Icod de Los Vinos, in Tenerife, has joined the municipalities that will not host beauty contests, such as Candelaria or Santa Cruz de La Palma, Betanzos (A Coruña) and Quesada (Jaén).
Thus, this year there will be no election of the queen of the festivities in September, in honor of the Christ of Calvary, since this type of contest “perpetuates sexist and not very inclusive behavior,” says the mayor of Icod, Javier Sierra, in a release.
The galas for the election of the adult and children’s queen “will be replaced by other inclusive celebrations that highlight local talent, the dissemination of inclusive and non-sexist values, and a commitment to heritage and culture.”
In these beauty contests, the mayor of Icod abounds, “feminine appearance is judged and valued by virtue of specific models, which we consider not in keeping with the times and which discriminate against all those women who do not share them, and therefore course they segregate for reasons of sex”.
In the case of the election to child queen “other factors are added, such as the exhibition before the public of the girls, there is no opportunity or any quality other than aesthetics is promoted, and thus the belief is perpetuated that by being prettier you must be more successful, which promotes inequality from childhood based on banal criteria ”, wields the first mayor.
It is, in short, “an issue anchored in the past, which does not contribute to the social development of the community, but instead points out and accentuates the differences between people based on their physical or aesthetic appearance.”
However, he points out that this does not mean that other types of contests such as the pilgrimage or magician elections of the San Marcos festivities are no longer held, because in them “they do attend to ethnographic and heritage values related to traditional clothing” , and adds that the idea is to include the male presence in these elections.
