Beautytobehold

Guys, let’s be honest, when the sunshine comes out there are certain things that come to the mind. Amongst them, for many of us, are pretty girls in brief clothing cavorting in the sun. Clearly there are many women who collaborate with this because they disport themselves in this manner. I suppose it comes down to who you believe, do we dress for ourselves or for others? It’s obvious to me that we do both. Younger men and women have always shared the instincts of the animal kingdom to be attractive to the opposite sex. The reason for this is that in nature the strongest survive and prosper, and the strongest are generally perceived to be the most alluring and attractive.

In the recent past there has been a widening age range for women to fit within the category deemed to be looking for and finding a mate. This might well not be their first mate, as serial monogamous relationships have become the desired norm for most of us in the modern world. That is probably the reason that more women take better care of themselves for longer than has ever been the case previously. The results are a self-evident improvement in how women look after themselves, and the consequence of this for many women of a certain age is that they are looking great when their mothers were, at the same age, looking tired, frumpy and frankly unattractive.

There is a now famous photograph of the film star, and great actress, Helen Mirren in the British press last week. The picture generated enormous coverage and much debate. The fuss concerns the fact that this Dame of the British Empire, who was on vacation in Italy, is clad in a revealing red bikini that shows the 63 year old in all her mature, sexy and alluring beauty.

What other women seem to find encouraging about this is the fact that Helen is someone that they believe shows a real woman, in all her natural glory, that they might aspire to themselves. She is not impossibly skinny, nor too glossy, or airbrushed or received too much cosmetic help, but someone who exudes confidence, femininity and mature sexuality. Women admire and envy her, men would like to spend time with her, and let’s be frank, become intimate with her.

I can certainly understand all of this, but put it in context with another situation evident when I was reading the same newspapers on the same day Ms. Mirren’s picture was published and realized that the Miss England contest had happened without my realizing it. Years ago this would not have been possible. Such contests would have pushed to the top of the media pile in years gone by and were irresistible for every TV scheduler. Now they are largely invisible.

Beauty pageants now routinely come and go and are not allowed on terrestrial television. No Miss World or Miss Universe shall sully the British television airwaves intone the feminists and politically correct. The same is true in many other countries where these contests have been marginalized to the outer regions of satellite or cable television.

I could understand this a great deal better if the same idiots were equally adamant in their blanket rejection of shows about nudity, prostitution or various sex antics of groups that are almost sub human and certainly very ugly in their design. But those are OK because they are acceptable politically whereas anything beautiful is not. Unless the person is being peered at, such as Helen Mirren, she a paragon of female empowerment and equality is the woman being stared at.

What is it that the feminists object to in beauty pageants with such venom? They said it was that the women in the shows were objectified and this was dehumanizing and therefore was not acceptable. But surely that is ridiculous since all of us are objectified every day by anyone who bothers to look in our direction. We’re too thin, fat, tall, short, ugly, handsome or just right for the person or persons looking in our direction. Is it wrong to look at someone else?

Is every woman or man who dresses or undresses to please someone else who is looking at them guilty of a huge conspiracy? Of course the answer is no. Not everyone should join in the peep show if it isn’t for you then don’t look.

What offends a woman about another woman wearing swimwear? Is it that the women they’re looking at in swimwear looks so much better than they do? This surely cannot be the reason for women being commonly perceived as being anti beauty pageants. There is a degree of truth in this, as women always scoff at the pneumatic and shapely forms of the young women who compete in such beauty contests. Whenever a woman sees such women on their radar they routinely make a series of disparaging comments such as, “do you really believe that she is naturally built that way?” or “a woman that slim couldn’t possibly have boobs that size!” or simply, “listen to how stupid that woman is!”

None of us men, least of all me, can really understand the workings of a woman’s mind which can admire Helen Mirren in her bikini photograph but condemn some younger woman, and possibly, although this seems very unlikely, who is even more attractive, on a television program.

My message to all women, including feminists, is get over it, and please let us men watch the occasional beauty pageant without guilt or recrimination. The girls want to do it, and we want to watch it, and I promise, on behalf of all men, that we will respect you in the morning.