It's a piece of news that could change the way the beauty pageant world functions. News reports suggest that the Miss Universe pageant has made changes in its eligibility criteria and the contest would be now open to mothers and married women for participation from the next year.
According to Fox News, marital and parental status will no longer be criteria for eligibility for pageant contestants starting in 2023.
Since the beginning, the contest has adhered to some strict rules that require winners to be single and maintain their status as such throughout their reign as the title.
Also, mothers have always been excluded as the victors are typically required to avoid getting pregnant while serving as Miss Universe.
Beauty queens around the world have hailed the decision! Miss Universe 2020 winner Andrea Meza of Mexico praised the rule change.
"I honestly love that this is happening," Meza said in an interview with Insider. "Just like society changes and women are now occupying leadership positions where in the past only men could, it was about time pageants changed and opened up to women with families."
Meza called out the current guidelines as being "sexist" and "unrealistic".
"A few people are against these changes because they always wanted to see a single beautiful woman who is available for a relationship," Meza added. "They always wanted to see a woman that, from the outside, looks so perfect that she's almost unreachable. The former is sexist and the latter is unrealistic."
The internal memo on this new change was cited by The National, which stated in a report that the organisation “always strived to evolve with the times and the latest decision was the natural next step”.
“We all believe that women should have agency over their lives and that a human’s personal decisions should not be a barrier to their success,” the memo purportedly read.
Buzz has it that the new format, reportedly, will be rolled out in 2023 for the 72nd Miss Universe pageant.
