Men strut their stuff at womanless pageant

Freshman Associates held its second annual Womanless Beauty Pageant Thursday, collecting nearly $200 in fundraising for the Freshman Finale event. Scores of students attended the fundraiser to see 11 Southern Miss students, all males, compete in the pageant, which featured an evening wear competition, talent show and on-stage interviews. 

Awards were distributed for Best Formalwear, Miss Congeniality and Crowd Favorite, but the winner of the pageant was named King of the Crown. Associate Dean of Students Wynde Fitts, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Joe Paul and Miss USM Hannah Roberts were among the judges. 

“We, as judges, looked at who really brought the ‘different’ to the stage,” Fitts jokingly said after the pageant. “Obviously, the winner did bring a whole lot of that into this competition.” 

Freshman Hunter Freeman, who was representing Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, was given the title King of the Crown. Because the contestants created fake identities for the event, his name that evening was Ineeta Booty, a lingerie sales and hair styling double major here at Southern Miss. 

“I’m really proud, and I love my Southern Miss,” Freeman said, speaking on Ineeta’s behalf. 

The laughter began at 7:15 p.m., when MC Alden Bennett began introducing the contestants. Among those in the competition were Barb E. Dahl, Polly Pocket, Matti Lee, Anita Mann and a few more. In the talent portion of the pageant, talents from dancing to vacuuming were displayed. Iona Anchor, a major in “nuclear basket weaving with an emphasis in aquatic botany” representing Delta Gamma sorority, demonstrated her skills on a drum set. Her charisma and drum-playing won her the Crowd Favorite award. 

In all, the Womanless Beauty Pageant was a great success, according to Allen J. Moore, a sophomore FA advisor and music education major. 

“When we saw that the FA students coming in this year wanted to keep the tradition (of WBP) alive. I had no doubt in my mind that they would do excellent jobs handling everything,” Moore said. “We had returners from last year. The sound and set-up was better. The talent was better. It just goes to show that hard work pays off.”

The 2013 King of the Crown, Freeman, said he competed solely to help raise funds for FA. Speaking for himself and not Ineeta, he said, “I did this because it goes to benefit Freshman Finale, and that’s a big deal so I’m just trying to help out.”

The winners of Best Formalwear and Miss Congeniality were Tianna McAndrews-Pierce and Nicole Bohte, respectively.