Pageantry VS. Modeling

Pageantry Vs. Modeling

Over the past fifty years, pageantry has been mainstream in Bahamian society. It has been used as an avenue for careers in fashion, scholarship opportunities, and exposure to the world. Bahamians were blind to the fashion world and could only relate fashion to pageantry. There was very little interest and knowledge in modeling, runway, couture and the likes within the Bahamas. Due to the introductory of social media and digital photography editing, modeling and fashion have become popular within the Bahamas today.

The introductory of social media and also digital photography editing are two main areas that have transformed Bahamian society. When digital photography editing was introduced to the public, photographers used social media such as Facebook to showcase their work, which then became a popular trend and sparked interest for Bahamians to begin modeling. As a result, the trends of digital editing and models have increased tremendously over the past five years. Businesses have now adopted this trend and are using models, modeling competition, and modeling events to promote their business. For example, The Bahamas Telecommunications Company began an internship program called “Divas and Dudes” for male and female models, giving them the opportunity to be spokes-models for the company. The Divas and Dudes are used to host majority of the company’s events, for commercial ads, print ads, or any form of promotion for the company. In previous times B.T.C used pageants as a major tool for promotion. Therefore, the competitiveness of pageantry and modeling can therefore be seen.

Although this trend of modeling seems to be sweeping the country, will it turn into a fad and fade out or will it replace pageantry in mainstream society? Pageantry continues to be an avenue for Bahamians seeking opportunities. However, with the modernization of society and popular trend of modeling pageantry could begin to phase out.