Picket-line demo gets under skin of student beauty contestants

THE contest was condemned as misogynistic and degrading - not to mention thoroughly old-fashioned - but that did not stop students from King's College flocking to last night's final heat of the Miss University London.

Contestants and their supporters had to walk past a picket line of placard-waving protesters at the Crystal Club, Marylebone, where the heat was being held. While demonstrators outside waved banners with slogans such as "Every woman at King's is a queen" and "Our bodies are not for sale," inside the club, the contestants donned glamorous gowns and applied their make-up generously before parading in front of the judges.

Hundreds of female students from the University of London have applied to take part in the competition, which is organised by the events company, 121 Entertainment.

Students can enter online, although some scouts from the organisers have trawled campuses inviting others to sign up.

The competition has divided students, with contestants arguing that it is just a bit of glamorous fun while the National Union of Students say it distorts the aim of being judged on academic abilities, rather than looks.

121 Entertainment say women find it "empowering" and that the protests come from a minority of feminists. Similar demonstrations have greeted the earlier heats, for the London School of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, Queen Mary College and Regents College, which have been held at West End clubs over the past few weeks.

Protesters have created an anti-beauty competition page on Facebook, entitled Miss-Ogynist University of London and passed angry motions at student unions.

Winners of the heats go to the final in February, where they will be joined by applicants from other colleges which have not held individual heats.

The competition, now in its second year, is sponsored by drink and cosmetic companies, but also by Cancer Research. Keelin Gavaghan, 19, an accountancy student who was named Miss LSE, is reported as saying: "It was so much fun. It was more about having a great time and raising money for breast cancer. I fail to see what is wrong with feeling glamorous for one night. We hardly sold our souls."