Miss Fiji Dethroned For Not Being Fijian Enough
Apparently Miss Fiji has been dethroned. I know, I know. You probably will not be able to work again until you discover why on earth Miss Fiji has been dethroned. Was she born a man? Nope. Was she having sex with Donald Trump? I don't think so. Was she having sex with Tom Cruise? Hang on. I fell to the ground with that one. I made myself laugh so hard. No. She was not. So, why on earth was Miss Fiji dethroned? Well for one thing Torika Watters lost her title because she is 16 and the rules say she must be at least 17. Apparently she will be eligible next year. The big thing though is that people were upset because she did not look Fijian. They want their representative to have a frizzy Fijian hairstyle. Torika's Facebook page has been one big racist rant ever since she was crowned Ms. Fiji. That sucks. Plain and simple. I think the organizers were thrilled she was underage because it is one thing to remove someone because of their age, but to be forced out because of all the racist comments is another thing entirely.
31 comments:
Fucking ridiculous. What did they expect? An obese woman in an afro?
During this next year, she should get the type of perm I had in the 80's. Problem solved.
I don't give a shit about beauty pageants because I think they're wrong.
But to be totally superficial here, I so badly want to condition and comb her hair. It has that nasty dryness mine gets in the morning before I fix it.
Reverse discrimination or in her case she is the minority. It has not quite been 30 years since Vanessa Williams had to give up her crown here, not because she was black, but because she took nude photographs...maybe this girl will have a successful post-pageant career too! Too bad the first runner up wasn't an of age minority too!
Stupid me. I didn't know Fiji women all had frizzy hair. To me, if you're born there you're a native Fijian. What a bunch of pinhead racists.
@anita_mark, I wouldn't be surprised if her hair was already treated in the extreme. Fijians tend to have kinky hair.
@SusanB, there may be several other cultural issues at play. Culturally, how Fijian is she? I would venture to guess she has a second passport. Did she grow up there? If I'm not mistaken, Fijian society is somewhat stratified in terms of race.
I can't speak for Melanesia, but in Polynesia, there are still issues with people who are part white. My bff is Euronesian, and when the opportunity strikes, he loves to bitch about haughty Samoans of German descent -- and this is a person who has had more opportunities than most people in the world, let alone those in Samoa.
Well then how in the hell was she awarded the title in the first place?!?!?
I'm confused.
Those fools- and all of this just on the heels of the death of Vidal Sasson and his ideas about hair and hairstyles
Her dad is European. I read about this yesterday.
Shes not very pretty anyways... Not that I can say anything.
Totally agree this is reverse racism.
To play devil's advocate though I think that when you see things like Ms. Universe (dont judge, it happened to be on tv LOL) often IMO there are all these gorgeous women from around the world and yet they almost all have a distinctly....European look to them.
I think white-washing one's features/looks is a MAJOR epidemic. I mean, we lighten african american actresses skin color on magazine covers here, let alone elsewhere. For instance, in Asian cultures they have surgeries to make their eyes more rounded ala European-descended people. There are skin bleaching creams people all over the world buy- it is a multi multi million dollar business.
In short, I feel like once again a woman was chosen to represent her culture who yes, DOES look (and apparently is) of European (read white) decent.
Not saying there's anything wrong with being white (this is my ethnicity obviously) but I think there is some ring of truth to what the Fijians are getting so worked up about.
Jasmine, I agree with you. So, well stated. Coming from a not all white ethnicity.
From what I've read, the panel of judges wasn't Fijian (and was lead by Rachel Hunter), and this girl who is half European, half Fijian beat out all the ethnic Fijians. I can see it being a case of racism on the part of the judges and the country reacting to that. I can only imagine having a beauty contest at an all black college, having a group of white people come in to judge, and having them pick the fairest girl with the straightest hair and most European features. Doesn't mean the girl isn't part of that group, just like it doesn't mean this girl isn't Fijian enough. Does mean that the judges need to be a panel of peers or people of that community to be fair and an accurate representation of the people.
The Asian community (Korean,Chinese,Japanese,Polynesian,etc) are very paticular about looks.Bi-racial : there's no such thing to most of them.Dual citizenship: uh-uh
Lots of American soldiers have kids by Asian women. Those kids are 2nd class citizens in their mothers' countries.
Polynesians aren't Asian, and there isn't the same stigma to having a Caucasian parent as in Asian community.
