“Miss”: Women, Culture and Venezuela’s Beauty Industry

Indeed, the beauty “phenomenon” in Venezuela is so big that just about every young girl at one point in her life dreams of being a “Miss”. Beauty pageants begin for girls as young as 5 and are celebrated events in grammar schools, poor shantytowns, wealthy resorts, rural farming communities and just about anywhere people get together. It is not uncommon for proud, wealthy fathers to buy their 15 year-old daughters breast implants as birthday presents and local banks provide loans for plastic surgery with the understanding that women will be more economically successful if they subject themselves to breast augmentation.

Our interest as filmmakers is to understand the driving forces behind this industry and the consequences of this beauty obsession. We intend to do this by following and observing the lives of young girls and women who actively participate in this world in order to understand their motivations, fears, and desires. The commodification of the female form will be compared with the high incidence of domestic violence that also plague the country coupled by the lack of attention and support given to women who have been victims of abuse. The case of Jennifer Viera, the 24 year old wife of boxing star Edwin Valero, will be central in the telling of this other side of Venezuela’s legendary beauty.

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– Edward Ellis and Flor Salcedo.