Venezuela holds two world records: the most international beauty crowns and the largest proven oil reserves in the world – two apparently unrelated titles that in fact are closely aligned. In the minds of Venezuelans, beauty and oil are tied to the idea of progress, modernity and our relationship with power, especially since the oil boom of the mid 20th century transformed us from a rural country to the richest nation in Latin America in the 1970s.
During this time Miss Venezuela epitomised the nation’s aspirations. Even in the midst of the hardest economic and political crisis in our history, the pageants continue.
Beauty pageants are a platform for personal progress and a possible way out of poverty
Growing up in Caracas in the 90s, every year the country was essentially paralysed when Miss Venezuela occurred. As part of my ongoing project Reinas, there are times when I’ve been to five or six pageants in a week. Women of all ages, the queer community, are all involved.
This photograph was spontaneous. I was attending a pageant for young girls and they were rehearsing. I saw this little girl with her pink dress going up the stairs by herself, delicate and feminine, as if she’s walking towards a dream, but then you see the reality around it. They don’t match up.
I know how damaging pageants can be for Venezuelan women as they impose heteronormative beauty standards, yet participants tell me they feel the most liberated in this character they have created.
For Venezuelan women living through political and economic turmoil, beauty pageants are a platform for their personal progress and a possible way out of poverty. The majority of students I’ve met in the escuelas de reinas [queen schools), are from low-income families, despite the high costs involved. Winning smaller titles can open the way to bigger ones, and with them, public figure status. This can lead to jobs in modelling, the media or entertainment industry – even politics.
Irene Sáez, Miss Venezuela 1981 and Miss Universe, became the mayor of Chacao and later ran for the presidency in 1998 against Hugo Chavez. The connection of beauty with power isn’t just symbolic.
In 2002, a national strike took place. The whole country came to a standstill, schools were shut, everything was closed. I missed three months of school. Part of this strike was halting oil shipments. The largest oil tanker that had anchored in Lake Maracaibo refusing to move, was named after the beauty queen Pilín León. She became the face of this political fight.
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In Venezuela, the culture of pageants goes far beyond beauty. The archetype of the beauty queen is deeply political.
As told to Kristi Greenwood
Fabiola Ferrero is a journalist and photographer from Caracas, Venezuela. Her project Reinas is supported by Deloitte Photo Grant and will be displayed at Triennale Museum in Milan in November
