A Mister and Miss Gypsy competition has been launched in Spain - and claims it will be a 'helping hand' to young gypsies because it judges them on intelligence as well as just looks. The pageant, which is currently auditioning in the Spanish capital Madrid, includes elements of beauty contests but also judges contests on their education, interests and ambitions. According to organisers, the competition - particularly the female portion - is a response to the reduced opportunities which gypsies in Spain received, and hopes to persuade girls that there is more to life than marrying young and having babies.
Maria Jimenez of the Northern Flamenco Association is involved in organising the contest, which she hopes will encourages gypsy women to 'be a bit more independent'. She said: 'For a gypsy woman, the aim is always just to get married very young, at 14 or 15, and have children. I want the gypsy woman to study and become independent so she doesn't depend on her husband to give her €10 so she can eat.' Perched on high heels in tight, bright dresses, crowds of girls line up hoping to become Spain's first 'Miss Gypsy' in a new pageant aimed at empowering a neglected minority. The five judges of the competition will be non-gypsies, and are supposed to judge contestants on their minds and personality as much as their looks. Contestants will hope to make it to the final in October, before going on to win the crown. One hopeful, 17-year-old Libertad Barrull, said: 'I want to be a model. I love it.' Her mother Rosario said: 'It gives them a helping hand to become something in life, like our generation couldn't be'.
Another attendee added: 'People have started to realize now that you can't get married so soon because you're tying yourself down to being a housewife when you're still a child.' The unemployment rate for the 725,000-strong minority is painfully high, however: 36 percent in 2011, according to the rights group. That was way above Spain's already high national rate of 26 percent. Jesus Heredia, a contestant for the male element of the competition, said: 'I'm in it to show that we gypsies are people, just like the rest.'
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