Why there’s so much fuss about wearing bikinis during beauty contests

Popular in many parts of the world, beauty contests are almost held every year, Miss World being the biggest of the contests. Different beautiful girls from all over the world compete and one of them is selected as Miss World. Beauty contests originally focused mainly on the physical beauty of the contestant but you find that, nowadays it has gone far more than that, to their intelligence, morality, self confidence, among others.

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Popular in many parts of the world, beauty contests are almost held every year, Miss World being the biggest of the contests. Different beautiful girls from all over the world compete and one of them is selected as Miss World. Beauty contests originally focused mainly on the physical beauty of the contestant but you find that, nowadays it has gone far more than that, to their intelligence, morality, self confidence, among others.In Rwanda, different beauty contests are organized, for example, Miss Rwanda who represents Rwanda in Miss World, Miss Kigali. There are also University beauty contests like the last concluded Miss Butare, Miss SFB etc.During these  contests different attires are wore throughout the whole process e.g. the evening wear, casual wear, beach wear i.e bikinis etc .However, the bikini attire has raised so much fuss in our country Rwanda due to many reasons from different people.This is an attire that has been introduced into Africa by the western world and most people see it as one which does not fit in our African culture particularly in our country Rwanda. Letting this form of dressing go on especially in beauty contests would create a very bad image to the public. It will become a cultural hindrance and you will find that our culture of dressing will be done away with which may turnout to be a very big problem in the future.Again you find that in our country Rwanda, and Africa as a continent, a woman to move in the public showing off certain parts of her body was seen as a taboo. A Rwandan woman was expected to dress fully for example in a mushanana the traditional dress but not to go on naked in the public. She was expected to dress in a descent manner.In African tradition a woman was supposed to show her body to her husband and not to the public. Doing otherwise was regarded as indecent.More so, since beauty contests incorporate a lot of things, e.g how intelligent one is, how confident a person is among others and not the physical appearance of that person, this attire could as well be done away with since it’s not the miss beauty we really have here. And really a descent lady to represent a group of people could well do that when dressed in a good way.Still, this attire is one which has not been introduced by many Rwandan designers here in Rwanda. As said before, it was introduced from the western would. It has really not picked up in our country so why not stay with our own form of dressing.A well brought up woman is supposed to give respect to her self and also to others. This is in all aspects of life including dressing. Putting on the bikini attire may even cause many problems say temptation to man and in the end you may find man is led into sin. This attire in the end may lead to increase of immorality e.g. defilement, rape, among others.All in all, the bikini attire has caused so much fuss in Rwanda due to the repercussions or the bad effects it could bring on the general public especially the young generation and on the other hand it is also contrary to our Rwandan culture.