‘The racism is poking them in the eye’: Donald Trump Jr. cryptically tweets about Ms. Denmark’s Miss Universe victory
Donald Trump Jr. implies that the beauty standards have finally shifted in favor of blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white women after Ms. Denmark snatched the crown in the annual Miss Universe pageant.
Trump Jr. celebrated Victoria Theilvig’s victory in the Miss Universe pageant with a cryptic tweet. He wrote, “Biologically & objectively attractive women are allowed to win beauty pageants again. We are so back!!!” Trump Jr.’s comment suggests that the prior winners of the Miss Universe pageant haven’t been beautiful or cis-gendered women since Theilvig. Is it because Miss Universe hasn’t been blonde since 2004? Upon checking, no trans woman won the pageant either compared to what Trump Jr. implied.
Needless to say, social media users tore through Trump Jr.’s tweet. One tweet wrote, “The racism is poking them in the eye.” Another person wittily followed up, “Yet they can’t see it.” Several also directly refuted Trump Jr. and reminded him that historically, only biological women won the Miss Universe pageant.
The beauty standard is still white-passing, biological women
Contrary to Trump Jr.’s tweet, no trans woman won the Miss Universe pageant. In fact, Miss Universe only lifted the ban against trans women in 2012. Years later, in 2018, Angela Ponce from Spain made Miss Universe history by competing as the first trans woman. She didn’t win, but her presence was enough to encourage other trans women to compete. Fast forward to 2023, and the candidates from the Netherlands and Portugal were both trans women. None of them won, either.
It’s also no surprise that a majority of the Miss Universe winners are also fair-skinned or white women. Donald Trump allegedly decided the winner during his tenure as the owner of the Miss Universe Organization. Notably, women that were “too ethnic or too dark-skinned” weren’t preferred by Trump. Clearly, his preferences had an effect on countries that participated in the pageant. The Philippines has a total of four Miss Universe title holders. Two of the four are biracial white women. Even Thailand follows the same trend. Unfortunately, it seems that Trump Jr. has inherited his father’s tastes. At least he doesn’t own the pageant.
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