In a first in the dreamy, magical, glamorous, and seductive world of beauty pageants, Alejandra Maria Rodriguez, a 60-year-old Argentine woman, recently shattered stereotypes and myths associated with the Miss Universe beauty pageants by clinching the title for the province of Buenos Aires. She became the first sexagenarian to win a title in a competition organised by the Miss Universe franchise since they announced last year that there would no longer be an upper age limit of 28 for contestants. While she was unable to repeat her triumph and win the title of Miss Argentina on Saturday, she did win the “best face category” and celebrated her breakthrough as the markings of a new era in the pageant world and in the way that we consume beauty as a society.
In an increasingly changing world, there have been several criticisms of the pageant world and what they stand for, with modernists calling for a complete ban on beauty pageants, claiming that they are regressive, sexist, ageist, and not in tune with evolving society. It was time for an overhaul, but the venerable institution and the Miss Universe Organisation, headquartered in New York City and Bangkok and currently owned by the Thai JKN Global Group, which took over from WWE/IMG in 2022, stepped up to the challenge. Till last year, the pageant only allowed unmarried and childless women to participate, and the expectation from the winner was to remain that way till they held the title.
However, last year, along with remo.
