Is beauty a tyrant?

Miss Uganda 2004, Barbara Kimbugwe is flanked by her two runners up. Follow their journey on African Perspective African Perspective

Barbara Kimbugwe has been crowned this year's Miss Uganda.

Barbara may have glided effortlessly around the catwalk on the final day of the competition.

But her ascent to the beauty queen throne did not come without effort or overnight.

For the last month, she's prepared alongside 21 other young women in a specially set up beauty camp on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

The schedule has been gruelling: the girls have been moulded and scolded and taught to be the perfect beauty queens.

Already slim girls had to lose yet more weight to conform to beauty norms established by Miss World international.

Follow their story on African Perspective this weekend.

And join in with the Africa Live debate.

We're asking: what's your idea of beauty? How far are you prepared to go to get the look you want?

This debate

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Your Comments:

Let us pay more attention to inner beauty!!
Oyebola Adetula, Ethiopia

Beauty is believing in yourself, having the confidence and know how to embrace and enhance your flaws.
Fiona, Singapore

If you groom yourself well and take good care of your body, then you are truly beautiful.
Hafsa, USA

Unfortunately, the measurement of beauty is now in the eye of men who are hungry with lust. It's a way for women to feel appreciated, but in reality, beauty is nothing but a feeling of satisfaction.
Imran, USA

My idea of beauty has transcended the physical attributes into the bounds of mental aptitude. While the qualities of being slender and elegant, but not skinny in outlook, excite my interest, the inner attributes of modesty, chastity and mental strength epitomises my concept of beauty.
Ekundayo Shittu, Massachusetts, USA

Miss Uganda! Lipstick and the like - artificially beautified like plastic dolls. Beauty contests however, are a form of employment which reduces the number of unemployed women.
Robet Makoi, Solomon Islands

Beauty is natural - it does not require makeup.
Abaga,Kenya

I think the very idea of putting criteria to beauty is wrong. Most of the beauty queens I have seen on TV are not really beautiful. Judges should be selected at random from different cultures, backgrounds and countries. The western style requirement leaves some of our girls looking like ghosts with unnecessarily skinny bodies.
Dawit, Ethiopia

I believe that most people prefer the view of a majestic mountain to the view of a skyscraper Ochanya, US

I would like to ask what is better about becoming someone else rather than who you are created to be? Why have people discredited other 'beautiful' qualities such as a loving heart and hands that are always ready to help? Why does the western version of beauty seem to be more sophisticated? Isn't beauty more valuable when it is natural and not moulded or sculpted? I believe that most people prefer the view of a majestic mountain to the view of a skyscraper.
Ochanya, US

Beauty all depends on how individuals perceive it. One man's meat is another man's poison.
Eugene C.C, Buea, Cameroon.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with pageants like Miss World. They are run by committees who establish standards that make it possible to judge. When these women enter these contests, they know what they are getting themselves into. They understand what they have to do and they tackle that challenge head on. I applaud these women for putting forward a positive image of Africa.
David Moyo, Zimbabwe

Sweet dreams are made of this...who am I to disagree. I travelled the world and the seven seas...some of them want to use you...some of them want to get used by you...some of them want to abuse you...some of them want to be abused. Annie Lennox said it all.
Robert Husted, USA

I think it is just terrible that FIFA has imposed their rules for football on the world. How very stifling - where is the room for each group of people to bring their unique perspective to the game? What's that? Nobody forces people to play in FIFA organized tournaments? Perhaps there is no problem. The same goes for beauty pageants - nobody is forced to participate. Additionally, nobody is forced to watch - I'm not going to - if you have a problem with the pageant, do your part and ignore the whole affair.
John, USA

When I came to USA I lost 20 pounds in one month because I was repulsed at the sight of overweight people Sandra, USA

I am a slim woman, I excercise to keep my figure. Yet I get catty remarks from African women about how they do not need to excercise to keep their figure yet they wear "tummy tuckers" and hip tighteners to appera sleek. Also I find that men want women fat so they "are not tempted" Sorry guys it is not our problem but yours. If you are not beautiful, too bad but don't be jealous of those who are. I love to see beautiful women. When I came to USA I lost 20 pounds in one month because I was repulsed at the sight of overweight people. This is all about women's freedom. Remember there was a time when women could not even walk or speak in public. Leave us to celebrate our freedom and our creation
Sandra, USA

I believe that it takes much hard work and great dedication to be on top in all careers of life including the beauty industry and it is left for the aspirer to choose if they can meet up with these requirements to be distingue.
Ntsanderh Azenui, Cameroon.

