The Miss Universe competition in El Salvador will be a unique experience for fans of beauty pageants as multiple biological males will be competing to win the title of most beautiful woman in the known galaxy. Following her victory in Portugal, 28-year-old flight attendant Marina Machete celebrated her victory as the first transgender competitor to win the Portuguese title.
Machete said on Instagram, “Proud to be the first trans woman to compete for the Miss Universe Portugal title!” Marina Machete wrote in an Instagram post before the competition. For many years I wasn’t eligible to compete and now it’s such an honor to be a part of this incredible group of candidates!”
Marnina Machete isn’t going to be alone when the world’s most beautiful women gather for the Miss Universe pageant. A second biological male will also be competing as the Netherlands is sending Rikkie Valerie Kollé.
Rikkie Valerie Kollé is also the first of her nation to be crowned champion and won a ticket to El Salvador in July by becoming Miss Netherlands. Rikkie Valerie Kollé has found out the hard way that plenty of social media users are sick and tired of seeing biological men dominate women’s competitions.
Kollé said to Newsweek, “They see us as monsters, and my daily DMs are full of people wishing me dead. Wishing me dead and telling me to suicide, those things are terrible to write, but at the same it’s only lifting me up because I get a bigger platform than I could ever dream of.”
Plenty of people are outraged at the perceived virtue signaling that has taken place by both Portuguese and Dutch pageant systems. One Twitter user noted, “This is just insanity. Next thing all the guy who can’t even make it to the bench in their teams will identify as women and we’ll soon see them playing for Banyana because South Africa just does whatever the West does.”
This comment came in reply to a tweet announcing the victory of Rikkie Valerie Kollé. That featured a picture of the contestant next to the runner-up saying, “Transgender woman (left) Rikkie Valerie Kolle (22) made history by being the first male-born to win Miss Netherlands. She will now compete in the global Miss Universe competition. The loser on the right is Natalie Yasmine a lady.”
"*" indicates required fields
Twitter user Oli London offered his take on the irony of the situation following Machete’s win in Portugal. He posted, “A man has been crowned Miss Universe Portugal beating dozens of women to the title. Marina Machete will now compete in the upcoming Miss Universe women’s pageant. The competition was founded in 1952 to give a platform to women to showcase their beauty, brains & talent.”
The Miss Universe competition has set itself up for a controversial show after thrusting itself directly into the middle of the ongoing debate surrounding the inclusion of biological men in women’s events.
The featured image is a screenshot of an embedded YouTube video.