By Neil Marks ?Despite the threat by the women’s empowerment movement to erode traditional views of women, the perfect picture of our Moms remains this: she cooks the food; cleans the house; and until she decides to hand us the soap power, she washes the clothes too. And then there is the fact that she is the most beautiful mother in the world and that no one cooks a better curry, and so on and so forth.Junior Category Winners Oneca Neblett and her daughter ArianaBut 22 years ago, Ingrid Fung and a team of enthusiastic young teachers decided it was time to give mothers a chance to “doll up” and have fun, and that too in front of a massive audience. The Mother and Daughter Pageant was born.The show was on this year again. Last Saturday evening, 22 mothers and their daughters graced the stage of the National Cultural Centre in a pageant that ignores stereotypes of shape and size, and, well, eyesight. It’s the only time you would see pageant contestants donning spectacles and be adored for it.The emphasis was on mother and daughter showcasing the bond they share; be it a warm embrace, a smile of approval or a gentle hand around the shoulder.However, a big part of the evening was dressing up. Mother and daughter were challenged to be creative, but to also display a fusion of style and colour.The pageant, as always, was broken down into three categories: Junior, Middle and Senior.The queens were crowned as the evening went on.First to be crowned were Oneca Neblett and her daughter Ariana. They beat out four other pairs for the junior title.Next, in the middle category, Latoya Carter and her daughter Nikia won over the other seven pairs of contestants.But it was the Senior Category of the pageant, when nine pairs of mothers and daughters stepped on stage that the evening really began.If the audience came for a solid evening of entertainment and pure charm, they got an overdose of it.Things started to get a bit clumsy when Paulette Bristol and her daughter Nadine emerged on stage. Paulette’s body-hugging dress was hugging her a bit too much,Cheap Jerseys For Sale, so much so that she seemed to be struggling to walk.Middle Category Winners Latayo Carter and her daughter Nikia“She seamstress too wicked,” one patron said in typical Guyanese creole tongue and style.We wanted to hear what MC Margaret Lawrence was saying about the outfit, but we could not hear her above the laughs and the horrible sound system.“Turn up the mic!” someone shouted from across the room. “And turn up the AC to!” another shouted. Both protests went unheeded. We could not hear Margaret, nor could we hear the background music for the modeling sequence.? We had to endure that and the heat.But Kim Gomes-Dainty and Shanai came on stage and we forgot all of that. The absolutely stunning Shanai and her equally gorgeous Mom warmed our hearts. With grace and charm, they were a picture of pure grace and elegance.They made way for Yvonne George and Latoya, sponsored by Supreme Snacks, who brought the house down. On the plus-size,Cheap Jerseys Supply, the two were not afraid to strut their stuff and had a fabulous time doing so.Of course, not all agreed that they were in the right pageant.“Eh, eh, like dem stap do the Bigger and Better pageant,” one patron wondered.But then it came time for the eventual winners of this category: Wendy Griffith and Melissa.Wendy, a seamstress for almost two decades, graced the stage in her spectacles and was not afraid to play the part and fascinate the crowd and the judges.“She modeling more than the daughter,” someone observed.A peppy character, Wendy, 55,Wholesale China Jerseys, grooved and posed, and did whatever else was needed to secure the crown.She was in fact lured into the pageant by her 20-year-old daughter, who is currently enrolled at the Teachers’ Training College.It would have been a perfect evening were the production team not so bent on creating the fantasy world of taking us back to pre-independent Guyana and events that simply do not exist. We speak about mothers and daughters attending the Governor’s Ball and someone going to the Accolade Music Awards.Senior Category Winners Wendy Griffith and Melissa.Then there was the Rock Party theme in the Middle Category; we expected to see mothers and daughters in some leather at least,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, but there was none. Instead, they were going to tea parties and so on.The modeling routines were also too long,NFL Jerseys China Online, prompting some in the audience to react negatively, as in, “Arite, nice. Come aff the stage now” and “oh gawd is weh dem going again?”Next time, it would be wise to keep out the long and extended descriptions of the outfits.? Just keep it short, le