Days after Rikkie Valerie Kollé created history by becoming the first-ever transgender woman to win Miss Netherlands, the Miss Italy pageant has barred transgender contestants from taking part in the beauty contest, stating that contestants “must be a woman from birth.”
Patrizia Mirigliani, the Official Patron of the contest, stated during an interview with Radio Cusano that beauty competitions have been advocating inclusivity only to generate publicity. “Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news by also using strategies that, I think, are a bit absurd. Miss Italia, on the other hand, will not jump on the glittery bandwagon of trans activism,” he said, according to a translation from Google.
“Since it was first started, this competition has foreseen in its regulation the clarification, according to which, one must be a woman from birth. Probably because, even then, it was foreseen that beauty could undergo modifications, or that women could undergo modifications, or that men could become women,” Mirigliani was quoted as saying by Il Primato Nazionale.
He added that simplicity always pays off. “Tattooed girls, with piercings and extensions participate in our contest. It’s all part of the new way of talking about women, but we try not to facilitate everything that is excessive to accentuate the aesthetics. Excesses are not good,” Mirigliani said.
Kolle, who will represent the Netherlands in Miss Universe’s global competition in El Salvador later this year, was bombarded with hate after she won the contest.
“I thought we were really accepting…. in the Netherlands, but the hate comments show the other side of our society. I hope that’s a wake-up call,” she told Reuters. “For now, I fully ignore it. I focus on the good things coming my way.”
Adding that the negative comments were unprovoked and that people insulted her for being herself, she said, “I just want to show the world Rikkie and of course, my trans story, and receiving backlash for that is really sad.”
If the 22-year-old wins the Miss Universe pageant, she will become the first transgender woman in the pageant’s 94-year history to claim the coveted title.
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