Is it all about the taking the sheer fun and excitement out of watching a live production and cheering for the ladies to the top of your lungs?
Photo by FOX via Getty Images
Is it all about coming up with more creative methods in executing the different parts of the competition, however less engaging they may come out to be?
Is it all about doing the entire pageant itself a la quarantine with everything captured online from various parts of the Philippines and cradling the approach as #togetherapart for a more heartfelt spin?
Is it all about an endless streaming of videos with the resolution inconsistent from one candidate to the next?
Is it all about judging the preliminaries via Zoom cloud meetings and becoming a constantly worried (read: irritated) viewer once the connection lags and jumps frequently like tadpoles in the swamp?
Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Is it all about the candidates wearing protective masks if an actual pageant with a minimized number of spectators will be held? And in the process, remove them temporarily while facing the judges?
Is it all about physical distancing where the blocking maximizes the space of the stage such that all candidates (and eventual finalists) will be at least six feet apart from each other from the opening number all the way to the announcement of winners?
Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray is a perfect example of using social media way beyond what other successful pageant winners have utilized it for.
Is it all about pushing the envelope as far as social media presence is concerned and requiring the candidates to go beyond encouraging supporters to vote for them as Miss Popularity and trek the extra mile to involve fans and supporters in spreading and being part of their authentic advocacy/ies?
Honestly, I believe it could be bits and pieces of all of the above – plus more – if fresher strategies can be implemented to insure the safety of everyone, pageant media included. Sure, paranoia will be in play if you want to think of it that way. But if the end goal is to come up with the most ground-breaking take on how to conduct national or international beauty pageants according to standards of the “New Normal”, then enter all think tanks so they can share innovations brewing inside their heads.
Some changes might look weird initially. But just like challenging a foreigner to eat “balut” or “dinuguan” for the first time, the “acquired taste” part is inevitable. Resistance is expected. As in any new order of things, you get used to it after awhile.
And it’s going to take a lot of hard work and patience from both the organization and candidates. Not much comfort zones here. At. all.
What I really want is for pageants to evolve beyond physical beauty so we can all focus on the more authentic qualities that we do not traditionally put significant weight on. Miss Universe Philippines 2020 has already started going to that direction. And will hopefully do so every step of the way. Swimsuits and gowns can stay – tweaked with tasteful innovations – but put them in the company of inner character, long-term ambition and relevance. If we start looking at potential winners as Queens who can do so much more than fulfill a year’s reign or grab the country’s fifth Miss Universe or second Miss World wins, then maybe, the essence of it all will not get lost in transition.
As far as binding contracts go, any winner can look at the agreements as probationary periods of employment. If she passes with flying colors, then the title becomes permanently etched to her name no matter when and where future successes may be. It is undeniably a platform which can be wisely utilized even during afterglow. They just need to learn from the masters and use the achievement long after shelf life expires.
Pageantry is not going to be a priority anytime within the year or next. But if it still finds its way to be successfully mounted in front of our eyes without compromising more than half of the entertainment value it promises to viewers and/or spectators, then I doff my hat to the brave ones who will cross the line between the old and the new.
Final photoshoots are always filled with bittersweet moments. You give your best in front of the camera, and yet deep inside, the feeling of sadness is inescapable. After all, the reign will soon be over, along with the celebrity life in Manhattan.
Today is already May 1, 2020. Time flies so fast even if boredom makes the days and nights of ECQ go so punishingly slow. (Don’t be fooled by the surroundings in my photo on the right. It was taken in El Montaño Vista Resort last December during my working visit to Burauen, Leyte.) 🙂
The first known beauty pageant in history happened in Scotland during the Eglinton Tournament of 1839 when Jane Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset was chosen “Queen of Beauty”.
In 1888, the title of ‘beauty queen’ was awarded to an 18 year old Creole contestant at a pageant in Spa, Belgium. All participants had to supply a photograph and a short description of themselves to be eligible for entry and a final selection of 21 were judged by a formal panel.
In May 1920, promoter C.E. Barfield of Galveston, Texas organized a new event known as “Splash Day” on the island. The event featured a “Bathing Girl Revue” competition as the centerpiece of its attractions. The event was the kick-off of the summer tourist season in the city and was carried forward annually. The event quickly became known outside of Texas and, beginning in 1926, the world’s first international contest was added, known as the International Pageant of Pulchritude. This contest is said to have served as a model for modern pageants. It featured contestants from England, Russia, Turkey, and many other nations and the title awarded at the time was known as “Miss Universe”.
They were called “Carnival Queens” prior. But it is Anita Agoncillo Noble, a 20-year-old student from Lemery, Batangas, who became a beauty queen when the title “Miss Philippines” was first introduced. It’s interesting to note that Anita also came from a historically significant family.
Back in 1970 – a year after our very own Gloria Diaz was crowned Miss Universe in Miami Beach, Florida – a different kind of atmosphere pervaded inside the Royal Albert Hall in London during the interrupted finals of Miss World 1970 the reigning Eva Reuber-Staier of Austria crowned her successor Jennifer Hosten of Grenada. 
Interestingly, this issue against beauty pageants in general dragged for decades and was even included as part of the Q&A in many of them. Of course, we now know how both Miss World and Miss Universe have evolved. Causes and advocacies are now staple requirements, if you will. Regardless of whether pageant followers like us find it just a tad too much at times that some of the projects are questioned for their relative authenticity. 
Not a bad time for Miss World and Miss International, for sure. But For Miss Universe, it certainly was. Never was there a decade in the entire MU history that the Philippines neither placed nor grabbed a runner-up position. Name the decade, we have cited representatives – the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s and the 90s. For the uninitiated, Blesilda Ocampo was the first Miss Philippines who advanced to the semifinals when she made the Top 16 during the 1954 edition.
So why am I posting the BTS shots of the Miss Universe Philippines 2020 Official Candidates during their pictorial along with the gorgeous shot of Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach above?
