Feminists were out in force protesting as the Miss World final 2011 took place on Sunday night, pledging support to a 40-year-old campaign against the beauty pageant.
As 21-year-old Venezuelan Ivian Sarcos was pronounced Miss World 2011, women from feminist groups Object, UK Feminista and The London Feminist Network were among the 100 strong throng protesting outside the event in Earls Court.
This year's raven-haired winner wants to work with children, having already set up her own charitable foundation. Raised by nuns, she originally planned to take holy orders herself. Now her future has taken a different twist.
At the moment Sarcos works for a broadcasting company, having graduated in diplomacy: a quarter of the contestants were graduates. Competition was stiff and standards were high: of the 122 contestants, many spoke over three languages.
After many tears, triumphant Sarcos donned her prize-winning tiara. Having won, she will spend the next year working with a range of charities set up by Miss World's Beauty With A Purpose programme.
Educated, proactive and charitable, pageant supporters point to the achievements of their contestants support their view that Miss World is not just about beauty.
Miss England 2008, Laura Coleman spoke up for the pageant saying:
"Appreciating beauty should not cause anger. Women enter beauty pageants at their own will, they are not forced into it. I don't understand why feminists think it is degrading, as pageants are actually empowering women. Ask any of the contestants."
Talking to the Daily Telegraph, other contestants supported her. Miss Singapore told John O' Ceallaigh:
Similarly Miss Paraguay added: "Miss World is about inner beauty and outer beauty, so it is the complement and balance between what you have inside and outside."
In questions and answers on their website, feminist group Object debunked the arguments for and against Miss World 2011 .
"The idea that it is okay to judge women on the basis of their appearance and that there is one objective beauty that women can be measured against, influences the way that all of us feel about ourselves as women," the group wrote.
"Beauty pageants treat women as if we were objects that can be compared and judged. This dehumanises women and leads to the idea that it is acceptable to view women as a sum of body parts, not real people."
"The first part of any oppression is to dehumanise the group that is oppressed. The more it becomes acceptable to view women as a sum of body parts, the easier it becomes to disrespect, to mistreat and even act out violence towards women as a group."
The London Feminist Network eminist reclaimed slogans from the past which proclaimed "We're not beautiful, we're not ugly, we're angry"
Organisers claimed that one billion people worldwide tuned in to watch the show. Miss England director Angie Beasley said:
"The contestants in Miss World are quite capable of making up their own minds if they want to enter or not and protesters shouldn't keep criticising the same decision. If you don't like it, don't watch it."