For real though, why I feel Catriona deserved the crown aside from her intelligence (which is obvious) and the fact that every single thing she wore represented Philippine culture (more on that later, I want to post about that in detail):
1) She believed that knowing English should NOT be a prerequisite to joining Miss Universe, because there are other ways to communicate and touch people’s hearts other than language, which is a huge middle finger to Miss USA’s, Miss Australia’s, and Miss Columbia’s mocking of Miss Vietnam and Miss Cambodia for not speaking fluent English;
2) She believed that the Miss Universe pageant should not be limited to cisgender women only, and believed that transgender women are, in their own right, women too, and was in full support of Miss Spain, the first transgender woman to join Miss Universe;
3) She never wavered in her advocacy for the impoverished children of Tondo, and instead of talking about charity and what she’s able to give to these children, she talks about how *they* are the ones who inspire *her*, and she very humbly acknowledges that her being born in privilege doesn’t mean she can’t learn from these children who bring light in her life. She approaches it not from the perspective of an elite who has wealth to give, but from the perspective of a sheltered woman who has much to learn from the people around her.
In short:Catriona embodied true intersectional feminism. Beauty pageants, at their core, is very bourgeois and very othering, but Catriona walked into that pageant siding with minorities and carrying them all with her. She embodied what it meant to be given the gift of privilege and then using it to shine light and give voice to those who need it the most.
It’s the very first time that I truly felt that a Philippine candidate deserved the crown.
Congratulations, Catriona Magnayon Gray, Miss Universe 2018. You will truly change the universe—for good.
