Did you know beauty pageants were still around? Seriously. I’m not really the biggest fan of beauty pageants, and it’s not just the fact that they reduce women to being graded on a one-size-fits-all brand of sexiness (there’s nothing wrong with vanilla, but for God’s sake, it wouldn’t kill ya to mix it up a little), but the titles kill me. Case in point: Miss Universe Canada. That title makes no sense whatsoever. Do they know how universes work? Because I get the feeling they might be just a teensy bit off.
Anyway, regardless of the logical loopholes of their name, here’s a brand new reason to roll your eyes at Miss Universe Canada: take a look at this picture of Jenna Talackova, will you?
As far as I can tell, she has everything she needs to win the title. She’s got the looks, she’s got the body, I’m assuming she has the intellect and the personality — there’s only so much that can be gleaned from a picture — but unfortunately, she was just disqualified from competing in the pageant. Why? Because she wasn’t born a female. Via Global:
The blog post cites blogs as early as March 13 that were reporting Talackova’s inclusion on the Miss Universe Canada’s finalists page.
On Friday, the pageant organization broke its silence regarding the issue stating, “She did not meet the requirements to compete despite having stated otherwise on her entry form.”
They went on to say they “respect her (Talackova’s) goals, determination and wish her the best.”
Wait wait wait . . . So despite the fact that both her sex and gender are entirely female, she can’t compete because, when she was a child almost 20 years ago, she was physically a male? I would understand them not allowing someone who identified as male to enter (although I don’t think anyone who identified themselves as male would want to enter a MISS Universe pageant), but she is in no way a male. She doesn’t see herself as a male, and I doubt anyone who knows her sees her as a male either. Who she is and who she always has been is a female. So why not let her compete?
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