Watching the Miss Universe was a yearly ritual for my Tita Becky.  I got hooked on it, thanks to her,  in 1976 when the Miss Universe Pageant was held in the Philippines and Amparo Munoz of Spain won. After that, it didn’t matter that it was a school night, I would ask my mom if I could sleep over at my Tita Becky’s house next door even if it meant sleeping on a banig on the floor and watching the pageant on the black and white TV, we stayed up to watch Miss Universe year in, year out.

I remember in school the next day after the Miss Universe pageant, we girls went over to the far end of the quadrangle where the old Chinese School Building used to stand. The wooden structure had been demolished but the concrete stairs were still standing.  That became our stage and we pretended to be Miss Universe candidates….parading in our gowns.  Yes, children had imaginations back then when we didn’t have internet.  You have avatars, we pretended to be beauty queens, same difference.

I don’t watch the pageant anymore. I only see the news clips of the pageant when these are aired on the evening news.  I saw Miriam Quiambao’s slip, I heard Venus Raj’s “major, major” speech and I saw Shamsey Supsup just on the news.

The morning of the pageant, my son asked me if Ms. Philippines was a shoe-in to win if she won the on-line poll.  And I said, no.  The on-line voting measured the crowd’s favorite but it is still the panel of judges who decide who will be Miss Universe. I told him that the on-line poll assured a wide viewership which meant that the  Miss Universe telecast will attract more advertisers and sponsors. My son didn’t think it was fair.  But then, I said, those are the rules.  After all, the Miss Universe pageant is not an election: while it is viewed publicly, it is essentially a private corporation choosing its spokesperson for the year.

My children didn’t know that Miss Universe is really a charity organization.  Miss Universe is chosen from beauty queens who represent different countries. The winner of Miss Universe will represent the charity organization in raising funds all over the world.  The winner will be the “ambassador” for the charity organization and she will have to appear and speak with philanthropists, heads of government and other charitable organizations so that she can be the face associated with the fund-raising activities.  For this reason, the face has to be lovely, appealing to a large section of the global population, the face has to embody intelligence, grace and diplomacy.  It is not purely a contest to see who is the most beautiful.

The judges are briefed as to the parameters of beauty, intelligence and grace that are required by the Miss Universe organization.  The judges choose women who best embody the ideals of the Miss Universe organization and one who can best represent the organization.

Venus Raj was beautiful and smart but she was giddy, she acted like a high school girl if front of her crush. She gave the impression that she was overwhelmed when she gave her answer.  Clearly, she did not exhibit grace under pressure, thus, she did not win. She was enthusiastic, she was beautiful and curvaceous but she was not elegant.

What about Shamsey Supsup? Well, personally, I have watched Margie Moran, Gloria Diaz and Aurora Pijuan.  They walked with a queenly bearing, just like Miss Angola.  Shamsey Supsup walked like a runway model, she had a certain fierceness and flair –that is the training of the chain of winners from Venezuela. But the Miss Universe chooses women who exude a certain reserve and finesse of  a well-bred queen, too.  Plus,Miss Universe winners have been chosen because their features seem to fit the standards of beauty of  most races: Miss Angola best fits that description.  She has dark skin but her name sounds Latina, her features are Caucasian, she is tall and slender and curved in all the right places.  She has bagged “the total package.”

Beauty pageants are not new.  In ancient Greece, princesses whose kingdoms are defeated by a conquering kingdom had to parade (often in the nude) before the conquering king so that he could choose from among them the women he would like to add to his harem.  All other women he did not choose would be “given away” to his generals and nobles as their share in the war booty. Here, beauty and intelligence would probably not be criteria, the woman’s ability to inspire the king’s lust would probably be the only criterion she needs to fill.

In the Scriptures, a Jewish girl named Hadassah joined a beauty contest. Her uncle Mordecai renamed her Esther. The winner of that contest became the next queen, wife of King Ahasuerus of Persia.  Beauty was necessary as the King needed a trophy-wife, one he could show off, one who would represent the wealth of his kingdom, but also, the trophy wife needed to be submissive, willing to please and obey the king.  Esther the Jewish girl was chosen.  The king just wanted a wife.  But God had other plans.  Esther won because she had a role to play in delivering the chosen people of God.

Beauty contests are not just contests to see who is most beautiful because everyone has his or her idea of beauty.  No one will agree with the choice of another for the same reasons when beauty is in question. So after a beauty contest and ordinary Filipinos are interviewed on TV for their reaction to our candidate’s loss or near-win, most Filipinos would confess confusion and frustration, they express the same sentiment that the Filipina candidate should have won.

It is sometimes an issue of national pride, sometimes it is because we nearly won which makes the loss so much more frustrating.  We want to win and we are at a loss as to why our smart and beautiful women do not win. This year, we cannot say that the judges are biased in favor of one candidate because we had a Filipino judge.  So, from an outsider’s point of view, I can only guess that the organization has a hierarchy of values ( traits that a Miss Universe winner must exhibit ) and they find the woman who has majority of all the desired traits.

Personally, I think that Shamsey Supsup’s answer in the question and answer portion was what made the judges decide against her.  Her answer was laudable because it was well-said: her grammar and syntax was good.  Her choice of words was simple. She showed confidence and conviction when she answered.  But her answer showed that she was vocal about certain tenaciously-held personal principles, that is the total opposite of what is required in an “ambassador” who needs diplomacy and tact, one who could camouflage her personal feelings.

Her last line “If he loves me, then he should love my God, too.” That is so Biblical and for that answer alone, in my book, she should have won.  It echoes Ruth’s speech “thy God shall be my God, thy people shall be my people.”  Shamsey’s answer showed spiritual conviction: she believed in God, she had a personal relationship with God and her love for God is foremost to her that she is willing to reject a man who would not love her God as well.  She said that her religion and her faith are who she is such that if the man who professed to love her would require her to change her religion, then that man was in effect asking her to give up who she is.  Shamsey showed that she had personal faith and did not simply belong to a religious denomination.  Her faith is so intricately interwoven with her personality that without it, she cannot be who she is.  That is as good a testimony of faith as one can ever hope for, but alas, that is what the world does not want to hear.

Our society wants a person who is tolerant and “open” to other faiths and other religious persuasions.  Shamsey’s answer showed a certain religious dogmatism which is frowned upon in our society.  What is acceptable now are those who can blend in painlessly and seamlessly with any and all faiths and religious practices.  Clearly, Shamsey would be in pain if made to choose between what she knows and believes to be right and what is convenient, necessary or acceptable to others. She would be willing to lose all that is important to her ( even love ) if this meant denying her faith.  She is assertive of her religious principles and that is pleasing to God for God wants to be first in our lives.  But that is not what the Miss Universe is all about.  This is why Shamsey did not win — she gave the impression, through her answer, that she had convictions that she is unwilling to compromise.  That is totally contradictory to what Miss Universe is all about. The Miss Universe has to be able to inspire different races and different organizations with differing interests to compromise and pool vast amounts of wealth.  For this, personal faith and personal convictions have to be set aside for one year. Shamsey’s answer did not give any indication that she was willing to set aside her convictions for any reason or for any length of time.

Shamsey isn’t sad, though.  In her interviews, I think she gets it.  She understand why she didn’t win.  I’m not sad, either.  It was a question of values and Shamsey clearly didn’t share the values that were important to the Miss Universe organization.  Things that are highly esteemed among men are an abomination to God.  Shamsey would be happy to know that if she had pleased her God then even the loss of the beauty title would be worth it.

Good luck to you, Shamsey.  You did a good job.  You embodied the Biblical verse that says : What would it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? May God honor you as you have tried to honor him with your answer.