# Miss Universe 2006: Puerto Rico has its FIFTH winner!



## lauranazario

Much has been said about the beauty of Puerto Rican women... and last night our representative became the fifth island contestant to win the coveted Miss Universe title. 
(See distribution by country here).

While I obvously feel a deep sense of pride by the achievement of our local _boricuas_, that point aside, over the years I have become more aware that the Miss Universe pageant is becoming more active in promoting charitable and worthy causes and raising awareness of certain key issues. 

Furthermore, I believe that over the years pageant candidates have come to represent the drive and determination of modern women who are --aside from beautiful-- educating themselves (via college degrees) to enter numerous professions and in their own small (or big) way, help shape the future.

Do you share this same outlook? You don't?

Let's have a civilized conversation about this. 

Saludos,
LN


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## french4beth

College scholarships have always been part of the prize winnings, and winners have generally had a specific cause that they support.

Found this on wikipedia.com:


> According to the organisers, the Miss Universe contest is more than a beauty pageant: women who aspire to become _Miss Universe_ must be intelligent, well-mannered and cultured. Often a candidate has lost because she did not have a good answer during the interview rounds; although this section of competition has held less importance during recent pageants than it did in the twentieth century.


Also:


> The winner is assigned a one-year contract with the Miss Universe Organisation, travelling overseas to spread messages about the control of diseases, peace, and public awareness of AIDS.


All in all, I'm not too big of a fan of these types of events - I believe that you can't jug a book by its cover & that beauty is only skin deep. I guess they're a part of our culture that isn't going away any time soon.


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## maxiogee

french4beth said:
			
		

> I guess they're a part of our culture that isn't going away any time soon.



Whilst wishing a wonderful year's reign to the winner, sadly I have to agree with f4b here.
Why isn't there a similar male contest?
(Answers with less than 50 reasons will not be considered)


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## lauranazario

french4beth said:
			
		

> College scholarships have always been part of the prize winnings...


I believe you are thinking of the Miss America pageant. That's the one with the scholarships as prizes. Look here.

But regardless, I wasn't referring to college scholarships... I mean that over the years you see a greater number of contestants (nowadays a great majority of them) enter the Miss Universe pageant while en route to obtaining their own college degrees in numerous areas. That's what I meant when I wrote the following on post #1:


> I believe that over the years pageant candidates have come to represent the drive and determination of modern women who are --aside from beautiful-- educating themselves (via college degrees) to enter numerous professions and in their own small (or big) way, help shape the future.


Saludos,
LN


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## Grekh

Congratulations to the people who're from Puerto Rico! I was watching the contest and I have to admit that my favorite among the last five was the girl from Japan, although it's cool that a latin girl had won the crown as the most beautiful woman on earth!


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## LV4-26

maxiogee said:
			
		

> Why isn't there a similar male contest?


 If my memory doesn't fail me, there is, actually.
Or should I say there *was*? 
Here, a doulbe winner of the contest in the early 70s, currently governor of California.


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## maxiogee

Grekh said:
			
		

> although it's cool that a latin girl had won the crown as the most beautiful woman on earth!



Why?


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## Etcetera

Congratulations to all people from Puerto Rico! 
I'm not a fan of such events, and you know, I sometimes wonder why there's no 'Mr Universe' contest. It seems to be a discrimination, doesn't it?


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## maxiogee

LV4-26 said:
			
		

> If my memory doesn't fail me, there is, actually.
> Or should I say there *was*?
> Here, a doulbe winner of the contest in the early 70s, currently governor of California.



That is only similar in name.
Was he asked to parade in evening dress, to make small talk to the host of the show saying how he wanted to cuddle fluffy puppies and save the world, and was he presented with a tiara?

I'd bet he'd have looked good in high heels though. They do wonders for the shape of one's bum, I'm told!


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## fenixpollo

lauranazario said:
			
		

> ...over the years I have become more aware that the Miss Universe pageant is becoming more active in promoting charitable and worthy causes and raising awareness of certain key issues.


