A Point of View: Age, beauty and Miss World

As the Miss World contest turns 60, writer and academic Mary Beard takes a peek at the competition and ponders why - unlike her teenage days as a radical feminist - the whole occasion doesn't fill her with fury.

Miss World 2011 was crowned last week at Earls Court - Miss Venezuela, a 22-year-old graduate in human resources, took the title. She was closely followed by Miss Philippines who majored in marketing, and Miss Puerto Rico who wants to go on to a PhD in comparative literature.

A hundred or so feminist demonstrators turned up, outside the venue, to object to what they saw as a degrading human cattle market.   More