France Conquers Miss Universe 2017

Our rating: A+

Typically, beauty pageants like Miss Universe are frowned upon and viewed as ‘unfeminist’ as many think these women are objectified and only chosen for their beauty. But, Miss Universe discredits this stereotype as the panel of judges carefully choose one of the 86 women representing their countries for the high demanding job.

The women who are chosen for this job show all around beauty, as they dedicate themselves to their careers, while being apart of their community and being aware of current events. The women have to go through many rounds until one is finally crowned Miss Universe. After the preliminaries, they choose the top 13, then cut down to top nine, top six, and finally top three.

“I usually don’t watch Miss Universe since I’m not really a fan of shows like that, but this year I decided to give it a try. I was really impressed with what these women actually do in their day to day lives. Miss USA is actively serving in the military and she’s still a contestant in the pageant. I thought that was something that was really spectacular,” sophomore Alain Perez said.

The night kicked off with Flo Rida performing as all the women competing walked around in their dresses. From here, they were all lined up as the panel of judges carefully selected the top 13. What many viewers don’t know is that the pageant is a week long competition. The judges start interviewing the women at the beginning of the week of the competition. After a rigorous set of interviews, the women are carefully selected on live television.

After this, all the women run back to their dressing rooms to change into their swimwear for the bathing suit portion of the competition. Here, the women can show off the bodies they’ve worked hard for and show everyone how beautiful confidence can be. Viewers had their eyes on top 13 finalist Siera Bearchell, representing Canada, as she strutted down the runway. Bearchell was a victim of body shaming in previous years, as she is not the same size as all the other women who typically compete in beauty pageants. Many went to social media to support the 23 year-old Canadian as she confidently walked down the stage showing people how beautiful curves can be. As the swimsuit competition came to a close, the judges chose their top nine to compete in the evening gown competition.

“The evening gown portion of the night is always my favorite part because the dresses the women always wear are just so beautiful. The detail and attention that is put into each dress is really impressive, each dress is made to perfectly fit each woman. My favorite dress of the night was of course [former Miss Universe] Pia,” senior Gabriela Vega said.

Once the women had been cut down to the top 9, the crowd had already shown which countries were fan favorites. Seeing as the pageant was held in the Philippines this year, Miss Philippines was an obvious fan favorite, along with Miss Colombia, Miss Haiti, and Miss Kenya. Viewers were also told to keep an eye out for Miss Venezuela, Miss Brazil, and Miss Canada.

As the top nine walked around the stage in their beautiful and detailed gowns, the judges were closely taking into account the elegance of each contestant. Once all the contestants showed their gowns it was time to narrow it down to the top six for the question and answer portion. In this portion of the competition, the women are expected to express their knowledge on current world events and general knowledge on popular topics like crime rates.

Miss France had proved herself yet again as the presenters asked her, “Given today’s worldwide refugee crisis, do countries have an obligation to accept refugees, or do they have a right to close their borders?”. France took a second to think as she clearly answered the question and used her own country as an example of a reason why other countries should have open borders.

As the each woman carefully answered their questions, the judges finally decided on their top three, Miss Colombia, Miss France, and Miss Haiti.

The three were asked one last question, “Name something over the course of your life that you failed at and tell us what you learned from that experience.” Although all three used an interpreter, Miss France showed the crowd why she should be Miss Universe by giving the most cohesive answer of the three women. What many didn’t catch is that the interpreter had translated “when I missed my first casting”, when Miss France said that she had not seen her name on the list for her first year of medical school.

Boyz II Men took the stage as they strolled down the stage for their final judgement. Miss Colombia came as the second runner up, with Miss Haiti as the first runner up, and Miss France crowned the new Miss Universe.

The new Miss Universe, Iris Mittenaere, has already become very popular, seeing that she is the second winner to come from France. Mittenaere has stated that she will be using her platform to promote oral hygiene worldwide since she is pursuing a degree in dental surgery. Mittenaere was able to show the world that not every woman needs to be only physically beautiful. The world cannot wait to see what she accomplishes as the new queen begins her reign.