Bermuda. But then Bermuda really is Another World.

In many places the Miss Bermuda Islands beauty contest could have been relied on to provide protest from women opposed to the degradation of other women by beauty contests. That did not happen in Bermuda. What did happen was that four black judges and one white judge were accused of being racist for picking a white Miss Bermuda Islands. Sadly, the accusations aimed at the judges seem to indicate an attitude which leads to shouting race about anything in Bermuda someone does not happen to like or agree with. As the eminently sensible Senator Pamela Gordon said, "I was called a racist. There were four black judges and one white, and we were called racists because we chose a white girl. That is so sad.'' "We have to rise above this colour thing.'' It was our distinct opinion this year that Mr. Terry Smith was doing a superior job organising this pageant. He greatly increased the number of contestants in a pageant where the quantity and the quality of the contestants had both declined. He increased the prizes for the contestants until they became meaningful. Mr. Smith also worked hard at getting together a fair amount of publicity for the contest and the contestants, aiming to improve the image of the contest.

Yet things do not appear to have gone too well at the Southampton Princess on Sunday night. The show was late starting and dragged on for some five hours.

However this is not the first beauty contest to run into the morning nor is it the first to be poorly presented if you remember the embarrassing shambles of Miss Bermuda on ZBM TV this year.

Problems seem to go hand-in-hand with beauty contests. Remember when the winner of Miss Bermuda was too old according to the rules to accept the crown she was awarded? Remember the row the year the vote appeared to have been changed at the last moment to make the leading contestant come second? Remember the contestant who came home and said Miss World was fixed? Remember the law suits resulting from the contest? We also, of course, have to remember the pride Bermuda felt and expressed when Gina Swainson was first runner-up in Miss Universe and the winner of Miss World.

But, on balance, it hardly seems worth all the rumpus and, we think, these contests really are unworthy of today's Bermuda women. We think these contests should be allowed to go quietly away. We think they really are a curiosity of the past when women were objects to be rewarded for the attractiveness of their flesh. We think these contests are degrading to Bermuda's women because no-one really believes the fiction that the winners are chosen for brains and talent. In the end it's the shape that wins and that's really wrong for today's world and today's woman.