It appears that the awareness that needs to be raised is the public's understanding of this pageant. I think that many people see this and other beauty pageants in negative terms because the common image of pageants is that they reward only beauty, not other traits; and that their purpose is strictly to entertain (and/or titillate).  

Perhaps if we were more aware of the hard work and dedication required to reach the Miss Universe pageant, and the positive results produced by the service campaigns of the winners, we might be more receptive to the entire process.


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## french4beth

lauranazario said:
			
		

> I believe you are thinking of the Miss America pageant. That's the one with the scholarships as prizes.


I stand corrected, lauranzario.

And after checking out the official web site of this pageant (a commercial site, so I can't provide a link), I have realized that I had many misconceptions about the pageant & its participants. According to the web site (so maybe we should still take this with a grain of salt), many contestants had never competed in any pageants previously; several countries have banned plastic surgery/surgical enhancements (Sweden, France, and Israel); and many past winners have created non-profit organizations and trusts to help people in their homelands (a pediatric AIDS hospital in Botswana, Hibiscus Foundation for children affected by AIDS in Trinidad/Tobago, & a charitable trust in Namibia to help children).


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## almostfreebird

Etcetera said:
			
		

> I sometimes wonder why there's no 'Mr Universe' contest. It seems to be a discrimination, doesn't it?


 
Arnold Schwarzenegger was once a NABBA Mr. Universe and then won Mr. Olympia title seven times, though it's a professional contest.

Lou Ferrigno (The incredible Hulk) also got both titles.


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## Bonjules

All the heroic efforts to include other criteria in this contest  not withstanding, beauty, -especially that of the face -is still the most important factor. 
  If we were honest, we' d consequently either not allow Plastic Surgery or give a prize to the respective surgeon at the same ceremony (I can't think of any of the recent P.R. contestants/winners who didn't have it).
 Alternatively, women who didn't have or couldn't afford the procedure, could be given a hefty amount of 'bonus points". Let's have some justice here.
saludos


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## Etcetera

Ah so...
But those contests don't seem to be so well-known as Miss Universe, do they?


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## maxiogee

Miss Universe is almost unknown in Ireland. Miss World is more recognised here as a concept. Perhaps that's because it was (still is?) a mainly British-run event?


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## Etcetera

I believe most people in Russia learned about Miss Universe after our Oxana Fyodorova became the winner. 
It was several years ago, I'm not sure about the exact date.


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## almostfreebird

Etcetera said:
			
		

> Ah so...
> But those contests don't seem to be so well-known as Miss Universe, do they?


 
Maybe, but it's more *supernatural* I guess.


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## .   1

As a skinny then fat then skinny young boy I was confronted by the images of perfection that I was confronted with in advertisments for Charles Atlas and other cakes of beef hawking springs and things to obtain the perfect stomach and perfect chest to obtain the perfect woman.  I looked at the rippling muscles on the paper and then at my little kid's body and felt so bad.  It would be years later that I was to find that many such pumped up poster boys paid an incredibly high price for their physical perfection.

Young women must have an incredibly difficult time reconciling the difference between themselves and the poor unfortunates paraded down the catwalk for the Miss this or Miss that flesh display.

The body shape and facial arrangements displayed are not the type that I see daily and there is a scary similarity among the faces as though many are going to the same plastic surgeon and young women are given the impression that this is what society demands of them.

I find the plastic smiles and the plastic teeth and the plastic tits and the whole plastic attitude trite at best and socially demeaning to all concerned.

.,,
Our ideas feature words paint pictures life as art.


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## floraa

I hoped that the girl from Japan would win the whole thing, but congrats Puerto Rico.

Also, was anyone else bothered by the fact that several of the women participating in the swimsuit competition were showing off their ribs?

What kind of message are we sending girls, when contestants are practically emaciated up there. I'm not saying it was everyone, and while all the girls in the competition were thin, a few really scared me because they looked like they had been starving for a while. Just my opinion.

