Miss Universe Canada announced on March 23 that 23-year-old contestant Jenna Talackova was removed from the competition for failing to comply with the competition’s guidelines. Contestants need to be “natural-born females,” and Talackova is transgender.
Talackova struggled from a young age to accept herself as a male, the Toronto Star reported on March 27. By age four she knew she was a girl and began hormone therapy treatment at age 14. This was followed by sexual reassignment surgery at 19 years old. In 2010, Talackova represented Canada at Miss International Queen, a transsexual/transgender beauty pageant held in Thailand where she placed as a finalist.
The Miss Universe pageant had a chance to step up and make a bold political statement. Instead, they shied away, bringing brought into question the competition’s relevance.
Beauty pageants can be written off as vain competitions that seek to fulfill male fantasies, but they can also be fulfilling for those who see them as an opportunity for empowerment.
Miss Universe is meant to represent the ideal of feminine beauty and Talackova’s disqualification is discrimination. It amounts to stating that transgender women aren’t real women and aren’t beautiful in the ideal feminine sense.
What the disqualification ignores is that a single ideal of feminine beauty simply doesn’t exist.
There doesn’t seem to be logical reasoning behind the pageant’s decision. If being born male gave an unfair advantage to a contestant then it may be grounds for disqualification, as in some sporting events. But being born male doesn’t provide a leg up in a competition of feminine beauty.
If someone identifies as a woman, it shouldn’t be necessary to check her birth certificate or baby photos. If an individual self-identifies as a woman, then she is a woman.
A change.org petition has recorded over 40,000 signatures demanding that the decision to disqualify Talackova be reversed. The public outcry gives the pageant more power than it deserves in deciding what’s beautiful. Miss Universe is a competition married to archaic ideas and norms that simply aren’t relevant anymore.
The Miss Universe pageant can set contest rules, but to stay relevant, pageant organizers should revamp their qualifications to fit evolving views on beauty and femininity.
“I regard myself as a woman with a history,” Talackova said during her interview for Miss International Queen. It’s time we accept that a woman’s history is more important than how she looks in a swimsuit.
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