Thread: For The First Time, A Transgender Woman Will Compete For Miss Universe

For The First Time, A Transgender Woman Will Compete For Miss Universe

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images

ByEMILY ZANOTTI

July 3, 2018 99.9k views

Transgender woman Angela Ponce has snagged the Miss Spain crown, making her eligible to become the first transgender woman to compete in the Miss Universe pageant.

Ponce won the Miss Spain title over the weekend, the Advocate reports, and plans to attend the upcoming Miss Universe pageant, making her "the first transgender woman to compete on behalf of any country."

Strangely enough, Ponce has now-President Donald Trump to thank for the opportunity. In 2012, when Trump still claimed ownership over the Miss Universe pageant, a Canadian transgender woman named Jenna Talackova petitioned, with the help of GLAAD, to compete to win Miss Canada.

She was barred, but after threat of litigation — and a petition signed by thousands — Trump relented, and opened the Miss Universe pageant to women-identifying competitors, not just those who are biologically female. Unlike Miss America, which claims to be a "scholarship program," Miss Universe is primarily a beauty contest, so looks are the only thing that really matter.

Talackova went on to win Miss Congeniality Canada, but not the national title.

“Bringing the name and colors of Spain before the universe is my great dream,” Ponce wrote on Instagram. “My goal is to be a spokesperson for a message of inclusion, respect and diversity not only for the LGBTQ+ community, but also for the entire world.”
"Let's make history," Ponce added on Twitter.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/32599...-emily-zanotti

Miss America Ends Swimsuit Competition, Aiming to Evolve in ‘This Cultural Revolution’

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Contestants during the swimsuit part of the 2018 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.CreditDonald Kravitz/Getty Images for Dick Clark Productions

By Matthew Haag and Cara Buckley

• June 5, 2018

For the first time in nearly a century, Miss America contestants will not strut onstage in swimsuits this year, the organizers announced on Tuesday, as the pageant tries to redefine its role in an era of female empowerment and gender equality.
Miss America and swimsuits have been synonymous since its first contest in 1921 on the Atlantic City boardwalk. But what started as contestants wearing one-piece bathing suits, conservative by today’s standards, became women in revealing bikinis and high heels parading around for a leering television audience.

Now under mostly female leadership, the Miss America Organization said Tuesday that it was scrapping the swimsuit competition, starting at the national contest in September, in a sweeping change that will also reshape local and state contests.
“I’ve talked to tons of young people who’ve said to me, ‘I’d love to be a part of that program, but I don’t want to parade around in a swimsuit,’” Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who is now the organization’s chairwoman, said in an interview. “I get it.”

[Fifty years ago, feminists protested the Miss America pageant by throwing “instruments of female torture” into a trash can.]
The organization, confronting its own harassment scandal and searching for its place in the #MeToo era, had worked on the new format for several months. The nine members of the board of directors — seven are now women — unanimously approved the change in March. It was kept a secret until two days ago, when state directors and former Miss Americas were informed.

Ms. Carlson, who assumed a prominent voice for women’s rights in the workplace after filing a harassment lawsuit in 2016 against the former Fox chairman Roger Ailes, said the competition would focus more on the contestants’ talents, intelligence and ideas.

“We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance,” Ms. Carlson, who was Miss America in 1989, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. “We are moving it forward and evolving it in this cultural revolution.”

Cara Mund
✔@MissAmerica


We’re changing out of our swimsuits and into a whole new era #byebyebikini #MissAmerica2019
7:51 AM - Jun 5, 2018

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The changes will be immediate for Miss America, but will take longer to arrive at local and state events, Ms. Carlson confirmed. Since state contests are currently underway, they will not adopt the new format until after the national competition in September.
The Miss America Organization has undergone a rapid change in the past six months. Ms. Carlson was named chairwoman in January, and several women were appointed to the organization’s highest ranks.

Those changes came after emails surfaced in December showing that Sam Haskell, the former chief executive, had made disrespectful and misogynistic comments about former pageant winners. Miss America is also confronting dwindling viewership as people turn away from live televised events.

Earlier this year, the Miss America Organization brought in the advertising agency Young & Rubicam to help with its branding. Y&R conducted interviews with several past pageant winners, state volunteers, board members, and other stakeholders. The message from Y&R was clear: Miss America needed to modernize to relate to younger women today. Their recommendations included focusing on the career achievements of past winners, and suggested that the swimsuit competition could distract from that message.

“This will be more inclusive,” said Jennifer Vaden-Barth, a Miss America board member, who was also Miss North Carolina 1991. “It’ll allow us to put the ownership of a woman’s presence and beauty in her hands.” Miss America started as a beachside beauty pageant in 1921 in an effort by Atlantic City to extend the summer vacation season. At the first competition, the top finisher was crowned Miss America and a runner-up received the swimsuit trophy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/b...-swimsuit.html

I guess the canceling of the bathing suit contest was a good thing. It wouldn't do for one of the contestants to have a noticeable bulge in his, excuse me, her private region.

I can remember, as a younger man, switching back and forth between two channels in the hopes of catching the bathing suit competition!