Since I
have been a teenager I have been interested in watching beauty contest like
Miss World and Miss Universe. This year (2013) I have spent some time on
checking the contestants of the different countries comparing them etc. In
general my opinion is that all the women joining these competitions are
beautiful since all young healthy slim women are usually pretty, no doubt about
that whoever the winner is she deserves the title.
It is
generally very difficult to say if any of the contestants is significantly more
beautiful than another; the pick of final top 15/16 and the winner is more and
less about nature and taste of the judges then any objective truth – especially
in case of Miss Universe, since the extraterrestrial contestants have not yet
participated.
This year’s
winner of Miss Universe pageant is 25 years old Gabriela Isler from
Venezuela. And at the same moment she
was declared Miss Universe 2013, a lot of unpleased, angry and unkind comments about
her popped up on internet. According to hundreds or thousands of people around
the world Gabriela Isler does not deserve the title; she is “ugly”, old,
plastic, fake woman, etc.”
I noticed
negative comment against her already since her arrival to Moscow where the Miss
Universe was held. And I really do not understand why she woke so many
negativities. She doesn’t look like to have plastic surgeries; it is not
obvious in her case. There were on the other hand more obvious cases such as
Miss Paraguay, Peru and Brazil – all three of them had noses looking all the
same.
Honestly I
have been really surprised by the Miss Venezuela. I have seen her on photos both
with minor or major make up (both fit her) and plenty of elegance, she won my
sympathies by her big smile and lively eyes and also by her generous face
expression and gestures which other beauty queens rather don’t want to show.
But people
are probably tired of the tradition of Venezuela’s misses getting into top 10
or winning beauty pageants and they also certain that all of them have gone
through a plastic surgeries since a document about manufacturing of beauty
queens in South America was shown on main TV’s around the world in the beginning
of 2000’s. Ordinary people see plastic surgeries simply as faking. People has
no proof about any esthetic surgeries of Latino women, they assume that, as it
should be a kind of standard. It seems that according to ordinary people,
Latino woman can probably not be born with nice shaped nose or moderate sized
breasts.
Since
Gabriela is not looking underweight and she has round face and round bottom I
guess she could have some liposuction around her waist but it is still just
guess. I have a cousin and she has always had very thin waist and round hips
and bottom, without any liposuction just by nature.
I can
understand that plastic surgeries can provoke people but what about the comment
on her age? There is really something wrong in the society which calls women of
the age of 25 year for “old”. Gabriela Isler is 25 she looks like 25, is that
bad? People dislike plastic surgeries but on the other side they assume that
beauty queens should look younger than they really are. Since 25 years is criticized as “old age” I’m
almost 10 year older then Gabriela Isler I should probably already purchase a
coffin due to my high age.
Gabriela
Isler was also criticized for using of interpreter for answering the final
question and for actually not answering it. Well, it is also a tradition that
Spanish/Portugal speaking women use interpreters however I have seen also other
nationalities to do on international beauty pageants. But there is no rule of
beauty pageant saying that the contestant has to speak English. There is also a
cultural and social situation in the Latino countries especially Venezuela,
which has an impact on language skill of these ladies. They might speak English
but they have been told that it is not enough for the international contest so
they rather do not take the risk to misunderstand or speak with bad accent.
And she
didn’t answer the question: “What is your worst fear…?” Well, I understood that
it was obvious from her face that her fear in that moment was a question
itself. She answered by her face expression. And she couldn’t start to talk
about Venezuelan woman’s fears (such as human trafficking or abuses) it shouldn’t
fit to the competition; so she did as top politics are doing, she answered in
general and leaded the answer out from “dangerous waters”.
Let’s have
a look on Venezuelan culture and situation of women. At first, the most
Venezuelan girls are born “to be beauties”. And it is sitting in the nation’s
mentality. Women in Venezuela are grown up and raised to be beautiful, it is
their number one priority. The gender equality in Venezuela of women and man is
quiet pure in the country, according to different sources. As past years miss
candidates told, women try to be as beautiful as possible to achieve a career
as models, actresses or TV hostesses. If they should go for e.g. a business career;
they have to show much more skills than men. Also getting full education is a challenge for
a woman in Venezuela which can be a reason why Gabriela Isler doesn’t have a
full academic degree. It is also interesting to see the how potential misses
are prepared to the competition, it is like a drill, like army – posing, face
expressions, cat walk, they learn everything to details. But the Miss school
doesn’t teach them foreign languages. The question why follows and answer is
simple: English could open endless possibilities to Venezuelan beauties and maybe
ladies would leave Venezuela for better opportunities.
Venezuela
has unstable politics and economy, high major corruption and it is well known
for drug and human trafficking – nothing the nation can be proud of. So still
they can be at least proud of their beauty queens. And I finnish this article with a question: Can all the "anger" but easily just a way of jalousy? ;-)
A typical "ugly and old" woman - Gabriela Isler
She has received negative comments about her look already since her arrival to Moscow, why??
