In the modern world of pageant competition, there are winners and there are losers — and no, we’re not talking about the contestants. While mainstream national and international beauty pageants continue to thrive (all hail Miss Universe 2013!), with participant numbers growing steadily every year, food festival pageants (Like Miss Kumquat in Dada, Florida!) have dwindling contestants and waning public interest.
Last year the 2012 National Asparagus Festival and the Louisiana Pecan Festival only boasted one participant for Mrs. Asparagus and Pecan Queen, respectively; each lady was crowned out of default.
The horror!
The National Watermelon Association’s Watermelon Queen, and the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival Queen have likewise fallen from flora glory.
Say it ain’t so!
But fret not: the folks behind these food festivals are a wily bunch; they’ve responded to their pageantry attrition by broadening applicant pools and modernizing their public image. Not only have they removed marital requirements (it is the 21st century after all people!), they’ve also reached out to female employees of local farms and businesses, and increased scholarship prizes and public relations training for winners.
Some festivals have even extended their competitions to men, as was the case with last year’s unisex Ohio Beef Ambassador (why didn’t anyone tell us about this?!) and the Annual Kumquat Festival’s 2012 addition of a Mr. Kumquat (what a hunk!) to reign alongside the lovely Miss.
These changes not only herald the emergence of more modern attitudes in historically rural and agricultural communities, but reveal some not-so-surprising but still shocking insights into the pageantry world altogether. Mainstream pageants still draw from very specific (read: all-female) demographics, still restrict participation by marital status, and feature a specific aesthetic regardless of race (hint: everyone has predominantly Anglo-like features).
And while festival winners are expected to have a baseline knowledge of the industry they are promoting (and are supposed to be general do-gooders) part of the appeal of watching mainstream pageants — like hockey games and NASCAR races — is to wait for the unfailing wreckage during the Q and A portion.
Le sigh.
These Miss/Mr. Peaches and the like might be using these pageants as a stepping stone (or cucumber, potato or asparagus!), to cure the small-town blues, but our lady-gut says there might be a better way to get the hell out of Dodge.
(Image: commons.wikimedia.org).
