Country people conduct more “beauty pageants” per capita than any other people in the world. This is, in part, because country people love to see other country people crowned as “beauty queens.” The main reasons for beauty pageants, however, are economic ones. Beauty pageants, and the subsequent work of beauty queens, occupy dozens of weekly newspaper pages read by country people that otherwise would have few articles to print. Each participant in a beauty pageant must also pay for a public thank-you in the local “shopper.” Winners of beauty pageants must follow-up periodically with shopper ads that say things like “Thank’s to all those who came out to support me at the fish fry last nite!!! It is a great honor to serve as your Ketchup Capital Queen.”
Several occasions require the coronation of a small town beauty queen. The most obvious occasion is the county fair. Non-fair livestock expositions also require a beauty pageant but oftentimes winners of these pageants are called “princesses” hence the “International Polled Hereford Princess” and the “Wisconsin Homemade Buttermilk Princess.” If a small town hosts an annual festival or celebration a unique beauty queen must preside over the festivities. Finally, if the community is a “capital of the world” then it will conduct a search for a queen to honor that designation. There are no rules prohibiting a single individual from holding several crowns at one time, but strict informal sanctions meet any young women who attempt to.
The duties of a beauty queen are numerous and include attendance at parades, festivals, fairs, fish fries and pancake breakfasts. Unlike city and national “scholarship competitions” all runners-up in a beauty pageant carry out the same duties as the queen.
