Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.06.2013, Side 6

by Parker Yamasaki
Iceland | Beauty
Beauty Never Goes Out Of Style
Beauty Pageants on the other hand…
When the contest was called off in 2012,
many thought that it was the end of Miss
Iceland. "We didn't have the competition
last year," Sigríður says, "so my hope was
that they were done." But apparently that
was never the plan. "It takes a lot of time
and hard work to put these competitions
together," pageant coordinator Íris Jóns-
dóttir says, and she would know as Ice-
land’s representative in last year’s Miss
World contest. Now she has joined forces
with Rafn Rafnsson to put on this year's
Miss Iceland. "There just wasn't time to
do it last year,” she explains. “The plan
was never to call it off for good."
The people's pageant
So in early June of this year, they
announced that the pageant had been re-
vived, and with some vigour. In a public
statement, the new pageant director Rafn
Rafnsson said that last year's gap gives
them an opportunity to start fresh this
year with something more modern and
diverse, moving away from the Icelan-
dic stereotype contestant—"blonde hair,
blue-eyes, 1.73 metre tall"—that has
dominated previous pageants. He made
it clear that the criteria have been drasti-
cally widened. There are no size require-
ments or age limits. The application was
opened to all. Word spread like wildfire.
In light of Rafn's announcement, re-
nowned activist Hildur Lilliendahl felt
obligated to take him up on his words.
"My immediate reaction was to write a
comment saying that nothing was stop-
ping me from competing," Hildur says.
She posted the application on Facebook
and announced her participation. "When
I woke up the next morning MP Sigríður
Ingibjörg Ingadóttir had signed up."
"When I saw the application posted
on Facebook," Sigríður Ingadóttir notes,
"I thought, well I’ll sign up as a fun way
to join the protest. Sometimes you have
to use humour to get people to listen,”
she says, “it's a battle to get a message
through to people." The idea caught on,
by noon the next day hundreds of wom-
en—all shapes, all ages—hit the "sub-
mit" button on their own applications.
The show must go on
There is, however, a softer-spoken em-
phasis on the end of Rafn's open invita-
tion: to apply. That's about as generous
as the pageant is willing to get, for now.
As much as we'd like to see Sigríður on
stage come September, the official rules
of the competition haven't undergone the
drastic change that the protest activity
has hoped for. "The rules are the same
as always,” Íris says. “You have to be
between eighteen and twenty-four, un-
married, and have no children. The rules
are the same ones that apply to the Miss
World competition as we eventually send
the girls there. I still look at every appli-
cant, but I choose them to compete based
on the same rules as always."
It's not only with a snarky grin and
spiteful fingers that women around Ice-
land are signing up to participate though.
"Sure there is controversy, but there is a
lot of positive interest and attention to
the competition now as well.” Íris says.
Besides, any press is good press, right?
As a former Miss World contestant, Íris
stands by her career in beauty pageants.
"People can say what they want about it,
but they'll never really know until they
compete," she says. Last August Íris
went to Ordos, China to compete at Miss
World 2012. She says she is very grate-
ful for the experience that the pageant
brought her. "I got to compete with 120
other girls, many of whom I'm still in
contact with,” she says. “I got to travel
and do things that I otherwise might not
have gotten to do."
She is confident that the protest will
not stunt the popularity of the competi-
tion. Iceland has a successful history of
beauty pageant contestants, with one
Miss International, three Miss Worlds,
and five Miss Universe semi-finalists.
“The competition will always be here—
it has been going on since 1950 and will
continue to go on,” she says.
History need not
repeat itself
But is history the same as justification?
One of the arguments against the contin-
uation of beauty pageants is that they are
an outdated practice, based on an outdat-
ed and patriarchal vision of women. "I
saw in the news that this man, Rafn Raf-
nsson, was going to resurrect the compe-
tition [in 2013], and immediately thought
'Gee, how old-fashioned,'" Sigríður says.
Others argue that just writing the
competition off as "old fashioned" is still
too generous. In an interview with bleikt.
is, Þórdís Elva Þorvaldsdóttir makes
clear that calling the competition "an
anachronism" indicates that there was
a time in history where competitions of
this nature were acceptable. Þórdís dis-
agrees. In her opinion, the way a person
looks has never been a special cause for
awards.
Complaints about the pageant don't
just lie at the surface, so to speak. There
are deeper, societal issues that pageants
nurture, according to Hildur. “The typi-
cal beauty pageant epitomizes the type
of woman patriarchy created,” she says.
“Patriarchy teaches (and/or forces) wom-
en to be pretty and loving and kind and
well-behaved and composed and down-
right repressed and that's exactly how we
keep women out of positions of power,
out of the workplace and out of the po-
tential revolution that destroys this mo-
ronic system.”
Exit stage right
On its glossy wooden surface, the stage
may look the same as ever come Sep-
tember 14. The competition is no longer
just about looks, as Rafn says. It's about
personality, charm, and also, stunningly
good looks.
Whether or not the majority of appli-
cants are in pursuit or protest, the over-
whelming number of applicants has un-
doubtedly drawn attention to the pageant
and to the concept of beauty pageants in
general. As of June 15, the number of ap-
plicants was reported by RÚV at 1,100,
and the list continues to grow.
But the message behind this surge
of activity is not lost. "It’s clear from all
of the protest activity that there’s been
a change in values—I just hope that
young women are becoming more scep-
tical about allowing people to measure
them the way beauty pageants do" Sig-
ríður says. "We know that today, in 2013,
people do not find these sorts of things
acceptable.”
“I will miss Sámur more than I will miss Ólafur.
Ólafur can come and visit me but Sámur canʼt visit
me and then return to here.”
