We met the current Miss Jamaica (“Joan McDonald, twenty-three years old, dance instructor at Wolmer’s Girls’ School, in Kingston; ardent supporter of dance and the cultural arts; has an interest in foreign languages; has two brothers and two sisters”) at a cocktail party the other day. Miss Jamaica, like most beauty queens, seemed vivid and buoyant. Her nails were very long, and they were painted with a red lustre polish. She wore a beige shirtwaist dress with buttons down the front, but the dress was buttoned only to halfway down the skirt. She wore brown shoes with very high heels. When Miss Jamaica laughed—and she laughed a lot—she bent over and snapped her fingers. Also, when Miss Jamaica laughed we saw that she had big, white, almost perfect teeth.
At the cocktail party with Miss Jamaica and her guests were newsmen carrying small Japanese cassette recorders with huge microphones. They asked Miss Jamaica questions
about the political aspects of being Miss Jamaica. This annoyed Miss Jamaica slightly, and she made some little sounds (sucking air in through the mouth with teeth clenched).
Miss Jamaica asked her chaperon for a cigarette. Then she said, “I was chosen from a field of twenty contestants in Kingston. I won the best-personality and best-photogenic categories. I am a member of the Jamaica School of Dance. I am a lover of the cultural and performing arts. When I was a child, I was very athtetic—more athletic than anything else. I was pushed into—nicely pushed into—this contest. I was in my dance class one evening when one of the coordinators begged me, actually begged me, to enter the contest. I decided I had nothing to lose by entering. Right? Aha. As a matter of fact, I do think that anyone who feels she has the potential to be a beauty queen should try—without being pushed, like me. Not that I didn’t have any confidence, but I didn’t see myself as being a beauty queen.”
“What is your favorite color, Miss Jamaica?”
“Color? I don’t have a favorite color as such, but I do find that pastels look very good on me.”
“What foods do you like to eat?”
“I like to eat a little bit of everything. As you can see, I don’t have to watch my weight. I eat everything in the book.”
“What are some of the places that being Miss Jamaica has taken you?”
“I have been to Germany. I was in the Miss World contest. I didn’t place, but I understand I was very well liked. In London, I danced in bare feet just outside the House of Commons.
This is my first visit here. New York is too crowded and fast-moving. Today, I had lunch at the World Trade Center. I got to see a view of Manhattan. I didn’t like it. It’s too ugly. Where are the mountains?”
—July 2, 1979