Weird kind of history to make
The BBC gushes over a man who won a “beauty pageant”:
Rikkie Valerie Kolle has made history as the first transgender woman to win Miss Netherlands. It’s the first time in the Dutch pageant’s 94-year history that a trans woman has been crowned winner. It means the 22-year-old will be the second openly trans competitor to take part in Miss Universe in December this year.
Well of course it’s the first time a man has been crowned winner of a competition for women.
This doesn’t infuriate me the way the intrusion of men in women’s sports does, because I think “beauty pageants” are bad and stupid and (obviously) sexist, but the fawning and drooling does annoy. Do grow up, BBC.
Rikkie says she dreamed of winning pageants like this as a child. “The journey started as a super insecure little boy,” she tells Newsbeat. “And now I’m standing here as a strong and empowering and confident woman. I’m really proud of that.”
Empowering? How? Don’t be absurd. Beauty pageants are enfeebling, not empowering. There’s no power in standing around in a dress or a swimsuit or underwear.
As Miss Netherlands, Rikkie is now entered into December’s Miss Universe competition – which was bought by trans businesswoman Anne Jakapong Jakrajutatip last year.
Tell you what, how about trans women take over these “competitions” completely. Women have better things to do.
Yes, let our “Little Mister Sunshines” have it. I’m surprised that these are even still a thing.
When my eyes first quickly scanned this, my initial read was: “In the Dutch pageant, a 94-year-old trans woman has been crowned winner.”
Given how much pretense and superficiality are involved in ‘beauty’ pageants, it was only a matter of time.
So, where does the winner go for his next hit of validation? I wonder if it’s like junkies needing bigger and bigger fixes to get the same high?
Maybe it’s because he chose the Ivanka Trump look.
I’m not sure that’s entirely far from the mark. it’s all about transformation, see?
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/why-dont-we-use-me-thai-transgender-advocate-wants-her-miss-universe-inspire-2022-10-27/
Who needs to transform? You know, other women. Transwomen.
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/showbiz/showbizabroad/860534/anne-jakrajutatip-opens-up-about-her-life-and-the-new-miss-universe/story/
I’m sure they’ll keep some of those icky cis-women around so they can lose to the beautiful, brave trans women.
Perhaps Jakapong will want to honor the authors of all this transformation. Miss Universe could incorporate a plastic surgery contest. The entrants could bring their surgeons to the stage to receive the trophies.
The ‘Wobblies’ (IWW) as I recall had a tactic of ‘boring from within,’ which meant getting their acolytes to join a target organisation and operate inside it and effectively take it over. That amplified the political and industrial influence and power of each individual member of the IWW considerably, and the times were pretty ruthless on both sides.
Could be that the BBC has been targeted the same way by the Mob: ie the Trans-Mob. Not to be confused with the Italian Mafia, however easy it may be to find similarities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_labor_slogans#:~:text=Boring%20from%20within%20is%20a,with%20regard%20to%20the%20AFL.
Funny thing–I remember when it was considered a scandal for a beauty pageant contestant to admit to having had plastic surgery.
https://seattle.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S30C2723379
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Kxq9uFDes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f2J4ceCikI
Hell, I think it was a scandal for any of them to admit they had had sex.
Omar, great links, allow me to add one more.
Graeme Connors tells the story of when Paul Robeson performed at the Sydney Opera House prior to its completion. Robeson put on a free concert for the construction workers. He truly was a remarkable inheritor of the Joe Hill and IWW spirit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKa6u8KZt94
Your Reverence:
Well, that link you provided is certainly a blast from the past. I was 20 years old at the time of Robeson’s visit to Sydney, and attended two of his concerts there: one at Sydney Town Hall and the other as I recall at the nearby Paddington Town Hall. I got on a line of audience members at the end of the latter, and we all got to shake his hand. In my book, it was better than getting to shake hands with Abe Lincoln.
At the time of the US Peekskill Riots of 1949, there were stories abounding of sharpshooters beyond the crowd who were out to get Robeson, and Robeson’s supporters in the crowd formed a human shield around him as he sang. (A foretaste of the 1962 Kennedy assassination?)
World War 1 arose out of the colonialism and imperialism that Robeson was dead-set against. And the rest of history since has been a long cascade of positive developments, but with more than its fair share of disasters mixed in; vide the title of this thread..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekskill_riots
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/paul-robeson-first-singer-opera-house
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Paul_Robeson#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20clear%20evidence,book%20number%20is%20not%20known%22.
You shook hands with Paul Robeson????
Wow.
OB: Yes. Likewise my late mother, who was a great fan of Robeson’s and had many of his records. She was also a devout Christian, and her favourite Robeson song was his rendition of the old spiritual Balm in Gilead. I would put that record on our gramophone and sing along with it, (to Mum’s delight) and found that with practice I could reach all the notes he sang in that piece, though I would never claim that I had his full bass range. But I did the same with Bing Crosby’s records, from which I learned to sing baritone. Likewise with Mum’s recordings by Burl Ives, which helped me greatly in the tenor range.
Then I took to singing along with A.L. (‘Bert’) Lloyd, and got seriously into Australian folk Music, then into writing songs myself.. At about the same time I was exiting stage Left from Christianity; much to Mum’s disgust on both counts. But she said she always prayed for me anyway.
NB: I strongly recommend to would-be singers that they both: a. sing along with their favourites’ records, and b. take no notice ever of any negative comments; from anyone.
I have run learn-to-sing workshops along those lines at various folk festivals in my time, though I must confess that my voice is not what it used to be. And to make sure that this is not OT, I’m thinking of offering a deal to the BBC: Fly me to London First Class, put me up at the Savoy, and I’ll run singing classes on the TV channel of their choice. That will save them having to feature so much of this trans bullshit.
How could they refuse?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okl2XbTM7xM
I wouldn’t normally make this kind of comment, but as these things are literally about ranking people’s looks: that is the most horse-faced winner of a beauty pageant I have ever seen.