BTW, what is the difference between Miss Universe and Miss World, and which holds more weight so to speak around the world?


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## saturnian

maxiogee said:
			
		

> Miss Universe is almost unknown in Ireland. Miss World is more recognised here as a concept. Perhaps that's because it was (still is?) a mainly British-run event?


I think you're right.
I always thought that Miss Universe was one of those "Look how scarily muscly I am"-type contests, like Mr. Universe is for males.
But it seems that Miss Universe is the American version of Miss World (or perhaps the other way round).
If that's the case, it's not surprising that five winners have been from Puerto Rico (seeing as that island is part of the U.S.A, and considering how Americans love to win international competitions judged by themselves )...although I don't doubt the beauty of Puerto Rican women.


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## maxiogee

floraa said:
			
		

> BTW, what is the difference between Miss Universe and Miss World, and which holds more weight so to speak around the world?




Miss World is only open to 'misses' born on this world


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## french4beth

saturnian said:
			
		

> But it seems that Miss Universe is the American version of Miss World (or perhaps the other way round).
> If that's the case, it's not surprising that five winners have been from Puerto Rico (seeing as that island is part of the U.S.A, and considering how Americans love to win international competitions judged by themselves)


No, saturnian, this Miss Universe is an international contest - only 7 of the past winners have been American (according to an article here on wikipedia):


> As of the 2006 contest, the United States has won the event the most times, with seven Miss Universe crowns, followed by Puerto Rico with five titles, Venezuela with four, Sweden with three and Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, India, Philippines, Thailand, and Trinidad and Tobago with two each


Please stop the undeserved America-bashing - save it for when we're really at fault which happens too often, as it is!(
Tony, I'm willing to take one for the team - as long as it's deserved!


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## Chaska Ñawi

Any photos I've seen from beauty pageants are no different from style and fashion photos - the women are very thin, and not always a healthy thin.

Has anyone noticed how the industry choses muscular, athletic men to represent manhood .... but female models tend to have minimal muscle, as well as minimal fat, padding their bones?  We're never presented with healthy, athletic women as examples of female beauty.  

I read quotes (but I can't prove this, because I forget where   ) from a couple of models who said they had to be very careful about how they exercised, because they'd lose contracts if they became too muscular.

I haven't seen any evidence that beauty pageants are immune to this sort of bias.


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## danielfranco

And...
But first let me congratulate all the winners and all the good deeds accomplished through the pageant.
Now.
Wouldn't it be great if the winners actually looked like the majority of their fellow countrywomen? I mean, to my uncultured and shamefully lascivious eye, all these women look like "barbie dolls" with their preternaturally molded, curvy bodies and finely-sculpted smiling faces. And I mean that, like "barbie dolls", they all look pretty much the same, like the black barbie, latina barbie and asian barbie are the same doll except with a slightly different skin shade...
But then the contest would have to have a million different standards for judging beauty, and we would have as many winners as there are countries participating, so never mind what I said, those girls are just beautiful and let's leave it at that.
Congrats again to the winner.


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## heidita

maxiogee said:
			
		

> Whilst wishing a wonderful year's reign to the winner, sadly I have to agree with f4b here.
> Why isn't there a similar male contest?
> (Answers with less than 50 reasons will not be considered)


 
Isn't there a male contest everywhere? In Spain there is.
Mister Madrid, Mister Murcia, Mister.....


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## Andres_bgta

I don't need to read all the opinios to know what I have to say about Miss Universe. is something created in order to satisfy the pour spirits of people lovers of stupid soup operas, too. Is a fake contest with Trump's starving wallet behind.


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## .   1

Andres_bgta said:
			
		

> I don't need to read all the opinios to know what I have to say about Miss Universe. is something created in order to satisfy the pour spirits of people lovers of stupid soup operas, too. Is a fake contest with Trump's starving wallet behind.


I could not agree more nor could I have said it any better.

.,,


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