guys.

I hate the pay for vote contests. I find those to be very annoying. My sl sister in law was in one and my sl brother sent multiple tp requests come vote for "so and so". Not to mention it would post it in his conference. It got to be infuriating to the point I said "Look I have already voted, leave me and everyone else alone".

After it was over with, I asked how much was her winnings, 200 lousy lindens. She was 30 votes shy of 1st place. If she and my brother could, they would've created an addtional 30 alts for the win. These contests I believe they are are more of an annoyance than a scam. It puts the contestant in the role as a spammer.

As for actual beauty contest, I have never attended or entered in this foray. I imagine it is probably much of the same, a popularity contest.

In the clubs that have strippers/dancefloor/gambling/everything-because-we-have-no-uniqueness, the vote-for-best-in-theme contests are not popularity contests.

All the club employees know that if the best tipper in the club wins the pot, then often, the winner tips contest winnings back to the employees. Employees are a big voting block, who can easily organize on staff group chat.

Is that a scam? Well, I will say this. If I were the owner of such a club, where my employees lived on tips, and there was a theme contest, it would be my duty as my employees' supervisor to remind them to make the big tipper feel happy and generous. If I did not so advise them, I would be a bad supervisor.

Amity, I should have been clearer. I was not referring to clubs. That is whole different gambit as I have entered and won plenty of those "themed" contest. What I was referring to is the contest that they have pictures of avies on a wall and you constantly get solicited "donate" or "pay" whatever amount to vote for a particular avie. That is far different than you are in some contest for best chaps or whatever and you ask your friends to vote for you. In those no one is asking money for a vote.

However, in the club setting I would find it disturbing if the only way a participant could win a "theme" contest in a club was that is was rigged by employees of said club because that that person happened to be a "big tipper".

Please say it ain't so Joe

I've done pretty good. I remember going to a boxers and silks event. It was a silly thing, so to up the silliness I showed up in boxers. I totally won that night. =^-^=

Well, IMHO these contests are really just about skills in creating good-looking avs and putting together nice outfits. And control your animations. Everyone has the same chance of doing that...
But maybe (if you are not a content creator) ppl that can afford nice stuff has a better chance.

But actually... Why not if you think its fun? ( I'm just not that interested. Yet.) What's sad is that what is considered good-looking in SL is the same as in RL. It would be fun if some really creative-looking AV could participate and win a contest like that...

I agree that nobody should be hassling people for votes, especially pay for votes.

F.Y.I. There is a *huge* amount of variation on how these contests are run and a lot of people seem to lump them all under the same category of "Pay to Vote". Some contestants can come away with in excess of L$25000 for winning, there have been free islands with a month free tier as part prizes too and the smaller ones have more modest prizes. The voting money goes in part to pay for these lavish prizes.

Some contests are run well, some are run not so well and in part that is due to the inexperience of the person running the contest but also linked with their personal level of desire for profit.
What shocked me most were than people are charging contestants for entering as well as the voters for voting. My contest system currently only takes money for voting (if you choose the pay to vote option) and so they had to take the entry money manually when using my system.
A lot of people think all you have to do is buy a contest system and then make profit, there is so much more to it than this to be successful and avoid some of the problems that plague many of the contests.
Virtually none of the contest owners I have encountered have ever supported the hassling of others for votes though. I would say if anyone is hassling you then you should warn them that their behaviour will likely result in an AR as this is not condonable behaviour and it will get them into trouble sooner or later.

I went to a lingerie event at a club once - dressed in pink lingerie. I didn't win anything but they did have a pic of me in my lingerie on the wall for a long time after it.