Miss World 2012 and the history of the beauty pageant

Miss World is one of the most prestigious beauty contests in the world, along with contests such as Miss Universe, Miss Earth and Miss International. Held annually.

The Miss World 1951 pageant appeared thanks to Briton Eric Morley. However, the beauty contest was originally supposed to be held as part of the British Festival. And Eric Morley himself (advertising agent of the Mecca firm) proposed the idea of ​​a beauty contest for advertising a ballroom (the beauty contest was held in the advertised ballroom).

During the first Miss World contest, the contestants paraded in the then fashionable bikinis. The first winner of the competition was Swedish Kiki Haakonson, who received a prize of 1000 pounds as a reward.

The next year, the contestants appeared on the stage in more modest swimsuits, and Eric Morley and his wife Julia (she will head the organizing committee of the contest in 2000 after her husband's death) registered a company for holding beauty contests. The Miss World beauty pageant has become an annual event, held in the capital of Great Britain, London, and has been broadcast by the BBC since 1959.

In 1970, the Miss World beauty pageant was "attacked" by feminists. They pelted the jury and the contestants with bags of flour, and an ink bomb was thrown at the jury member, American comedian Bob Hope. And since then, the Miss World competition in London has accompanied feminist demonstrations every year. The competition itself was called humiliation, anachronism, vulgarity.

In the 1980s, the British were finally tired of the Miss World beauty pageant, and the answers of the contestants to the questions of the jury were told like anecdotes. In 1988, the BBC refused to broadcast the competition.

Since the 1990s, the locations of the Miss World competition have begun to change. So, the competition was held in South Africa in the city of Sun City (1992-1995), in Bangalore, India (1996), in the Seychelles (1997-1998). And then (1999 - 2000) again in London.

The Miss World beauty pageant was attacked not only by feminists, but also by radical Muslims, because of whose performances the contest was moved from Nigeria to London in 2000.

Since the second half of the 2000s, the Miss World beauty pageant has been increasingly held in China. And the very idea of ​​the competition at the beginning of the XXI century is changing - it is becoming a prestigious and significant event. In the course of the competition, the participating girls are selected as winners in such nominations as "Miss Sports", "Miss Talent" and some others. For the final show, the top ten are selected from all the girls, and then the top five finalists.

Today the winners of the Miss World contest receive a cash prize, which, however, is almost immediately donated to charity, plus they are also obliged to engage in charitable activities during the year, the winners live in London. Personally, the winner of the Miss World beauty pageant has only a precious crown.

This year, 23-year-old Chinese woman Yu Wenxia became the winner of the Miss World competition, which was held in the Chinese city of Ordos. She is studying music and would like to become a teacher in the future. The winner of the Miss World beauty pageant last year was a girl from Venezuela.

The Russians became the winners of the Miss World beauty pageant twice - in 1992 (Yulia Kurochkina) and in 2008 (Ksenia Sukhinova).