Beauty, will always be in the eyes of the beholder. Not in the body shape
Yemi Oduwole, Uk

Whenever I hear of beauty pageants, the sad memory of what happened in Kaduna, Nigeria, where hundreds lost their lives because some people thought it was worthless came flooding into my mind. The west should endeavour to arrange the pageant to conform to the culture of the places they host this pageant instead of using it only promote western companies and imperialism. I don't think others are culturally represented. And beauy should not be seen only from the western concept and perspective. Must beauty be tall, slim and nude?
George Onmonya Daniel, Nigeria

Unlike Americans, Africans don't live by the television set or get their moral codes from the latest block buster movie. Mojani, USA

I admire and respect beauty pageant contestants. Like any hobby, passion or sport, they take their craft very seriously. I admire the African women that have voluntarily "conformed" to western standards, but I hardly see them as sell outs to western values and beliefs. I see African women as very clever, and mature enough to know the difference between reality and the fantasy. Africans should support their hard working beauty queens in this sport of glitter and elegance. If the African beauty wins the world pageant, it will be a great show of pride and victory, despite she being a size 8 instead of a size 10. Unlike Americans, I seriously doubt that Africans will obsess on physical appearance. Unlike Americans, Africans don't live by the television set or get their moral codes from the latest block buster movie. Your cultural values will guide you, regardless of what western civilization puts out. Remember that.
Mojani, USA

Nothing and absolutely nothing can outweigh ladies inner beauty. It is a living water that flow from those who have it to quench the thirst of others. It has no cultural boundry.
Victor Ajagbusi, U.S.A/Nigeria

Come to think of it, there is a common concept in my country to see slim men like me go for women with a full sensual figure while fat men with pot bellies go for women with slim, slender structures. Now that, I consider to be the equilibrium concept! Personally, my hungry eyes start checking for a woman's beauty from the size of her buttocks before gliding upwards. I don't get easily freaked by the slender portraits that I see on beauty contests and I guess most of the slim folks back home share this view with me.
Unisa Kanu, Sierra Leone-Saudi Arabia

While the dark skinned are bleaching to look like the fair skinned the fair skinned are tanning to acquire a darker skin tone Musu, Liberia

The interesting thing about beauty is that we are constantly looking for ways to look like other people even if most people think that we are beautiful. Do African women know that fuller lips are now in? Thin lipped women (westerners)are now injecting their lips because they think fuller is sexier. funny, ehn? While the dark skinned are bleaching to look like the fair skinned the fair skinned are tanning to acquire a darker skin tone. The truth here is we are never satisfied. My advise to African women - appreciate what you have and make the best of it.
Musu, Liberia

I don't think beauty is a tyrant. Beauty is a measure of good genes. This helps to explains why most men want to marry beautiful ladies. The formula is; beauty = good genes and good genes = healthy offspring and healthy offspring = parents' fitness. The good thing with beauty is that, it is natural; can not be fecked nor forced but can only be modified. If weight reduction is the rule, let the beautiful ones do so, what is important is their natural morphological appearance. I say, good jobs to all the parents of beautiful girls of our continent Aaaaafrica!
William Wingard Mude, Toronto, Canada.

