The beauty pageant’s question-and-answer portion is like life and death to Filipinos.
Because of it, we thought we were robbed at the Miss Universe finals of 2011-13, or at Miss International in 2012.
We collectively pressured Janina San Miguel to surrender her Binibining Pilipinas World crown after a logically, phonetically and syntactically shaky answer—one that is still in the archives of at least one radio station.
It is also because of the Q&A that we tend to laugh or clap to mock a contestant who’s busy picking up the shattered pieces of her broken dreams, while simultaneously picking out the right words to at least finish a complete sentence—multitasking at its finest.
The thing is, they’re the same questions all the time. Oh, the tired “What is the essence of being a woman?”; “Crown or love?”; “What is beauty?”; “Who is your inspiration?”; “Beauty or brains?”—Hall of Fame material all.
Not that these are non-issues, but they have become staple questions that the finalist will have rehearsed the answers to a thousand times.
The judges ultimately fail to see if the woman is quotable, or if her heart is in the right place.
Here are some questions that need asking—na hindi pa gasgas.
What did you give up to be here?
This should gauge the lady’s commitment. Did she give up salt (because of water retention)? Did she let go of her love life? Will she shed tears for extra brownie points, like some do to bag the crown—or even just the rice—at local pageants? I hope she doesn’t say she didn’t give up anything. That would be boring.
Precious or priceless?
This would seem like a senseless patis o suka question thrown to PBB aspirants, but if the Binibini is good, she’ll know the differences and similarities between the terms. There’s no right or wrong answer, only an attempt at shooting down the candidate’s chances, but I’d choose priceless.
The end justifies the means. Do you agree?
When this saying appeared a couple of times as a “motto in life” on our high school yearbook, it just did not sit well with me. Would I cheat (means) to get high grades (end)? I did not, just so we’re clear.
My point is, I think this and other tambling quotes—“All is fair in love and war”—can cause a pageant migraine.
What is your stand on selfies?
Ah, this divisive modern-day habit. James Franco a.k.a. the Selfie King, glorified it in the New York Times as “the new way to look someone right in the eye and say ‘Hello, this is me.’”
Meanwhile, in Italy, it relates to the arrest of two Californian tourists, who scratched their initials on The Colosseum walls only to take a you-know-what. So, sa pula, sa puti?
Introduce the Bangsamoro Basic Law to a child.
Of course the default answer would be peace, brotherhood, unity, the things they usually say. But the details a lady uses can hint at how updated she is on current affairs.
She could go too deep, too; on one national pageant I saw on TV, the contestant uttered the word “psychosocial,” so I changed channels.
Were you ever treated unfairly?
This will reveal the contestant’s concept of justice. Being treated unfairly can go from sinitsitan ng tambay sa kanto to sinabihang bobo ang Pinoy.
I think the sharpest Binibini will ably protract the issue of taxi drivers not giving the exact change into a commentary on honesty and, the cherry on top, a call to action. It is serious.
If you weren’t where you are tonight, where would you be?
Or, “If you do not get the crown tonight, where will you be tomorrow?” No one really asks these questions. It has always been about what they would do if they win.
But, how would they handle defeat? How would they have gone about their day if they weren’t candidates? I hope the answer does not involve jumping off a building.
Are you intelligent?
Are you beautiful? Are you confident? Self-assessment will give the ladies a hard time—they could easily come off overconfident or self-deprecating.
The winning answer would paint the contestant as humble, I guess. But then again, they could cite the Bible or the theory of multiple intelligences to say no one is born bopenks, or maybe math and science books to say they overcame ignorance. Para-paraan lang.
Who did you first inform that you were going to be an official candidate?
This would give you a picture of how close a contestant is to her family. If she called her friends or significant someone first, wouldn’t that speak volumes? Of course, the beauty queen would ideally talk first to her parents— because she is presumably single, unmarried and without children—because we put so much premium on family. If not, there should be a valid reason.
What act of kindness have you done in the past month?
This will give you an idea about how they practice—or not—a concept they talk about when made up. I mean, they always tackle changing the world one step at a time, about every person contributing, yada yada yada, but are they really doing their part? Partida—the question was originally “in the past week.”
