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That is why many of the responses to beauty pageants in Vietnam have become jokes that make netizens laugh out loud. I was most impressed by a girl who, when asked, “What would you do if you were crowned Miss today?”, innocently replied, “I would wear the crown and go around the neighborhood and tell the kids not to litter.”

It is a bit sad, but the truth is that beauty pageants in Vietnam are not considered to be up to the task of finding representatives for the beauty of Vietnamese women. Beauty here is understood as comprehensive beauty, both in appearance and soul, and intelligence. The contestants and even the beauties who win the crowns have mostly only met the standard of physical beauty (sometimes they don't even meet this standard), while their souls and intelligence are nothing special, if not to say... a bit "weak". One year, the beauty queen was exposed for not graduating from high school and for being a poor student. Another year, the beauty queen was said to have majored in French but spoke French worse than an elementary school student. Then there are all kinds of scandals of beauty queens selling sex, beauty queens buying awards... that make people no longer believe in the prestige of the beauty queen crown. Some people even say outright that participating in beauty pageants is just a way to increase the price and the beauties participating in beauty pageants now are like goods for sale to the rich. Of course, we can't generalize, but after all, where there's smoke, there's fire.

Meanwhile, when watching beauty pageants on a global scale, many contestants have such impressive resumes that I thought they were auditioning for Google, Facebook or NASA, not for a beauty pageant. Many have master’s degrees or even doctorates, speak 3 or 4 languages, and in addition to the title of beauty queen, they are also famous journalists, university lecturers, and famous artists in their countries. Most of them have a huge interest in social activities. In fact, the reason why many of them compete in beauty pageants is to have a greater influence, to be able to develop the movement and social activities they are pursuing.

That is to say, the beauty pageant for them is not a contest to show off their appearance. It is an opportunity to speak out for a larger community. It is a launching pad for them to pursue their ideals - of course, those ideals must be greater than increasing their event fees and some other prices. The beauty pageant is not a profession and certainly not a definition of their human values.

I think of many beauties who compete in Miss Vietnam. If the title of Miss is removed, people will no longer know who they are and what else they have to remember. I think that is a sad reality, because if the representatives of Vietnamese women are so “empty”, isn’t it like Vietnamese women have no value worth representing, worth being proud of?