If all beauty queens donated each meal they skipped to a hungry child, less than 24,000 of these young ones would die in a day. So far as it is not self-indulgence, one can go as far as possible.
Adwoa, Ghana

The scary thing is that the so-called "caucasian" standards of beauty reflect only a tiny percentage of what caucasian women actually look like. I'm white but I certainly don't look anything like this ridiculous "ideal" standard set by the Miss World people, and neither do any of my friends or family. It's a silly fantasy world, populated by women who most definitely do not look anything like the real women I know! Anyhow; who wants to look malnourished? It's self-confidence and optimism that result in beauty. Who cares what what other people think you should look like, I say!
Shaz, New Zealand

BBC Interactive, apparently you are running out of interesing topics for dicussion. Please at least raise topics that are important to Africa such as the death plundering in Darfur!
M. A, USA

"All that glitters is not gold" A natural beautiful lady is like ripe fruit on a tree everybody will want to harvest.Today every woman wants use all sort of cream lotions in the name of 'beauty'. If there are beautiful women obviously there are ugly women. And if all men go for the beutiful women then the ugly women will not be engaged. I would prefer a woman who is not beautiful physically but who has that spiritual,moral and loving beauty in her.
Aaron Anye, Cameroonian in Johannesburg.

No man is an island. Whether it is music, dressing, diet or even beauty, Africa like the rest of world is a casualty fo cross-cultural exchanges. The practice of beauty pageant shows in Africa is not a bad idea; it provides the girls an opportunity to empower themselves and discover their inner strengths especially on a continent where women are considered nothing more that personal property like goats, cattle and furniture. I personally endorse the holding of beauty pageants.
Mart M, Cameroon

I am afraid to say this, but is there any beauty among the three ladies? I am sorry.
Dan Katuala, Atlanta U.S.A

All this is a shampoo industry contest, purely money oriented artificial beauty, nothing more Tesfalem, South Africa/Eritrean

Beauty is a blessing but can sometimes be a tyrant when handled badly. The so called beauty contests however don't by any means reflect beauty. Rather all this is a shampoo industry contest, purely money oriented artificial beauty, nothing more. If our sisters think they are being empowered, I say they are struggling against their own status in society and by so doing restore the status quo that always abused them. My sisters you don't need to bury your natural treasures and wear manufactured eye lashes,skin,hair,lips,teeth,toes,nails...
Tesfalem, South Africa/Eritrean

This certainly a deviation from the african norms of defining beauty. It worried me sick.
Oluwole Pitan, Florida, USA

Its high time Africans embraced the western ideals of beauty. They are on the right track to turn out beautiful women that stand up to worldwide scrutiny
Charles, Montreal, Canada

Beauty sucks. Give up! Embrace the ugly. If these girls can find wealthy husbands and make other little girls starve themselves to be beautiful, then power to them.
Lola, USA

African women are naturally curvy and i think its silly that African peagants are making them loose weight according to the so called world standards.
felo, usa

As the saying goes,"beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder."There are beautiful african-african girls,african- european girls,african-asian girls, african- american indian girls and so forth.let´s not kid ourselves,this is the twenty first century couple with the media-age that we live in.let the ladies be as gorgeous as the wanna b,because they are baps(black african princesses).keep it up,ladies.million kisses of brotherly love.
Denzel, Liberia/Chile

It is all about looking sickly without wanting to be sick - underfed but not malnaurished with a forced dry smile that appears frozen in time. Nothing is African about this demeaning, unhealthy and stigmatizing western culture - if it is a culture at all.
Ithamar, Ottawa, Canada

I competed in pageants for a few years, the knowledge I gained and the amount I pushed myself to be a better person was immeasurable Rebecca Weeks, USA

How ever one decides to present themselves is up to them. We must not impose our beliefs and structures on others, for it is not our story they want to live. I believe that personal accountability is formost, they chose this. We should praise their commitment and the strength it takes to present yourself to the world. I competed in pageants for a few years, the knowledge I gained and the amount I pushed myself to be a better person was immeasurable. We get what we put into pageants. I see three beautiful and poised woman in the picture from BBC News, why discredit their hard work? You don't learn to walk over night, it takes practice as well as everything involved with preparing to compete. Why is it wrong as women to better ourselves?
Rebecca Weeks, USA

I believe that it takes much hard work and great dedication to be on top in all careers of life including the beauty industry and it is left for the aspirer to choose if they can meet these requirements and distinguish at them.
Ntsanderh Azenui, Cameroon.

