Elderly Beauty Pageant Will Make You Happy
Generally, when we think of beauty pageants we think of young women looking to win a tiara.
For one town in Brazil, they have altered the way their locals look at those competitions. Every year, San Paulo holds a contest for the most handsome elderly man.
This year, a 76-year-old construction worker won the highest title. The 2017 title holder, Jose dos Santos Neves, won the pageant this past Thursday. He told the AFP that “participating and winning this little trophy means a lot to me mainly because when you’re as old as I am, it’s an achievement.” No, we’re not crying — It just suddenly started raining inside.
The town of San Paulo holds the competition each year in order to raise the spirits of the elderly community. According to the Huffington Post, the state health department hopes the competition will “promote self-esteem among older people.”
Brazil beauty pageant crowns handsomest elderly man in Sao Paolo #SaoPaolo pic.twitter.com/cXepQehqRL
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 11, 2017
Health director, Nilton da Silva Guedes stated that “We’ve been doing this competition for 14 years, and one of its purposes is to promote self-esteem among the elderly, healthy aging, to draw the elderly from inside the house where they’re doing nothing, to come here and do some exercise, dance, even participate in a beauty pageant, to show a different side of beauty.”
Each year, the pageant becomes more popular. All the men that were in the competition this year were between the ages of 62 and 96.
DaSilva continued that, “The elderly have to carry on, appreciate themselves, improve their health, do a lot of exercises, look after their health, so they can enjoy the good days at our age because the abyss isn’t very far away now.”
Yes, this ending statement may sound a bit morbid, but it is wonderful to know that Brazil is taking care of their elders.
Sarah is a Hufflepuff living in NYC. When she is not traveling or talking to random animals, she is working as a script writer. Tweet her at @lumpyspacederp.
