2y ago

‘I am absolutely Japanese’: Ukrainian-born model sparks debate by winning Miss Japan pageant | CNN

www.cnn.com

19 comments

Hardly "uplifting". I can see the problem here. This is a beauty contest, so where you are born or what language you speak doesn't really matter. What's happening is a beauty contest is upholding western standards of beauty over Japanese, or at least that's the impression it gives.
- Alternate take: super insular and traditionally xenophobic nation has a non-native citizen win helping to expand their cultural definition of who is Japanese and who is beautiful.
  
  Even more alternate take: Ukraine got a sympathy win like in Eurovision?
- That's why anyone not a WASP winning Miss America is white genocide, big think
  
  Some decades ago a black woman won miss Italy and it was the controversy of the century... That's the only time a black woman was allowed to participate.
  https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denny_M%C3%A9ndez
I find #12 more beautiful than #1 (the winner), personally. Possibly others, too, but they don't show all of the contestants.
Not sure why I got downvoted. The pageant is explicitly about beauty. If we aren't allowed to share our opinions on beauty, what's the point of the thread?
- Its only a valid beauty judgement if you're Japanese. Otherwise you're just a sparkling ero gaijin.
- Do you genuinely not get the point? Lol
- It's uplifting because Japan is often very xenophobic under the guise of "tradition".
  Someone who isn't "ethnically Japanese" winning this title is a sign of progress.
  
  Okay but the point of the article is that the progress you mentioned “sparks debate” which isn’t so uplifting
Pageants are weird and don't make sense to me. Who even operates them? It just seems like the kind of business a slimy old man would run.
- Who even operates them?
  You're not going to believe it but it's Donal Trump.

19 comments