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“Power consists to a large extent in deciding what stories will be told.”― Carolyn G. Heilbrun (1988)A beauty contest for women with missing limbs because of an accidental step on a landmine might ...

In this article I consider the ‘Judgment of Paris’ story that decorates the leaf of a fan made in the late seventeenth century. I review the popularity of this legend in seventeenth-century painting, music, and literature and explore how the concept of female beauty in competition was reflected in the practice of female portraiture in the period, particularly in the collections known as ‘beauties series’. I examine how some women (Elisabeth Charlotte d’Orleans, Sophia of Hanover, Marie Mancini Colonna and Hortense Mancini Mazarin) both resisted and participated in these early modern beauty contests, in their written commentary and in their activities as subjects and patrons of art.

In one of the most famous passages of the economic literature, John Maynard Keynes likens the stock market to a beauty contest (BC), in which the winners are those who anticipate the average opinion. In behavioural economics there have recently been attempts at investigating the BC experimentally. We argue that there exist important differences between Keynes' and behavioural economics' BCs. We identify several types of BCs and propose a taxonomy. We also suggest that, in spite of these differences, Keynes' theory of decision under uncertainty is central to understanding the actual behaviour observed in experimental BCs.

Keynes drew upon psychology in developing his economic theories, and researchers in behavioral finance have integrated psychology into the study of how investors make financial decisions. Another group of researchers, experimental economists, tested some remarks of Keynes on the psychology of economic actors in specifically designed experiments. Some research in these fields, however, has been misguided because of an inadequate understanding of Keynes's original insights. Researchers in these fields can benefit from comments by Post Keynesian economists. At the same time, they have a lot to offer Post Keynesians in developing a Post Keynesian theory of finance.

The aim of this investigation is to show how the use of classroom experiments may be a good pedagogical tool to teach the Nash equilibrium (NE) concept. For our purposes, the basic game is a repeated version of the Beauty Contest Game (BCG), a simple guessing game in which repetition lets students react to other players' choices and converge iteratively to the equilibrium solution. We perform this experiment with undergraduate students with no previous training in game theory. After four rounds, we observe a clear decreasing tendency in the average submitted number in all groups. Thus, our findings prove that by playing a repeated BCG, students quickly learn how to reach the NE solution.

In this paper I look at three HIV/AIDS projects which were run by and for gay men, transsexuals and men who have sex with men (MSM) in northern Thailand in the early 1990s. These three projects were very different in format and in context, ranging from a rural village AIDS association to an urban drag beauty contest. The projects were located in settings as different as gay bars and cruising areas, shopping malls and rural villages. Aspects of the three Thai projects have important implications for those working in HIV/AIDS prevention and in the care and support of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) across cultures, particularly in relation to education, outreach and counselling programs.

If interested, join the line-up or go for a gander, all quite casually. The beauty contests that have found their place in our urbanite culture and in the popular culture of the general public are not so very ponderous and wearisome.