I was cleaning out my Bulk folder in my Yahoo! account when I encountered an email with the [paraphrased] subject title: Search for Digital Pinay 2005 Ongoing! Seeing the subject head itself made me automatically sent it to the Trash folder.

However, a good friend of mine messaged me asking if I could give my two cents worth on this Digital Pinay hoopla. So he sent me a link to his friend's blog, where I read the entire thing.

This is the gist of the email taken from his friend's blog since I deleted the email and did not bother reading it anyway:

The Philippine Computer Society (PCS) is doing a search for "Digital Pinay 2005". They're looking for role models for information and communication technology, "women who exemplify the qualities expected of future women leaders of the Philippine ICT industry."

To help them find worthy candidates, their application form asks for information like name, paragraph or two about why you deserve the award, IT experience, and such essential information as height, weight, bust, waist, and hip measurements.

Why in tarnation would we need the so-called "vital statistics"? They are even asked to model around in business suits. Now that you mention it, I'm thinking, is the JGSOM preparing their female students for this kind of thing because of that insipid dress code?

This is such an insult both to the information technology industry and to women, particularly to those working in the field. Fine, awarding women for exemplary performances in IT based solely on their merits with regard to work is more than alright, but to actually make them ramp around in their suits?

Bakit? Sponsored ba ng Black Shop, or ng Sari-Sari, or ng kung anumang corporate woman clothing brand yang event na yan? Dyosme. A beauty pageant is a beauty pageant, and nothing could deftly disguise it.

And they'd uphold the Digital Pinay as something like that? Na kailangan swabe kapag naka-business suit? Naknampucha. Kikay classes na lang tayo.

Another instance where women are enjoined to assert their sexuality in order to gain merit. Bah.

if men didn't prize beauty, what will you do? dress as an ape?

well they should hold a beauty pageant instead. digital pinay ka dyan tapos hihingian mo ng vital statistic? anung klase un d ba? marami nang nag react about this issue, mainly sacha chua and i think she's right. anu ito parang miss congeniality? it's not just a beauty contest? it's a scholarship program? may ibang tamang oras para i display ng isang babae ang sarili nya, pero this is hardly the right place for it!

I would not be a hypocrite to say that I do not dress when, for instance, I go out on dates, or just for the shallow reason that my [hypothetical] boyfriend will think my dress will look great on me, but let me just point out that women appreciate beauty as well.

This Digital Pinay choova is not the right venue in which you could ogle at women as if they were some piece of meat, with the added package of being an "exemplary" I|T practitioner.

If they want to hold a beauty pageant, fine, go ahead. But to use the industry in order to parade around women? Bah.

mac_bolan, beauty should not be even treated as if it were a prize. It is something appreciated, not commoditized.

just a guess: beauty pageants offend ugly women, or those half into it. examples of the latter are homely computer scientists sniffing at 'Miss IT' pageants. the above guess is as much of an insult as it is fact. as a way to soften it, i'm of the opinion that all sane women are beautiful and desirable but never mind me.

well then, i'll throw a different question at you. supposing this IT pageant was meant to benefit indigent but talented students who wish to major in IT, will you still complain at the way society commoditizes beauty, particularly in women?

nakakaaliw naman

Sorry, I just could not help but scoff at this.

It is explicitly stated in the email that Digital Pinay is in search of "women who exemplify the qualities expected of future women leaders of the Philippine ICT industry."

Does this pertinent requirement need to have the incentive of "vital statistics?"

What I am just trying to point out is that, this particular contest further amplifies the issue on how images of beauty affect women in a negative manner. In this case, career and beauty have to be juxtaposed to impose a woman immersed in this field's merits. Why do we have to add the beauty part? We could have plain Janes who could be awarded Digital Pinays.

Fine, if there are two contestants: a Plain Jane and a model-type girl. Both are proficient in their field. I do not wish to make presumptions, yet given the mechanics of this Digital Pinay contest, it will unanimously go to the latter.

And yes, even if this was not the issue, I still believe that beauty is highly commoditized.

Run to the nearest bookstore adn grab a copy of Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth. Maybe that would adequately justify the suffering women go just to be beautiful, or maintain their beauty.

Contests like these contort women into an Iron Maiden of some sort. Sadly, one French proverb goes, "One must suffer in order to be beautiful." Yes, women who join these pageants like doing what they are doing - parading their bodies in numerous costume changes and insipid question adn answer portions - but I honestly feel sorry for those na yung tanging kagandahan lamang ng mukha at pangangatawan lamang nila ang ipinupuhunan nila upang makapagkamit ng ganitong titulo.

hay nako. this i-care-for-others hipocrisy has to end sometime. why do you insist there is victimization going on? i can't think of a more exemplary example of freedom of choice than a beauty contest. and no matter how stupidly the criteria are spelled out, everyone knows just what's expected of a pageant consultant. therefore, your ceteris paribus situation is a non-issue. let the plain jane strike out where beauty isn't a major factor (like outside g0d-damned makati!) why, some of the best IT women i know look like giant zits with a face for accessory. but i respect them a lot more than johanna raunio (look her up).

kung ganun d dapat they should have stated in the first place na digital pinay is indeed a beauty contest. none of us ever said we have anything against beauty pageants. you seem to have missed the point. ang kinaiinisan sa digital pinay 2005 is that it was supposed to be a search of "women who exemplify the qualities expected of future women leaders of the Philippine ICT industry." now, do you find anything in that phrase pertaining to beauty? wala d ba? if they wanted a beauty and IT brains kind of girl then they should have explicitly stated so. hindi yung sasabihin mo na this and that tapos sa application mo hinihingi ang height, waist, bust and hip measurements.

