Women's rights campaigners gathered outside Cardiff's Oceana nightclub to protest against the Miss University GB final today.
But organisers of Miss University GB - children's charity Joshua Foundation charity and Vibe PR - were undeterred by protesters and went on to pick three student contestants to enter the international competition Miss Universe GB.
The protesters from NUS Women's Campaign organised the event on Facebook one week before the final. A message sent to members of the Breaking the Waves feminist festival group read:
"Women have campaigned hard over the last century to gain access to University, and to win the right to be judged on the strength of our opinions and not our looks. Beauty pageants such as Miss University GB undermine these hard-fought gains and send the dangerous message that it is OK to value women purely on a narrow conception of beauty that bears little relation to the majority of women."
The women gathered outside the nightclub with placards and began their practised chants. Inside Oceana, judges and an audience were watching the girls parade down a catwalk in three rounds – swimwear, little black dress, and evening wear.
Organisers of the protest, Estelle Hart and Liv Bailey, are both NUS Women's Campaign officers and have campaigned all year to have the event cancelled – like Miss Student UK. The girls say the crux of the campaign is against a sex-object culture spreading across universities. Estelle said:
"It's all part of a backlash against feminism we're seeing in Universities – there are more 'Pimps and Hos' nights. We saw the research this week about how the objectification of women increases to violence towards women, so it's something we're trying to stop."
Estelle refers to the report published last week from psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos which said there was a clear link between sexualised imagery and violence towards females.
But Liv stressed their group was not trying to challenge a women's right to make a choice – and especially were not targeting the girls participating in the competition. But, she said, their fight was against the competition itself. She said: "We are not criticising the women – but the industry which makes a profit from invading spaces which are supposed to be safe places and not judging you on your intelligence."
Soon after the protesters appeared at the door of the event, chief executive of the Joshua Foundation Sarah Cornelius-Price issued a statement. It read:
"The young ladies taking to the stage at Miss University GB are not only; strong confident and intelligent but through this competition have helped make a difference to the lives of children with cancer. They can be proud to represent the modern day woman in society by proving women can be beautiful, intelligent and successful."
All applicants to the Miss University competition were asked to raise money for the Joshua Foundation with the top ten fundraisers automatically gaining a place in the final.
Mrs Cornelius-Price is also former Welsh Woman of the year and launched the awards programme Welsh Women in Business. She said: "I was from a generation which went to university among a host of men. We used to be judged on just the way we look but now we are judged on the whole package. Women fought for women to have a choice."
