Yesterday we addressed the news story about Jenna Talackova, Canadian finalist for the 2012 Miss Universe competition, who was disqualified for being transgender. The main response we received in defense of her right to compete was that, well, she’s gorgeous. Her ability to defy most common thought of a man becoming a woman helped her get as far as she did in the competition before being background-checked, I suppose. But she’s not the only transgendered female competing in beauty contests. There are a handful of transgender-oriented pageants all over the world aiming to glorify the beauty of these individuals, but after looking at the spread, it’s easy to see why Talackova took the risk she did to reach for the stars.
Miss International Queen, not to be confused with Miss International, is the largest transgender and transvestite pageant in the world. It’s held annually in Thailand, and its contenders are nothing to sneeze at. It goes to show these ladies aren’t just looking to be accepted anymore, they’re competing to be the best. They are, to anyone who might meet them, definitely beautiful women. So why the emphasis on their transsexuality? Perhaps it’s because no one else will let them compete. Regardless, the inclusion of transvestites in the pageant does turn it into a bit of a drag show. The costume portion of the competition begins to err on the side of Vegas showgirls, and it becomes clear that the Miss International Queen pageant is an organization designed to glorify this population of people, which is reactionary. We wouldn’t have to make the point of glorifying their differences if they were just accepted by the whole of society. It’s a fine line, but Jenna Talackova obviously wanted to be seen as the beautiful woman she was born to be, not a strikingly beautiful transgendered female. [via]
Miss Continental is a beauty pageant for transgendered women that started in 1980 and is still going on today. It’s held at the Baton Show Lounge in Chicago each September, and is heavy on costumes and theatrics. It’s probably an incredible show to watch, but definitely glorifies LGBT cultural mores and leans in the direction of drag. While those of us with open minds might find a show like this appealing, it’s just not the same as someone flat-out accepting the contestants as women. [via]
The World’s Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest was a pageant held in 2004 in Las Vegas. It included 35 pre-op and post-op transgendered women and aimed to find the most beautiful transgendered woman in America. The winner was showgirl Mimi Marks, a previous winner of Miss Continental and Miss International Queen. You can see how this is just a totally different kind of competition. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of your journey, but for someone like Jenna Talackova, this just might not be what she had in mind. [via]
There is a wide range of thought on this issue. On one hand, a reader points out, “I don’t get why it would matter, a lot of contestants are plastic always, what difference does it make?” It’s true. The Miss Universe pageant doesn’t object to changing one’s body for an edge on the competition. That is unless it’s her genitalia that were surgically altered. Some might say it’s just the law — she was born a male, end of story. And rules are rules. A person born outside the United States, for example, no matter how qualified, can’t run for president. We aren’t all entitled to being Miss Universe. But the fact that the only qualification she failed to meet was that of her chromosomes does seem a little unfair.
The bottom line is that she’s interested in pageants. She wanted to be seen as a real contender, free of her reassignment surgery. It seems that society is stuck: If a pageant accepts transgendered women, then it becomes a transgendered pageant.
Is this something that needs to be reformed? Do you think Jenna Talackova was right to withhold the truth during the competition?
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sunflower / 332 posts
I don’t think it’s fair. I have nothing against transgenders, if you want to change your sex and you got the money to do it then do it if it makes you happy, but to compete in a beauty pageant aimed specifically for women to celebrate the beauty of a woman, I don’t think it’s fair. Because by accepting that, it’s like saying “A dude that turns into a woman can look better than a real woman”. Come on, if they want to compete in pageants, just do it specifically for transgenders. Again, I have nothing against them, just saying that you have to be fair.
Also, that person should’ve been honest about who they truly are, even if you change your genetalia or whatever, if you were born a dude you’ll always be a dude.
guest
I think it depends on the contestants country, if she’s legally a woman there she has all right to participate in the contest. In many countries once you’ve gone trough the whole process you can legally be a woman, so you have the right to be a contestant.
guest
@Orlei@xanga - that’s not true. In many countries once you’ve went to the whole proces of sex reasignation you are legally a woman and you have all rights to be treated like one. In human rights perspective a woman born in the wrong body even if she haven’t completed the process she has the right to be treated like the woman she feels she is. Gender dismorphia is a serious complex health issue not a tantrum.
sunflower / 332 posts
@xXxlovelylollipop@xanga -Whether it’d be a health issue or health tantrum, they weren’t born female, they were
made
female. And as for the process of sex reassignation, those are just papers (with all do respect, I’m not trying to offend anyone) that are meant to legalize certain rights and actions. At day’s end, the right to be treated like a woman or not doesn’t really apply much to the men that get tricked by it. Especially if they lie about it.
There are a lot of men that date transgenders and they don’t even know it because their partner doesn’t come clean about it, but I’m also sure that there are also men who do know about it and are comfortable with it.
Overall, if the man doesn’t know about it and finds out the hard way, it just doesn’t end well because besides the fact that he was lied to, I really doubt that he’ll enjoy the idea of dating a man that turned into a woman.
My point is that it isn’t fair for these women that compete to present they’re unique beauty (even if they’ve done plastic surgery before) while there a men that just go through the harsh process of sex change and just become made into beautiful women…
Again, I don’t want to offend anyone, just trying to prove a point.
guest
She’s a woman. She was born a woman, even if not in a woman’s body. She should have every right to compete because, well, why not? She’s a woman legally now, so I don’t see how it’s fair to ban it.
With that being said, beauty pageants are incredibly stupid. They’re a really big deal where I come from (we have the most miss universes in the world per capita which everyone thinks makes us special, haha) but I’ve really never gotten the appeal. I find them kind of belittling and weird.
guest
@Orlei@xanga - I agree on some parts, but many beauty patent contestants have had plastic surgery anyways, so what message does that send? Hey you can only be beautiful like me if you get a nose job?
@xXxlovelylollipop@xanga - i agree, in some countries such as Canada where the contestant is from, if you’ve been diagnosed with gender identity disorder you can get funding to help pay for your transitional operations (if my memory from psychology 12 isn’t failing me).
guest
@Orlei@xanga - intentionally or not you’re making statements and assumptions about a subject you’re not well informed and that might lead to missunderstandings. I recomend you to read about the topic, it’s quite interesting cuz you see many of this persons are genetically women, that means their chromosomas match their mind but not their body, As I said it’s quite complex and a topic of legal debate, not really something to be discussed shallowly without knowledge, this will lead to spread unaccurate information.
guest
@Cho_0705@xanga - yup, Cuba, Israel, Mexico, many countries actually. As it’s a health issue it gets covered by healthcare and legalization is able.
sunflower / 332 posts
@xXxlovelylollipop@xanga -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_dimorphism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender
guest
When someone feels so strongly that they were born of a different sex than what they are anatomically, I feel that they are really the sex they feel they are, not what they were born as. So to me I feel that they are real women just as much as women who were born girls. What about girls (or boys) who were born intersexed (hermaphrodite and whatever) and the doctors choose for the baby which genital to keep and which to discard? Say when the baby grows up more it feels that it is of the other gender that the person “threw away”? what are they then?