Encouraging our young women to conform to foreign ideas of beauty is plain wrong and will prove to be costly to us in the future. Mohammed, USA/ Mali

I just love it when our beloved African people seem to blindly subscribe to the moral relativist view of the world, without giving thought to how certain behaviors affect a society. Encouraging our young women to conform to foreign ideas of beauty is plain wrong and will prove to be costly to us in the future. All one has to do, is to take an honest look at trends in the West to see the negatives; bulimia, anorexia, young girls having plastic surgery, just to name a few. Trust me this is not a road we want our young ladies to travel, we ought to encourage our young ladies to love and have greater esteem for their natural beauty. Again, just because you feel like doing something does not necessarily make it right, and not directly "hurting" someone is also not reason enough, everything we do has a negative or a positive effect on others.
Mohammed, USA/ Mali

Beauty, will always be in the eyes of the beholder. Not in the body shape
Yemi Oduwole, UK

Of course some times it's a tyrant. It depends the way you make use of it
Safiatu Kargbo, Freetown,Sierra Leone

There is no doubt that I very much admire sleeky and sophisticated women, but the whole idea of conducting a beauty contest based on western values is sickening to say the least.That explains why Africans or blacks hardly come on top at these competitions.The requirements for entering these competitions are projected on values that already disqualifies some group of people.Something should be done about this.
Emil Ashiboe-Mensah, USA

Does it mean there's no room for the beautiful people who're of average weight or more? Saba, Ethiopian in Canada

It's funny but sad to read that the weight standard is set by Miss World International and means that you have to be beyond skinny to fit in. Does it mean there's no room for the beautiful people who're of average weight or more? And whose cultural beauty standard is dictating what the whole world should look like to be considered beautiful? And, as much as it gives some people good opportunities, I find competitions pointless anyhow especially having seen the number of people who pretend to be somebody they really are not once they become contestants. Much respect to those who stay real.
Saba, Ethiopian in Canada

I think it is sad that African countries have bought into Western concepts and standards of beauty. Perceptions of beauty are as varied as ethnic diversity throughout the world. I prefer the approach of the Miss Malaika pageant which promotes candidates who represent African concepts of beauty.
Jeff Barnes, USA

If you like what you see - whether it is yourself or someone else - that beauty is defined. The norms of the Miss World International are based on European (caucasian) profiling - thin, blonde, fair colored skin, pointed nose, flat buns etc. African contestants go to lengths to meet those norms. It is definitely not fair to women of color who are mostly curvy and fuller figured. Since the world is made up of various degrees of beautiful women, the contest should select "contintental" queens rather than a "universal queen". Then we can have Ms. Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Asia. Otherwise, this it just a waste of time for our "sisters". The exposure may be good but at what cost?
Kpanah, Liberia

Rebecca Weeks, there is nothing wrong with women bettering themselves. You miss the point entirely. What is wrong is sending a message to every woman in every country of the world the same image of beauty. Beauty differs from country to country and culture to culture. Why should everyone have to be 6 feet tall and rail thin to be considered beautiful?
Rhonda, United States

I would rather have women who look like the syphinx, but are able to help humanity solve problems morally, spiritually, emotionally and socially. Shuttie F.N.Libuta, Zambia

I love the glamour and splendor of any woman who has got it all, that is the looks and style, but these must be accompanied by the inner person full of moral values. Afterall, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but the whole epsode of looking like a Monalisa might not benefit these tabulent societies. I would rather have women who look like the syphinx, but are able to help humanity solve problems morally, spiritually, emotionally and socially. Women of Africa, let's combine beauty, elegance and above all, deep rooted high moral standards because Africa the mother of all beauty requires us to do and be just so.
Shuttie F.N.Libuta, Zambia/Kitwe, Central Africa