As my grandmother’s granddaughter, I must have entered about two hundred pageants over a course of seven years. That seems a bit high to me now that I consider it, but Grandma did enter me in a lot of pageants and talent competitions — and it may have been as many as two hundred. No one to my knowledge ever questioned whether or not I was really a girl. Of course many of the moms who entered their own daughters knew me as a five year old girl. My grandmother and myself were familiar face to our competitors and to the judges and organizers of these events.
More often than not there were with three or five judges and usually male. It was rare to see a woman sitting at the judges table. As my time to make my appearance of stage, my Grandmother would remind me to smile directly at each judge and make eye contact. She would then go on to stress that it could not be the same smile for each judge. Sometimes she would tell me which judge should get my biggest smile.
My Grandmother did not enter me into these competitions for show. The idea was to win. Did I win? I won some, earned a trophy in many, but for the most part. my grandmother came away disappointed too often. Each time this happened, the root cause was almost always the same in her eyes. I had not done all I could do to earn the votes of the male judges. On one occasion when I was older than I am here, she seemed particularly disappointed in my efforts. “Not sure I could have done anything more Grandma except maybe suck their dicks.”
She turned to face me and I was sure I was about to be scolded. However, instead she said, “Not a bad plan. We may have to consider that next time.” And then she laughed. Truth be told I suspect some of my wins were less my presentation during the competition and more about blowjobs she had given during intermissions.