Oh, really?

I'm going to shout out something brainless but probably true...

50 bucks sez a man thought up of that event. This basically means any contest that is all woman and not a sporting activity obviously has "vital statistics" as on of the qualifiers.

Anyways, they were probably leaning towards a theme closer to Miss Universe where beauties parade around and the winner travels all around the world helping people blah blah etc etc.. I don't think their beauty makes them help anyone better than any ugly woman could (unless of course they're engaging in hot passionate sex donations). It just so happens that being a woman has always been partially about being physically beautiful. Now, with this metro-sexual thing going on, maybe things will just flip around. Men in make-up, Women with 5 o'clock shadows...

I probably made no sense at all...

i can be slow at times. so you ladies ARE the victims. one complains of deception, the other of an invisible hand that victimizes.

I must be slower.. didn't get the invisible hand..

yes, that's mac bolan's invisible hand doing something improper...

I agree with blue_girl and Pineforest Crunch. To say that beauty pageants exemplify freedom of choice ignores the fact that preferences are, to a great extent, socially determined. Beauty pageants, especially a beauty pageant masquerading as an ICT contest, reinforce the message that appearance counts more than substance, and that you have to look a certain way to get ahead.

Well I don't think it's ever going to change. The male brain will always get more bedazzled by stunning looks than a debate trophy. We can try to tell everybody it's not right... but at the end of the day we have to face the truth, it's not a mentality, it's biologically how the whole system works. Man + Woman = continued existence.. man wants beauty.. simple as that.

it's not beauty pageants we're against. just so we're clear about that. what we are not in favor of is a beauty pageant disguised as something else. kung gusto mo ng magandang babae para pwedeng i-display eh di sana hindi digital pinay 2005 ang ginawa mong theme at lalo nang hindi mo sinabi na it's search for "women who exemplify the qualities expected of future women leaders of the Philippine ICT industry" !

Hmmm... good point.

i was afraid it will come to this.

so we go back to the centuries-old belief that people (especially women?) will never be smart enough or strong enough to assert their prersonal choices. you guys are saying that there will always be a strong force capable of subverting people's basic will and deliberate actions; and that victimization is a rule rather than an exception.

*PFC laughing her ass off while cramming her History paper*

Sorry, I could not help but scoff at this equation.

why scoff? the beauty part may have nothing to do with the 'contiued existence' part but both premises are wholly accurate. and by the way, man + woman = continued existence is not an equation. it's an identity.

Hmmm I may have missed something.. let me rephrase to reduce "scoffiness"

* Man + Woman -> Continued existence.

* Man wants Beauty.

* Woman wants "X" (and shall remain "X" till the end of time).

* Man pretends to be "X" to get beauty.

Pretty much 99% accurate...

I don't know if this is the proper forum or thread to bring this point up, but reviewing the present exchange of ideas (and I hope it remains civilised), let me post this query: "Is chivalry and equality among the sexes incompatible? If not, where do we draw the line?" I am male, and would want to consider myself old school (stand up when a lady joins/leaves a table, etc.), but also believe that in most terms, a man can do what a woman can do and vice versa. However, I have had difficulties in reconciling why when I stood up to offer a standing lady a seat on a train (not in this country), she gave me dagger looks and at a different time, got the same dagger looks when I do not (both here and overseas). It's more of a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

i hope i do not sound rude or anything but it seems that some people still don't get the reason why women like me and pfc feel that this contest is a big joke.

it is every person's right (note that i didn't say woman) to choose whatever he/she may want to do with his/her life. to each his own nga di ba? none of us ever said that beauty pageants should be damned or that it appears to degrade women as a whole in the society. a pageant is what it is, no pseudos, no fake aims. pag sinabing miss universe alam mo na halos lahat dyan ay mga magagandang babae na magsusuot ng iba ibang uri ng pananamit, from formal wear to swimwear. AND there's nothing wrong with that, gusto nila un eh pakialam ba namin d ba?

now as i have been explaining over and over, this digital pinay thing was NOT supposed to be a beauty pageant. if it were it should have explicitly said so. it shouldn't have said that it was supposed to be a search for "women who exemplify the qualities expected of future women leaders of the Philippine ICT industry". where in that quoted statement do you see any indication that it was supposed to be a beauty pageant? wala hindi ba? pero sa application form nila meron dun hinihingi na weight, bust size, hip size etc. eh anung kinalaman ng vital statistics ng isang babae sa kakayahan nya sa ICT aber? if you're going to answer none, then they shouldn't have included it in the form in the first place. if you're answering yes, then they better change the theme and the title as welll.

^^
already canvassed. we've moved on to major things (hopefully to evolution and sexual selection). deception now seems a minor issue.