In 2021, should Miss Universe still be a thing? Those involved weigh in

After a three-hour sequin-studded spectacle within the early hours of Monday morning in Eilat, Miss India Harnaaz Sandhu was topped Miss Universe, capping off 70 years of the worldwide competitors.

Internationally, the competition gained consideration for all of the predictable causes — the Israeli-Palestinian battle, Israel’s new regional allies and naturally, the COVID-19 pandemic. However domestically, the excitement centered extra on a really totally different query: Ought to Israel be internet hosting a magnificence pageant in any respect?

Critics contend {that a} competitors primarily based largely on judging ladies by their bodily look, particularly one that features a famed — or notorious — swimwear part, is wholly outdated. Outrage is usually additionally leveled on the pageant’s draconian entry restrictions, which rule out ladies who’re married, divorced, or who’ve kids.

How is there room in right this moment’s world for a primetime spectacle of girls parading on stage, in entrance of judges, in night robes and skimpy bathing fits, till one is topped the winner?

Linor Abargil, a former Miss Israel who went on to win the Miss World contest — the same however separate pageant — in 1998, got here out towards Israel’s determination to host the competitors.

“The yr is 2021 and ladies are strolling in bathing fits whereas folks objectify them and select the one who might be Miss Universe — actually??” Abargil wrote on Instagram. “It’s merely a shame that our ladies need to stay, even right this moment, with the concept of exterior approval of their our bodies.”

Host Steve Harvey, left, speaks with Singapore’s Nandita Banna as she advances to the semifinals of the seventieth Miss Universe pageant, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, in Eilat. (AP Photograph/Ariel Schalit)

Abargil added that “the day will come that we are going to look again and never imagine that competitions like this ever existed — a shame!”

Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov arrives on the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, on June 14, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Even Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov, who championed the competitors as a boon to COVID-devastated worldwide tourism, appeared to considerably stroll again his preliminary enthusiastic assist on Sunday, hours earlier than the competition started.

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“As a father to 2 daughters,” Razvozov informed Channel 12 information in response to complaints concerning the occasion, “maybe right this moment I might take a look at it otherwise. Possibly I might make a unique determination about this occasion.”

Unsurprisingly, organizers and present contestants are fast to defend the competitors as empowering for younger ladies — and about way more than simply bodily look.

“By means of magnificence pageants we wish to embrace every girl on the market who’s watching this, who aspires to be the chief of her life,” Sandhu informed reporters an hour after her large win, in response to a query concerning the relevance of the competition within the fashionable age.

India’s Harnaaz Sandhu is introduced as the brand new Miss Universe 2021 throughout the seventieth Miss Universe pageant, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, in Eilat, Israel. (AP Photograph/Ariel Schalit)

Tamara Jemuovic, this yr’s Miss Canada, informed The Occasions of Israel that the criticism is unfair to the contestants.

“I believe that the stereotype is type of disintegrating. There’s a lot weight on the interview portion of the pageant, that the exterior magnificence just isn’t on the forefront like it might have been many, many, a few years in the past,” she stated. “We focus much more on empowering each other and serving to one another.”

Meg Omecene, the director of communications for the Miss Universe Group, additionally pushed again towards the critiques.

“I might actually problem [critics] to go converse with among the ladies who’re competing,” she stated. “These will not be ladies who simply look good in a swimsuit or know find out how to put on a night robe. They’re good, bold, gifted, charismatic, caring, philanthropic — they’re really the overall package deal.”

Organizers argue that the contributors — and notably the winner — are granted alternatives to make use of their newfound fame to advertise causes and points which might be essential to them. 2020’s Miss Universe, Andrea Meza of Mexico, has been vocal on the problem of gender-based violence, and Sandhu, the daughter of a gynecologist, has spoken out on the significance of girls’s well being.

“The platform that they get by means of successful Miss Universe is basically unparalleled,” stated Omecene. “They go from being a consultant of their nation, to then going to the United Nations to advocate for the trigger that they’re enthusiastic about.”

Miss Universe contestants go to Tel Aviv on December 2, 2021. (Boaz Oppenheim/GPO)

“One girl’s life actually modifications in a single day, and it’s not the girl who may need the smallest measurements or be probably the most conventionally engaging,” Omecene continued. “It’s actually about the one that is aware of what she needs to do with this platform.”

Nonetheless. a few of these concerned in staging the manufacturing didn’t maintain again from questioning components of the competitors. Assaf Blecher, an government producer on the Israeli facet, stated he understands the outrage.

“It’s a superb query, and it’s a good dialogue,” Blecher informed The Occasions of Israel on Sunday, although he burdened that internet hosting the competition was “an ideal promotion for Israel.” And the competitors, he added, is probably not what folks think about. “If you happen to meet the women, you see that they’re sturdy, good, mental — and exquisite. They don’t all look alike. Miss Bahrain is 5’1”. And Miss Thailand just isn’t skinny by any means.”

South Africa’s Lalela Mswane, from left, India’s Harnaaz Sandhu and Paraguay’s Nadia Ferreira advance to the highest 3 throughout the seventieth Miss Universe pageant, Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, in Eilat, Israel. (AP Photograph/Ariel Schalit)

Blecher advised that when the Miss Universe Group started its work on the Eilat present, “Israel gave them a actuality verify.”

“They obtained a number of voices, and opinions, and so they listened,” he claimed. However Blecher stated that when the Israeli organizers advised swapping out the swimsuit part for sportswear, the concept was nixed by the Miss Universe Group.

Omecene stated such a dialog did happen, but it surely was by no means significantly into consideration.

“If you happen to discuss to the ladies who’re competing, when you ask them their favourite a part of the competitors, I’d say 95% of them, perhaps even 100% of them, love the swimwear competitors, it’s the place they are saying they really feel probably the most highly effective, probably the most assured on stage,” Omecene informed The Occasions of Israel, noting that the ladies have been “in a position to decide on” the swimsuit model “they felt finest suited their persona.”

Manar Nadeem Deyani, Miss Bahrain 2021, competes throughout the swimwear part of the Miss Universe preliminary competitors on December 10, 2021, in Eilat. (Tracy Nguyen/Miss Universe)

Miss Bahrain, Manar “Jess” Deyani — the primary Miss Universe contestant from any Gulf nation — opted to put on a full head-to-toe masking when she appeared within the swimwear part of the preliminary competitors, which was held Friday night and streamed stay digitally. Solely the highest 16 contestants took half within the bathing swimsuit competitors throughout Sunday’s stay finale.

Officers within the Tourism Ministry admitted that the choice to host the competition was a practical one, and never essentially an endorsement of the competition.

“I actually wouldn’t go and I wouldn’t ship my daughters to go,” stated Sara Salansky, the director of abroad advertising and marketing for the Tourism Ministry. “However folks nonetheless watch it, it’s nonetheless a platform, there’s a stage of curiosity.”

Rina Mor, the one Miss Israel to ever win Miss Universe, again in 1976, informed Channel 12 information that her emotions concerning the legacy of the competitors are “difficult,” however that she doesn’t remorse collaborating. Whereas she rapidly left behind the world of modeling and leisure and have become a distinguished lawyer, she stated the competitors supplied her with the chance of a lifetime.

And Mor appeared on the stay broadcast in Eilat on Monday, telling viewers across the globe that she was “so pleased that the Miss Universe Group selected to have a good time its seventieth anniversary in Israel, in my hometown, so I might present you all our stunning nation.”