BEAUTY COMPETITIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1926, Page 22

BEAUTY COMPETITIONS

DENOUNCED BY CLERGYMEN. “CONDUCIVE TO IMMODESTY.” Sydney, Nov. 24. The beauty competitions organised 'by a section of the press and other publicity mediums came in for strong denunciation at a gathering of clergymen at Armidale this week. Dr. Wentworth.. Shields, Anglican Bishop of Armidale, said that surf queens were not more objectionable than others, but it was ridiculous to fete, advertise and offer extravagant rewards to a pretty girl. “In my opinion, we should never offer prizes to a child for the gifts and graces which Nature has given her,” he said. “For these she deserves nothing, and the advertising of them is sheer vulgarity.” The Roman Catholic Bishop of Armidale, Dr. O’Connor said; —“These competitions to me are an abomination. Australian, British and Irish people have always been modest, and it is most regrettable that there should be a distinct move to depart from this happy characteristic. I think it is horrible to see girls parading with but a bit of cloth and displaying fat legs. This immodesty cannot end in anything but destruction of morals.”

The Rev. A. M. Stevenson (Presbyterian) :—“I do not think that there is anything to be said in favour of such competitions. They would seem to me to be highly conducive to immodesty, and there is no more necessary virtue, either in men or women, than modesty. Those who are responsible for them are doing a grave injury to our social life.” The Rev. ‘j. Williams (Methodist) said:—“lt is gratifying to find at least some sections of the press taking a stand against the epidemic of so-called beauty shows, and assuming the guardianship of public morals. Utterances from the pulpit on such matters are too often dismissed with the sneering cry of ‘Wowser.’ A newspaper is surely dead to all journalistic ideals when, to send up its circulation and squeeze out bigger profits, it will pander to the prurient by daily displays in its pages of semi-nude women. It is time a protest against this sort of thing was heard and the film censor had his hands strengthened in suppressing the like on the screen.”

The Rev. E. J. Rogers (Baptist) remarked:—“Newspapers which indulge in this sort of thing are playing the game low down. They interfere with the power of the press, and, in fact, drag its name in the mud. It seems that they have been unable to catch the fancy of the public by the quality of the news they disseminate, and are obliged to pander to the taste of those who like this sort of thing. I think it is quite wrong.”