…and other nontraditional beauty pageants around the world.
Pageant: Miss Klingon Empire
Details: Held at the annual Dragon*Con science-fiction convention, this contest features women competing in costume as ridge-browed, long-haired members of the warrior alien race from Star Trek. Talent is also a factor—the 2009 winner sang Blondie’s “One Way or Another” while thrusting a sword at an imaginary foe.
Pageant: Miss Atom
Details: Sponsored by the Russian nuclear power industry as a public-relations campaign to make nuclear power look more attractive, this annual pageant recognizes the most beautiful woman of the year…who also works in a Russian nuclear power plant. The 2009 winner, Yekaterina Bulgakova of the Institute of Research for Atomic Reactors, won an all-expenses-paid trip to Cuba.
Pageant: Miss Landmine Angola
Details: During Angola’s decades-long civil war, millions of land mines were planted around the countryside, and thousands of innocent people have lost limbs by stepping on them. This pageant was created by an artist to bring attention to the plight of land-mine amputees—who are also the contestants—and to teach them to feel good about themselves despite their physical imperfections. Nevertheless, first prize is a prosthetic limb.
Pageant: Miss Navajo Nation
Details: This pageant’s concept isn’t that unusual, but the talent portion is something you won’t see on the Miss America broadcast. In proving their “Tribal Skills,” each contestant has to butcher a sheep. Scoring is based on cleanliness and efficiency.
Pageant: Miss Plastic Hungary
Details: In 2009 Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean, dealt with allegations that the Miss USA organization paid for her to get breast implants. But in the Miss Plastic Hungary pageant, contestants are required to have had some sort of feature-enhancing cosmetic surgery—mere Botox injections aren’t enough. Bonus: The winner’s plastic surgeon also gets an award.
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Pageant: Miss International Queen
Details: Don’t let the name fool you—this isn’t for natural-born women; it’s for transvestites and transsexuals. Held each year in Thailand (where there is a large population of both, though contestants fly in from all over the world), it offers a top prize of $10,000.
Pageant: Ms. Senior Sweetheart
Details: Beauty pageants aren’t just for young women; this one is for ladies age 58 and over. Segments include an interview, a talent portion, and an evening gown competition. It began in 1978 as a fundraiser for a Lions Club in Fall River, Massachusetts, but was so popular that it became a national competition just a year later.
Pageant: Ms. Downhome
Details: A tongue-in-cheek competition for Canadian women, this pageant judges contestants on their “Canadian” skills. Events include baiting a hook, and dancing to fiddle music while holding an open bottle of beer in each hand. There’s also a swimsuit segment, in which each competitor has to carry a fish while wearing a bikini.
Pageant: Zombie Beauty Contest
Details: Female attendees of Comicon, a Phoenix pop-culture convention, dress up in zombie costumes and ghoulish makeup—and ball gowns—to compete for the title. Clever costumes score high points, so contestants are judged on beauty as well as braaaaaaaaaains.
Pageant: Miss Drumsticks
Details: Held since the 1940s as part of the Turkey Trot Festival in Yellville, Arkansas, this pageant judges women solely on their legs. To make the judging more impartial, most contestants wear turkey masks over their faces.
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