Lured by the halo of beauty queen prospects, not just a few young women have been disillusioned and frustrated after their crowning moments. One of the latest examples is a beauty queen's petition to have her 2011 crown taken back.  As beauty pageants of various scales have proliferated in recent years, more girls have jostled relentlessly with other contestants to win the much-coveted crown and turn their dreams of fame and riches into reality.

Though a number of girls have been catapulted to fame and enjoyed success after winning, others have succumbed to intolerable pressure from burdensome activities and pageant organizers’ stringent regulations which come with earning the titles. 

In April 2013, Trieu Thi Ha, crowned Miss Ethnic Vietnam in 2011, wrote a petition to have her title revoked after a long time tolerating overwhelming pressure and unfairness.

This has added to the hassles recently faced by beauty queens.

Beauty queens shed tears

As both written and unwritten rules, regardless of how much money they win from the titles, crown earners are supposed to join a host of charity activities within a certain contracted duration, usually one or two years following the crowning.

The charity activities will consume much of their time and most of their prize.

Regarding Trieu Thi Ha’s case, 22-year-old Ha, of Nung ethnic minority in northern Vietnam’s Cao Bang Province, told a local newspaper that she won VND100 million  (US$4,733) from the 2011 Miss Ethnic Vietnam title.

She paid 10 percent of the sum on income tax, 30 percent on charity activities, and spent 54 million on costumes donned during the pageant.

According to the agreement signed on the December 2011 pageant finale between Ha and Ciat, the pageant organizer, Ha would have to join charity, advertisement and exchange activities as requested for two years from her coronation.

She would also be under the company’s strict control regarding answering press interviews, photo shoots, and taking up ads and fashion shows during that time.

Just like the pageant’s runners-up, the beauty queen, only 19 years old back in 2011, also had to stay discreet about her love life and was forbidden from getting married and giving birth during these two years.

If Ha failed to comply with the terms, she would pay a compensation of VND2 billion ($94,700), and have her title taken away and sustain penalties, which is an expensive price to pay compared to her VND100 million cash prize.

During the May 22 meeting between Ha and Nguyen Dang Chuong, head of the Performing Arts Department, which received her petition of having her title taken away only a few days earlier, she lamented that she was not allowed to act in commercials or pose in photo shoots.

In addition, Ciat, the organizer, failed to keep their commitment of promoting Ha’s image, as Ha was kept in the dark about promotion plans and limited activities were held in reality.

Ha claimed that in April 2013, she asked the organizer to take a few days off. The organizer mandated that unless she continued, she would file a petition to give up her title against her will.

She shared that she then had no choice but to file such a petition.

During the May 22 press meeting, Doan Thi Kim Hong, First Mrs World, head of the Miss Ethnic Vietnam pageant, said that Ha did not fulfill her obligations as the 2011 queen.

Hong also denied intimidating Ha into filing the petition, explaining that though she recently submitted Ha’s petition to concerned agencies, she did notify authorities of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Performing Arts Department of Ha’s violations.

She added that Ha’s petition is pending concerned agencies’ opinions.

Similarly, Pham Thanh Tam, who won the Miss Tourism subtitle at the 2013 Miss Ethnic Vietnam, also returned her title due to “the organizer’s lack of respect towards contestants,” as she explained.

Tam, who was working at Can Tho Firefighting Police Department then, took a week off her activities with Ciat.

Ciat’s representatives then came to Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta to notify Tam’s employers of her “violations” and demanded that she return to Ho Chi Minh City to solve them.

Tam refused to do as requested and then decided to return the title.

In March 2014, the culture ministry imposed a nationwide performance ban on beauty queen Diem Huong, winner of Miss Vietnam World 2010.

The 24-year-old Huong was married when she competed at Miss Vietnam World 2010 - a pageant gathering women of Vietnamese origin from around the world - and Miss Universe 2012, where she represented Vietnam.

The pageants both require contestants to be single.

Some days later, the ministry was requested to abolish its ban.

Dodging the ruling

In 2008, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ruled that no more than one national beauty pageant could be held every year.

However, beauty contests have mushroomed, taking advantage of loopholes in the rule by adopting ‘queen,’ ‘beauty,’ and ‘belle’ instead of ‘Miss’ in the titles.

Examples are Miss Auto, Queen Vietnam Beach (whose final was cancelled at the last minute late last year due to sloppy organization), Miss Shining Beauty, and Vietnam Jewelry Queen.

Provinces, businesses and even schools also hold countless beauty contests.

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