Contrary to what some people think, beauty pageants have not always been around. Paris of Troy was perhaps the first man who had the pleasure of selecting the most beautiful woman, but his choice was limited to three, Helen, the daughter of Zeus and Leda and two other women.
Helen of Troy may be the first Miss World, the face that launched a thousand ships, thereafter; there seem not to be too many records on what angle the early beauty pageants took.
Recent unpleasant revelations about beauty pageants in Ghana have made me on several occasions question the relevance of these pageants in our societies.
Few days after the Miss Ghana 2012 was mutilated by some people as lacking in fairness and judgment, another pageant-Miss Sanitation 2012 which is being organized for the first time has come under attack by 8 of the finalists even before the final event takes off.
The eight finalists have accused the organizer of having taken undue advantage of them to make money for himself and have further accused him of not redeeming some of his pledges.
In the midst of all these controversies, I have decided to look at both sides of the coin in relation to beauty pageants.