Miss Universe 2021 may have yielded a well regarded final result, but it was observed with the mix of the Top 16 semifinalists that many of the choices seem to be leading to a "progressive" direction especially with the record amount of delegates of color who made the cut. Some, including myself, felt it was going "woke", an admittedly now-derisive term for any form of entertainment that is promoting/highlighting such "progressive" causes/agendas. And typically these days, most shows that have the "woke" label are not performing well--and in the US the 2021 edition was the lowest rated Miss Universe broadcast ever*1. Is this another symptom of that new cliche, "if you go woke, you go broke"? And where would this pageant go from here?
*1 Not counting the 69th edition held seven months earlier, which didn't even have a major US network carrying it--only a minor cable network, FYI, broadcasted the pageant.
It turns out beginning January of 2022, the Miss Universe Organization installed a CEO who would rule over the long-running president Paula Shugart--Amy Emmerich. Based on her credentials, she looks like she will be doubling down on promoting progressive causes emphasizing women empowerment and continue in the modern concept of disassociating the term "beauty" in what used to be an inseparable two-word term, "beauty pageant". In fact one of the first steps was to change the slogan of the pageant from "Confidently Beautiful" to "Beautifully Confident", indicating a shift in emphasis. Then, they announced that effective the 72nd edition, they will open the competition to women who had been married, divorced, and/or have children. This latter directive is something I fully embrace, especially if you realize that in the very first edition, they did permit married women to compete.*2 Of course, since 2017 they have allowed transwomen to compete.*3
*2 In the first edition in 1952, India's Indirani Rahman was a married woman with children. A year later, Germany's Christel Schaack was already a widow when she made the Top 16 that year, and that status turned into a point of contention when she won Miss Europe another year later in 1954 and had to relinquish her title because the unmarried stipulation has since become a standard rule.
*3 So far, only one transwoman competed, Spain's Angela Ponce in 2018.
Miss Universe President Paula Shugart with new Miss Universe CEO Amy Emmerich
The reigning queen, India's Harnaaz Sandhu, also encountered some significant change. A few months after her crowning, many observed she had a very significant weight gain. If this was under Donald Trump, no doubt she would be body-shamed by the organization like what happened to Venezuela's Alicia Machado (1996) or to a lesser extent, Puerto Rico's Zuleyka Rivera (2006). This time the organization stood by her whatever shape she turned out in and although undoubtedly Harnaaz has to deal with online criticism for the state she's in (a combination of lack of exercise and being diagnosed with celiac disease), she at least still dispense with her duties to the best of her abilities. I do criticize her hosting of the preliminary competition as she committed a lot of glaring gaffes, especially mislabeling the country of Kyrgyzstan as "Kazakhstan".
Then and now: Miss Universe 2021 Harnaaz Sandhu
The biggest change occurred in October, as Endeavor/IMG head Ari Emmanuel decided to sell off the Miss Universe Organization, and the one who paid US$14 million was the JKN Global Group. This Thai organization is headed by Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajututip, a transwoman who managed to have a billion-Baht business.
A piquant note about Anne (formerly Andrew prior to her transition) is she had a close relationship with Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray's ex-boyfriend, Clint Bondad. It was reported that around 2019-2020 he actually has been living under Anne's wing. Though both claimed that their relationship was platonic, with Anne referring him as a "brother" and sometimes referred to as a "sidekick", some people would like to believe their relationship was a bit more than that, and their platonic claims are as believable as Jessica Rabbit playing patty-cake outside of her marriage to Roger Rabbit.
With Clint Bondad (L)
This edition of Miss Universe is held in New Orleans. Despite the attractions that they could be exploiting with this very famous city, it looks like this edition is going to be like most recent US editions: a scaled down effort with minimal activities and little opportunities to take in the sights that this fabled city and cultural landmark has to offer, and is under a tight 11-day itinerary mostly filled with rehearsals and the girls mostly posting on social media about their hotel stay at the Hyatt. It's also disappointing that we don't see comprehensive contestant video profiles unlike they did in previous years. Anne promised that the next edition to be held in Thailand later this year would be grander--I hope she delivers on that.
I also have an interesting note about this year's selection committee--since the IMG era, they supposedly would feature an all-female panel, but this year's panel featured New Orleans rapper Big Freedia, who does project a feminine persona, but is not explicitly declared as trans or even non-binary--only quality that identifies him as a woman is that he does use the "she/her" pronoun when in this public persona, like the way RuPaul would do when in drag (when not in drag, RuPaul wouldn't mind being referred to the he/him pronouns).
This year's batch of Miss Universe delegates feature veterans from other international pageants, so like 2004, it's almost like an all-star showdown, and this batch is touted as highly competitive. I'll be discussing more about them in depth in the next installment of this essay.
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