The truth behind Miss Universe according to Miss Mauritius

What an experience this was- Meeting new people, learning about other cultures, with ups and downs make everything a unique event in someone’s life.

I love and appreciate the opportunity given to me to represent my country in this pageant. I prepared a brief report to summarize my stay in * during the * days in the hope that it can help other girls after me to do better and best in the coming year / years.

So it all started with the registration and fittings. People especially the Americans working for the organization are very nice but I was quite shocked how some even after working for the organization since 10 years, they still do not know if Mauritius exists. Some even asked me if it was the first time Mauritius was participating in Miss Universe. I downloaded a small map of the Indian Ocean and a few pictures of our island, so that when they asked me about Mauritius, I take my phone out and show them the pictures and they all told me they were going to come because it looks pretty.

Furthermore, I was absolutely disgusted with the treatment we received from the part of Makeup artists and Hairdressers. All the small countries were ignored. I remember before doing the glamshot shooting, I sat down to do my hair and they started doing my hair but as soon as Miss USA or even Miss Venezuela comes, they ask me to stand up and go wait till they do their hair. Even if you push yourself forward, you are set aside.

Third day- This is when I stopped worrying and competing in Miss Universe because I saw it with my own eyes how much preferences were there.

At this point we should be aware that if we are not mentally strong we crash everyday- Sleeping only 3 hours do not really help in making the girls settle down. Actually, I wasn’t the only one who was tired.. we all were.

Here there is only one photographer who takes the pictures. And he never runs after girls trying to capture ‘’moments’’.. he just take pictures for the sponsors. If the girl is sitting at that very moment, she is in.. if not then they only take pictures of the sponsors.

And all the videos of the finals are make beliefs, we never go out. We never visited * as shown on TV. They handpick the girls, by way of a scheduling.. And after dinner, around 10.30pm.. they take groups of 5-6 girls out on different places and make them pretend they are ‘’having fun’’ and make us ‘’dance’’ in front of the camera; without music. It is more like waiting, you sit and wait for your turn to ‘’pretend’’ to dance. They shoot you for 15 secs, then you get back in the car and come back to the hotel. So all the videos that are shown during the telecast are very fake. If only I knew this, I would probably be mentally prepared for it. We were even taken to striphouse, peepshow for video recording.

To be honest, the idea I had about Miss Universe- being glitz and glamour was wrong. No one dresses up here, no one wear heels except of those few who tried really hard to win but never makes it.. All the girls were wearing tights, jackets, no makeup days, bad hair days, no one cared.. People in the hotel didn’t even know that Miss Universe was taking place there. Even countries like Venezuela, Philippines etc never wear a lot of makeup. They come down in flat shoes, eat breakfast and then go for rehearsals.

I gather the idea that Miss Universe is all about the show. They have the main protagonists and then the secondary characters. It is like shooting for a movie. It is 12 hours rehearsals per day every day during 3 weeks.

We have to be ready, standing with the sash in front of the door at 06 45 am and go back to our room after midnight. So it is hardly any sleep

Then comes a ‘’preview’’ where we are asked to wear our swimsuits, do our own hair and very light makeup and go one by one in front of the preliminary judges. The judges for the Preliminary are completely different from the one of the final night.

Preview lasts around 10 secs- Girl enters the room- stand, smile- they look at you- then you leave. Usually preview and private interview happen the same day. PREVIEW IS NOT NOTED. Interview- we have to wear office wear which lasts exactly 3 minutes. Two girls do the interview at the same time.

Two set of preliminary judges sit in the same room, they are 4 on each side. The bell rings… one girl goes on one side of judges, the second goes to the other set of judges. After exactly 1 min. 30sec., the bell rings again, we switch judges.

3 minutes and then it is over. They say that it is an important process but I don’t believe that it is, honestly. Even Donald trump said that ‘we cannot judge a person’s personality in 3 minutes or by a few questions, this is a beauty pageant and you have to be beautiful.’’ During our meeting with him. TRUE! the girls who ended up in the top16 were not the smartest ones at all, they were just the catwalk top models with flat abs with 6 or 8 cuts, big chested and who has had plastic surgery. It was so obvious that it is only about physique.

