A story about mister swiss has appeared every single day for the past month in the swiss papers (and by swiss papers I mean 20min and Blick).

Several points are quite interesting:

- the swiss are (to my knowledge) the only people on earth to actually be interested in a Mister election

- The mister election seems more popular in the german speaking part (which leads me to believe more swiss germans are gay than swiss french or swiss italians?)

- swiss taste in men seems exclusively focused on the mediterranean type

- Most of these "typical" swiss men not only don't look swiss, but usually aren't swiss to begin with (the so called secundos) which I find ironic

Generally speaking, I wonder if there is a link between promoting swiss male beauty and the fact that it is more popular in german part. As you know, the german part leans very much toward the right (with SVP being very popular). Seeking the "perfect" swiss man obviously caters to national pride. But it may go further than that. I don't want to link it directly to nazism, but the idea seems to go in a similar direction ("the perfect male (*cough*race*cough*)"). Isn't it strange that the only place in the world where Mister elections are popular just happens to be SVP-Land?

yes it's bizarre (yes even miss universe)...who watches that crap anyway?
It's all so hypocritical...just show the bodies for 1 minute because they are judged on that and skip the embarrassing "personality" thingy which nobody cares about anyway...

Where would that leave the sponsors?

A) It is not just only SVP-land but also FDP-land and GLP-land (LDU-land) and CVP-land and even SPS-land !
B) Those secondos not only look "Swiss" but only are excellent in their command of German and have at least TWO pocket knifes with them and have done their go.... duty in military service ....... so what

are swiss guys more metro than other nationalities?

from a swissinfo article

The television people don’t seem to be really happy with the ratings. In fact it was a record low with a market share of 26.3%. French language TSR did not cover this year’s show. Italian language TSI decided to not contribute to the production, to not host the show in Ticino anymore. The swiss germans will decide in a few weeks time if the 2012 show will be covered, but they are saying “market shares are not the only decisive factor..some facts for your thesis

now it would be interesting to know how it is in other countries and compare, if it would be interesting...media event
Yes ironic, as much as you saying secondos are not swiss to begin with. Or are you speaking in svp-tongues here?
upps..

why is there not more collaboration between the three stations anyway, or exchange between the languages, people, faces..sorry off topic,carry on

Seems very Suise ultimately, IMO...On the one hand, in the US, we objectify women in many facets of society and not merely by beauty competitions alone...Can you imagine a 'Mr. USA' competition getting much recognition?...Very unlikely

For me, in the end, this is a reflection of a more balanced society...Of course, neither gender's competitions hold any interest for me

I've always been somewhat amused by the the fascination with both Miss and Mr. Swiss competitions. The run-up, the competition itself and the winners get far more press-coverage and exposure than in any other country I can think of (Miss GB was an exception last year, as she was also a serving soldier, which was deemed newsworthy).
I wonder if it is the lack of many "real" Swiss celebs? You can hardly miss a day without the mention of at least one of the previous half-dozen Misses Swiss in the papers; just today, there was a whole article in 20mins on Christa Rigozzi making her "breakthrough" in Germany.

[QUOTE=PaddyG;1160226]...I wonder if it is the lack of many "real" Swiss celebs?

- Yes, probably. As a "local" myself I can think of a real empathy of the Swiss for their mister/miss Schweiz: in this small country, they are perceived as "the guy/girl next door" many of us know them. Indeed: a former Miss was one my brother's students. That could be a reason to explain the popularity of the show.

I'm not saying that secondos aren't real swiss. However, I'm quite certain that most of the people who like mister swiss would not consider these people to be real swiss under different circonstances (See also this thread)

[QUOTE=jj



why is there not more collaboration between the three stations anyway, or exchange between the languages, people, faces..sorry off topic,carry on[/QUOTE]

For many years, the RTSR had their news facility in Zurich, just beside their colleages. Co-operation was limited. But still, the three stations share interviews and resources

sorry I misunderstood your post, fair enough.

Well I've only ever heard teenage girls talk in the trains about "the elections", not sure if they (can) vote svp. Until now (why) I've never had a single discussion with anyone about this. Maybe for some there is an element of self-adulation ("see we are beautiful we swiss we"), but I can't see many viewers being people who feel proud about their swissness and getting all swissed up with their flags in front of the TV.

Why are you quite certain?
Maybe it's the other two thirds/half of citizens who watch the show celebrating Switzerland with its secondos, farmers, workers, bankers, students...ok probably not. Maybe this thing (as other ehm things) should be accessible for residents of this country and not just citizens. And maybe not all SVPler have this narrow mindset you seem to suggest. I find it difficult to follow your reasoning, looking at the market share, % of SVP voters, the fact that many SVP voters are not morons.. Of course if you pretend to know what the viewer motivates I see how you can make it work. I'm not sure if it is the best event to analyse the national psyche.

Shouldn't there be some kind of "love match" for the winners of the Miss and Mister competitions?

Viewers could call in with position changes and unique camera angles and maybe then the runner up in the Miss event could join in, ah, whatever... another slow day in the assassination trade.

And then who gets the rights to the "Love Baby" TV rights and will they be allowed to endorse any kind of diapers in the making of DVD?

That's not so far off, by the looks of it. In yesterday's 20 mins there was (yet) another article on the new Mr. and how his gf happens to be a model and is hot as hell and the Miss organiers want her to enter etc etc

We even have a Swiss Miss competition in a nearby village this weekend. Huge tents have been erected and the local radio station will be doing a live show.

Competition will be for:
- Miss Champion
- Miss Beautiful Utter

http://www.bvsz.ch/eliteschau/Haupt_programm.htm

Finbarr Saunders lässt Grüssen.....

is not being a "real" swiss a bad thing?

While it is obvious that the mister SWITZERLAND elections are popular here, I find your correlation a bit far fetched. I do not think that it is the SVP Stammtisch sitting in their pub watching the elections and vote for the one they consider the best Übermensch.

The Swiss simply love casting shows of all kinds and voting for the most absurd things has a long tradition here. They also love the Eurovision song contest more than most other nations. Plus: They do not really have any entertainment industry - most music, movies and even TV programmes are imported. So you naturally have a shortage of "celebrities". The people and the media therefore have the need to create "Swiss stars" to keep the 20 minutes entertainment page full...

I just knew that we were a bunch of masochists...

Udderly Rindiculous!!!