I’m starting to write this post as the Top 20 is being announced. And I figure that as I’m writing this in the lab, I’ll probably be only halfway through when Miss Universe 2018 will be crowned.
I’m from Singapore. To the best of my knowledge, no Miss Singapore has ever been crowned Miss Universe, or even come close. To put it in plain terms, our country has probably never cared about it. Selections for these various international pageants are closed door events that nobody bothers to really keep up with. This is the environment I’ve lived in and grown accustomed to. Maybe because of that, I am guilty of stereotyping pageants into beauty contests, because that’s what our school pageants seem to imply. If you’re pretty, you become “Miss Popular” and by extension, school queen.
But as luck and fate would have it, I follow a crazy large number of Filipinos on Twitter because I somehow find myself attracted to their people (it was Lea Salonga first, then Alyssa Valdez now). And a couple of those Twitter accounts, I can now also proudly call my friends (Hi, ate Rafie, Cheng, and y’all know who you are, if y’all see this).
As far as I understand, Filipinos love their pageants like they do karaoke. The country’s absolutely crazy about them and they’ve produced great results – case in point, last Miss Universe they got was in 2015 with Miss Pia Wurtzbach. (Their bet this year, Miss Catriona Gray will be one of the top contenders, I CAN FEEL IT.)
And because of these lovely Filipinos I follow on Twitter, I found my timeline exploding this morning during the early goings of the pageant. Even days before, when there were all the introductions etc, my timeline was already getting flooded with the now-super-famous slo-mo walk of Miss Philippines. But today, it literally exploded. It’s that crazy.
So I thought, okay, why not join in the fun and listen to what some of these contestants have to say. And now, I think I can wholeheartedly agree that pageants have been grossly misrepresented in many communities (who like me, deemed them to be merely beauty contests). What I saw and heard, were extremely brave and articulate women, making powerful statements to advocate for their causes and what they believed in.
Miss Spain
Most of all, I felt goosebumps when I learnt about Miss Spain being a transgender woman, apparently a first on the Miss Universe stage. How brave is that? Knowing all the social stigma surrounding the LGBTQ community, even in this day and age when people are supposedly more liberal, to come out as a transgender woman and walk on an international stage where you know that you’ll be under intense scrutiny, it takes a heck load of guts and I really applaud her for that. In fact, very recently I saw comments on Facebook on a separate topic, where commenters were clearly being insensitive and refused to refer to a transgender woman as a “she”. To live in times like this, and to stand on the stage with so many pairs of eyes looking, I think Miss Spain really gave the LGBTQ community something to be proud of. That they are represented, and no matter how some factions of society try to pretend they are invisible, they are here to stay. And on a stage like Miss Universe, where it traditionally seemed like a platform only to judge women’s appearances, I felt like these contestants in recent years, have really used it to empower women and now, the marginalised, instead. It’s really thanks to my Filipino friends that I finally dump the stereotypes that I had about beauty pageants. Now, it’s about being beautifully confident, and not just beautiful.
Okay, my thoughts are in shambles right now because MISS PHILIPPINES HAS JUST BEEN CROWNED MISS UNIVERSE and my brain is in overdrive, I’m not really sure what I’m typing but I swear I’ll beta this later tonight.
Miss USA
But of course, where there are great moments, there are ugly ones. And the ugliest of all in this pageant, would probably be the sad remarks made by Miss USA about Miss Vietnam and Miss Cambodia. I won’t even comment about it, because people have already formed their own opinions, and there are many. I would just say that, I wish we were all more culturally sensitive, and I’m not just targeting this at Miss USA. Globalisation shouldn’t only be about the economy and trade, it should be about culture and diversity too. One thing though, the bad press likely killed all of Miss USA’s chances.
Miss Vietnam
On Twitter, I saw a lot of tweets that supported Miss Vietnam, and wondered why she wasn’t in the Top 3. As I’ve established earlier, I don’t follow this Missology series and I’ve no idea about Miss Vietnam, other than the abovementioned ugly episode by Miss USA. So, being typical me, I got curious, and started searching about her. And I’m mindblown. Facts I learnt:
1. She’s from a minority ethnic group
2. She doesn’t even speak Vietnamese well (so, of course, much less, English). But she still managed her opening spiel with English, that’s courage and confidence!
3. She doesn’t look the conventional pageant contestant (short-haired, tanned). They apparently white-washed her in her national costume photo, which I’m thoroughly unimpressed about (more on that next time, maybe).
4. She sought education for herself because she believed in its ability to solve poverty, instead of starting a family at 14 like others in her position would.
5. She donated all her winnings to give students scholarships.
6. She was apparently badly translated during her Q&A – tbh, it’s sad, but I don’t think we should be blaming the translator so much as well. It’s an extremely stressful position to be in.
All that said and done, Miss Vietnam is indeed a role model and should be one to many others.
The Q&A portion though, opened another can of worms that kinda triggered me a bit. Miss Vietnam was asked about the #MeToo movement. My first thought was, does Vietnam even talk about that? But somehow, Miss Vietnam knew about it and could form a good response to it. It still got me wondering. Yes, I know the Missology franchise is owned by the US but given that it’s an international pageant, should it focus on issues that are more global in nature? But it also served to further highlight the fact that there are many differences in the world, be it culture, politics, and even social issues. What is seen as important problems on one end of the globe, isn’t as significant on the other end, because of the priorities of the people in each country. That as people, it’s still extremely difficult to think in others’ shoes when we don’t live under the same circumstances. It makes us seem insensitive and even to a point, selfish. But as many a biologist would point out, humans were never even altruistic to begin with.
Miss Philippines
And of course, how can I not talk about her? It won’t be lengthy, because I think she’s already blowing up on the Internet and there’s nothing more I can say that’s better than what’s already out there, given my lack of eloquence.
Personally, I found her statement on children extremely powerful and inspiring, and I really related to it very well.
“I stand here today because someone believed in me and we owe it to our children to believe in them”
After all these years of volunteering and trying to find the area of service where my passion really lies, I’ve found myself in the youth sector. And I truly believe that the children are the future, and if I can just help one child at a time, I would be happy enough. On top of what Miss Universe has said, I also believe we owe it to our children to not let them pick up our slack. The mistakes of the previous generations should not be the undoing of the future. Therefore, even as I (most of the time) jokingly say that kids are brats, I lug myself each week to give just 3 hours of my time to them. And I pray that 3 hours can make a difference, no matter how small. Because I hope that in empowering them with education and with the thirst for knowledge, they secure for themselves the brighter futures they deserve.
Alright, congratulations Miss Catriona Gray, Miss Universe 2018.
Mabuhay Pilipinas!
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