Then one day, Donald Trump walks in. They close the doors of the theater, he comes in with his bodyguards etc that is why- important personality he is of course. And we are asked to line up on the stage. And He walks up to greet us one by one accompanied by the President, Mrs Paula, who carries a little notebook in her hand.

We were split in groups of 3 in alphabetical order. He Asks us to walk one by one and he looks at us, then he whispers in the ears of Paula, who in turn writes something down. This was the worst moment of my life. All the girls felt like objects.

He handpicks his top16. That is all that we saw with our own eyes. He whispered for * and they were all in top16. These girls were not nice and definitely not smart at all except from * and * maybe. Kosovo, Estonia were so racist together with Russia and making bad jokes on black candidates.

We felt so bad to see how women were being treated as objects in front of Mr. Donald Trump. It is all about Business as well. Trump is setting up ‘trump towers’ in all the countries that are in top16.

I was appalled by this contest. I had never expected it to be so downgrading for women. Miss Universe was my childhood dream but I feel that I lost my time. I didn’t win anything because I didn’t want to win anything here. I stayed alone by myself, talked to my group of friends and we try to make it fun. ALL the girls were fed up and shocked by Miss Universe contest. The Latinas who were considered the most involved in this contest, were fed up with all this and most of them refused to ‘’pretend’’ in front of the camera. Venezuela left the rehearsals and go sat in the bathroom so many times. While typing, I still can remember everything as it was a movie.

The best thing about Miss Universe is the runway coach who is totally different from what I learnt and expected. She gave us advices that It is not necessary to smile with all our teeth out all the time. Sometimes girls do have ugly smiles when their teeth are too big or their gum is showing- which make the smile look fake. they can work it out with their eyes. She uses the word – ‘flirt’ a lot. She says we have to flirt with the judge.

She taught us 6 ways of catwalk on the ramp which was an absolute delight and to my great amusement was the best thing I ever learnt from here. To my great astonishment not all the girls were tall.. I was among the tallest. I probably had 10 girls who were around my height, that’s it. We had girls who were even 1m57 - Miss *, Miss * was 1m65, * was 1m70 and the winner *.

On a rounding up, Miss Universe was not the best experience of my life. Maybe for the year *, Miss Universe was meant to be like this.. I do not know about the past years but the supervisors told me it is the same every year. And I firmly believe that the truth must be told to all the girls participating at Miss Universe so that she can be mentally prepared to come here. We cannot pack amazing clothes and arrive here and then figure out what is going on. Preparation is a big thing- Catwalking and body maintenance are the main thing. Body should be perfect and not thin at all. I was among the thinnest girl over here and I was tagged Anorexic. All the top16 are ‘’fat muscular’’ girls. Because with the lights on us during prelims and finals make us look thinner than we usually are. And this year Miss Venezuela was two size bigger than I, therefore on screen her body looked feminine. Not Fat, but bodybuilding type of body. It was amazing to look at those bodies and realize how many surgeries and workout are needed. It doesn’t matter how your face looks like – it is all about body building and the way you sway the hips when walking.

Im sorry if my report was not very positive, but you know me more than I know myself and I like everything the straight forward way. It was a honest report and I meant everything I said. Every girl should be warned about the bad things first so that they are ready instead of telling them the ‘good part’ of the contest.

-- Miss Mauritius, Diya Beeltah

The truth behind Miss Universe according to Miss Mauritius Photographer_uploaded_1_53_1_1382890494_2013

Guest

You are saying a lot of things about Miss Universe but if you were called as one of the Top 16, you won't say anything.

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Guest

But the sad reality is candidates from small, unpopular island countries will rarely make it to the top 16 under Trump.

Guest

Clitoris Vida, are you saying that everything is 'ok' and that we can all close one eye as long as we make it to the top and just pretend that nothing that really happened, happened?

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