The last time organizers held a Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador, in 1975, rioting students staged demonstrations that ended in massacres and plunged the country into a brutal civil war.
On Saturday, as the beauty pageant returns to the Central American country for its 72nd annual pageant, the future of the pageant itself may be in jeopardy — after the Thai conglomerate that owns the glasses announced that it has filed for bankruptcy.
And it’s not the only scandal swirling around Miss Universe, which will include two trans competitors this year.
The title will be presented by beauty queen R’Bonney Gabriel, who was previously Miss USA and Miss Texas USA.
Last year, allegations of fraud plagued the Miss USA pageant, which is owned by the Miss Universe organization, as some contestants suggested the pageant might be rigged in favor of Gabriel.
“Most of the Miss USA contestants feel very strongly that there is bias against Miss Texas USA and we have the receipts to prove it,” claimed Miss Montana Heather Lee O’Keefe in an October 2022 TikTok video.
Jakrajutatip called the Miss Universe Organization “my first priority in life.” His JKN Global Group owns the brand.AFP via Getty Images
Miss New York Heather Nunez wrote on Instagram: “We’re embarrassed, thinking we entered something with a fair chance.”
Both the Miss Universe Organization and Gabriel deny any allegations of cheating.
Meanwhile, local residents of San Salvador are protesting the national government has spent a reported $12 million in public funds to host the event in a country with increasing levels of extreme poverty.
The reigning Miss Universe, and former Miss USA, R’Bonney Gabriel met with the President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele. Some El Salvadorans have protested the government spending $12 million in public funds to host the pageant on Saturday.@missuniverse/Intagram
The protest recalled a July 1975 demonstration by a group of poor students who denounced then-military government strongman Arturo Armando Molina for spending $1 million on the pageant. Less than two weeks after Miss Finland, Anne Marie Pohtamo, was crowned Miss Universe, the country’s armed forces occupied a local university and killed more than 100 students.
On top of all that, the group behind Miss Universe seems to be broken now.
JKN Global Group, owned by transgender activist and entrepreneur Anne Jakrajutatip, bought the 2022 Miss Universe pageant for $20 million from talent agency WME-IMG, which had taken it over from Donald Trump. The former US president sold the brand in 2015, early in his first presidential campaign, after his remarks calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and drug dealers resulted in the loss of the pageant’s sponsor and several contestants.
Miss USA Noelia Voigt competed earlier this week in the preliminary Miss Universe swimsuit competition.REUTERS
Jakrajutatip founded JKN Global Group in 2013 as a video and content distribution company. It has since grown into a multinational conglomerate worth nearly $260 million, with two TV networks and products ranging from cosmetics to energy drinks.
But it faces tough economic times. In the past year, JKN’s share price fell by more than 80%, according to reports.
The company missed a payment on a $12 million loan due on September 1, according to the principal’s letter sent to the president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Anne Jakrajutatip (third from left) poses with beauty queens at the Miss Universe pageant in New Orleans last year.AFP via Getty Images
Additionally, many longtime supporters of Miss Universe around the world rejected the new rules that would have required them to bid for the right to host the pageant in their own countries to select contestants for the global pageant. Earlier this year, Unicorp in Vietnam cut ties with the Miss Universe Organization. Companies in Ghana, Belize and Seychelles, among others, are following suit.
Despite the latest challenge to the troubled event, “Our universe must go on,” Jakrajutatip said in an Instagram post earlier this week.
“The Miss Universe organization, which is one of our many lines of business, is completely clean and will continue to operate as planned,” said Jakrajutatip. “No matter what… I always put the Miss Universe Organization as my priority in life. No matter how happy or painful it will be.”
Miss Portugal, Marina Machete, is one of two trans women to participate in Saturday’s Miss Universe pageant. @marinamachetereis/Instagram
Jakrajutatip made history by allowing married women — from Guatemala, Colombia and Switzerland — to compete.
Marina Machete from Portugal and Rikkie Kolle from the Netherlands — who are both transgender — are also among the 85 contestants this year. In 2018, Angela Maria Ponce Camacho, Miss Spain, became the first trans woman to compete and eventually win the Miss Universe Title.
“Ángela cried when it was over, telling people she didn’t need to win — she just wanted the world to know that a trans woman can be successful,” Jakrajutatip told Cosmopolitan last month. “I cried too.”
Rickie Valerie Kolle, Miss Netherlands, is also a trans woman competing in this year’s Miss Universe pageant. Instagram / @missnederland
For Jakrajutatip, 44, Ponce Camacho’s participation is a personal victory. Growing up as a boy in a conservative Thai family in Bangkok, he said, he watched the competition on TV every year with his mother and sister.
“I knew from the age of 5 that I was born in the wrong body,” he told the magazine.
“At home, my family insisted that I suppress any signs of femininity that I felt inside,” she said. “I feel so ashamed, I’m afraid to be myself.”
In addition to opening up the competition to trans women like herself, Jakrajutatip also welcomes women who are married, divorced and even mothers — all new to the traditional competition.Getty Images
In addition to opening up the competition to women between the ages of 18 and 28, and allowing married, divorced and pregnant women to compete, the billionaire entrepreneur said he also includes mothers among the contestants. Guatemalan mother of two Michelle Cohn will compete, as will Colombia’s Camila Avella, who has one child.
Organizers plan to allocate more airtime for candidates to speak “as people instead of just focusing on their appearance,” Jakrajutatip said.
Plus, she added, “There will be no more male leaders stalking delegates in the locker room.” The leadership team is made up of women, as are the judges and hosts this year, she said.
Donald Trump, here with former Miss Universe Ximena Navarette, once owned Miss Universe and bragged to Howard Stern: “I’ll go backstage before the show and everyone’s dressed …” Getty Images
“I wanted to create something run by women for women – not something for men to watch,” she says.
Trump, who also owns the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA crowns, boasted to Howard Stern about the presence of young women in their dressing rooms when he moderated the pageant in 2006.
“I’ll tell you the funniest [thing] is that I’ll go backstage before the show and everybody gets dressed,” Trump said. “There were no men anywhere, and I was allowed in, because I was the owner of the competition and therefore I was inspecting it … You know, they were standing there without clothes. ‘Is everyone OK?’ And you see these incredible-looking women, so I kind of get away with that kind of thing.
Salvadoran dictator Arturo Armando Molina poses with Miss Finland, Anne Marie Pohtamo, who was crowned Miss Universe in 1975 as student riots broke out outside the venue. Here El Salvador TVE/Facebook
Jakrajutatip vowed to revolutionize Miss Universe when he bought the franchise last year.
“Why are organizations that claim to be about women’s empowerment exclusively owned by men?” he told Cosmopolitan.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