– First Lady Dorrit Moussaieff on RÚV TV news, June
16, 2013
As it is a breach of Icelandic law for couples to have separate legal residen-
cies, many questions arose when it was discovered that Dorrit had moved her
legal residence to London. When asked, Dorrit said it had to do with taking
greater responsibility in running her family’s jewellery business. Her par-
ents, she said, were getting old and if she was going to take over the business,
British law required that she have legal residence there (apparently not as bad
as breaking Icelandic law?).
While the reporter moved on to interview the president, Dorrit inter-
rupted twice, once to ask him what he meant by agreeing that it would be
“eðlilegt” (“normal”) for her to have residency in Iceland and another time
to correct him when he said Dorrit s̓ mother was almost 85 years old, when
apparently she’s merely 84(!). President Ólafur showed what a pro he is, not
so much as blinking an eye as his wife swiftly moved from his right side to
the left, then stepped behind him and shouting “Sámur, NO!” before running
out of the frame. Ólafur just kept his cool and finished the interview calmly.
Sámur is the couple’s dog, which Dorrit then stated she’d miss more than
her husband, as animals can t̓ travel back and forth from Iceland for health
cautionary regulations. If this was a ploy, it worked! Who cares now where
Dorrit lives or lives not? We want to know who’s getting Sámur.
“The EU took part in trying to coerce Icelanders
into taking on a massive financial burden, against
the law. Then the union, for the first time in its his-
tory, got involved in a court case against Iceland.
Now, the EU needs to show that it’s a Union based on
law and equality, not the power, size and interest of
the big players.”
– Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, National Day speech
in Reykjavík, June 17, 2013
On Iceland s̓ National Day, the newly elected prime minister talked about
independence, the Icelandic language, Icelandic heritage AND Icesave.
Yup, Iceland—best in the world! Sigmundur has obviously not forgotten
about the Icesave dispute and his first June 17 speech was inspired by
Iceland s̓ long history of fighting for the right to make its own decisions
and protect its interests above anything. Not that he was gloating, but he’s
clearly pretty happy about the EFTA ruling, and has some serious issues
with the EU.
“What an unbelievably cheap comment. If this is
your marketing method, I’m not sure I´ll ever buy
Gunnars mayonnaise ever again, even though I’ve
really liked it until now.”
– Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson, professor of po-
litical science at the University of Iceland interviewed
by DV, June 6, 2013
Gunnars is a long established family-owned business that produces may-
onnaise and various kinds of mayo-based sauces. When a woman called
Helen Gunnarsdóttir commented on a news story on DV.is, declaring that
former Prime Minister Davíð Oddsson had hit rock bottom with mud smear-
ing, Hannes stepped in to stand up for his pal. Only, he mistook Helen for
a member of the Gunnars clan and got so upset by her comment that he
was obviously ready to sacrifice the pleasures of yummie mayonnaise to
show his support for the former PM/Central Bank manager turned editor of
Morgunblaðið.
Helen’s comment was in response to a news story about the contents of
the section Reykjavíkurbréf, “Reykjavík letter” in Morgunblaðið, where for-
mer Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was said to have bid good morn-
ing to only one staff member at her ministry. Dozens of readers commented
on the story as well as Helen, who quickly tried to calm the professor down
and correct the misunderstanding by clarifying in another comment: “I have
no relations to the mayonnaise company!” Hopefully she managed to save
the mayo business c̓ause we all luv Gunnars mayonnaise.
Anna Björnsdóttir takes her title
as Iceland's 1974 "Miss Congenial-
ity" very seriously. She is always
engaged with her Southern Califor-
nia neighbourhood of Santa Mon-
ica. Neighbours know her for her
friendly street side conversation,
her soft spot for the neighbourhood
strays, and that one time that she
outed America's second most want-
ed man (second only to Osama Bin
Laden) to the FBI and collected a 2
million dollar reward.
Anna got her second 'fifteen
minutes of fame' when the FBI re-
vealed her as the informant behind
a 16-year long search for James
'Whitey' Bulgar. One day while
relaxing by the television in her
Reykjavík home, Anna recognised
a woman on the screen. It was her
southern California neighbour,
“Carol Gasko,” aka Catherine
Grieg, aka Whitey Bulgar's long-
time girlfriend and conspirator.
She and Gasko/Grieg had bonded
over a stray neighbourhood cat in
their sunny California commu-
nity. She reported the connection
to authorities and concluded their
sixteen-year long search.
Bulgar had gained notoriety as
the former mob boss of Boston-
based Winter Hill Gang. At the
time of his arrest he was running
from accusations of narcotics dis-
tribution, money laundering, and
at least nineteen counts of murder.
Not to mention, he was the inspi-
ration behind Jack Nicholson's
character in the 2006 film ‘The
Departed.’ Bulgar and Grieg were
arrested on June 23, 2011, with 30
firearms and about $822,000 in
cash hidden in the walls of their
apartment. Well done, Miss Conge-
niality, well done. Sandra Bullock
would be proud.
After taking a hiatus in 2012 for the first time in 30 years, Miss Iceland is back! And it seems that the annual event has been
dearly missed. A record number of entries flood in daily, with the latest tally at more than 1,000 entrants. Everybody's sign-
ing up, from the girl next door to the office secretary to Sigríður Ingadóttir, MP of the Social Democratic Alliance. Wait a
minute, Sigríður? The contest may be back up and running as usual, but something's different. This time around, there's a
whole army of contestants ready with some judgments of their own.
The typical
beauty pageant
epitomizes the
type of woman
patriarchy created
“
„
by Ingibjörg Rósa BjörnsdóttirThey said what?
Earning
Her Title
6The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 8 — 2013