For example, in Samoa, people with European heritage tend to be better off, and they are not necessarily discriminated against because of that. (Also, you have to consider the country with the largest Samoan population is New Zealand.) Most of them, still in Samoa, are very connected to their Samoan heritage.
Oh for the love of god. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REVERSE RACISM. Racism is racism. Period.
I feel like I'm going to have my soul eaten right out of my body after looking at her picture. Maybe I've just been watching too much Supernatural.
True, there are more Samoans in NZ than in Samoa. There's my interesting only marginally related fact for the day.
Thank you seaward! That bugs the jeebs outta me!
She's pretty fug. They need a hot indigenous chick to represent
Those people making the complaints about her not being Fijian enough are making racist comments.
While there is some "whitewashing" that happens within non-European's, there is also a similar movement among the white community to look more exotic, hence: the tanning, lip injections, eye surgery to make the eyes more almond-shaped, etc.
X2, Seaward
I don't know about Polynesians, but I so agree w/ just curious about Asians (from Asia) being a bit extra-proud of their own heritages, and surprisingly derisive of any other Asians. It was mostly just hilarious (NOT genocidal), like "You can tell he's Japanese because he's SO UGLY." (From a Korean man)
But there was a not-so-subtle hierarchy of skin colors amongst them (all immigrants). Pale Koreans & Chinese were treated best, Southeast Asians w/ darker skin were treated worse. Mind you, this was a group of only a dozen or so immigrants, but all of them had a strong opinion about every other country. And nobody liked the Japanese; I think it was all the wars.
To be clear--I worked at a 'Chinese' restaurant with many immigrants on staff, in a town with many Asian immigrants as well. It was fascinating for me, in small-town Indiana, to get to work with so many different points of view.
Sorry for the off-topic. Carry on.
Liz- I respectfully disagree with you.
We actually discussed this in a race/gender/class of mine last semester regarding Caucasians attempting to look more exoticized. The reality is if you look at tanning the skin tone is definitely more of an orange hue than a deep brown or black.
And the almond-shaped eyes are exaggerated which make them look opposite of natural.
These things mean that white women are willing to become more exotized but it is not the same as attempting to own another ethnicity (like bleaching cream or round-eye surgeries in other countries are doing). This is because we (as in the white-dominated society) are using our showing our dominance by playing at exoticism and yet never fully commiting to another ethnicity while skin bleaching and surgeries for your eyes is pretty fucking permanent.
It's just showing white privilege that we feel comfortable being darkly tan and yet still enjoy all the privilege that many actual people of color do not get in our white-dominated society.
Libby. Interesting story...
Seaward..Yes, this!
Jasmine..Sounds like you just agreed with Liz to me. But don't let one persons class make your decision for you. White people do want the characteristics of other ethnicities to exocticize themselves as much as other races try to look more mainstream (and dare I say white) and it's all to adhere to some particular take on what is beautiful now. Trends will change and the beauty treatments with it. Whether they do these treatments to enjoy more priviledges is questionable to me. I think it's just to be beautiful which enjoys priviledges of it's own.
Well, the "classic" beautiful woman look is a white girl - that's why skin lightening is so common throughout the world. I would be upset too if I were a Fijian, because this girl looks likes she's any other white girl.
Just more pressure on women to look as white as possible, because that's what our society cherishes. Very sad.
Jasmine, I agree with your last paragraph, but I think people choose to look more "White" for different reasons. Feautures such as blond hair and blue eyes are more rare, and therefore White AND non-White women dye their hair and/ may wear contact lenses.
White women undergoing a blepharoplasty or forehead lift to achieve a certain almond-shape is permanent.
Ultimately, people try to follow whatever standard of beauty is in vogue and whatever they think will make
them look best. Several years ago Brazilian models
were put on a pedesatal, then the Eastern Europeans,
now it's the Asian models. We are definitely moving
towards a more universal standard of beauty.
Until Coco Chanel showed up with a tan, it was completely looked down upon to have anything other than milk white skin in high society. Being a caucasian with tan skin, meant that you were a laborer or of lower social status. It meant you actually had to work for a living (usually in a field).
*Something my mom told me when i was younger and getting teased for my fair complexion.
There's a large Indian population in Fiji. Would they be considered "not Fijian enough"?
Maybe she simply performed better than the other girls.
Actually it really was her age, she said so in a public statement made after a judge came forward to say basically the whole thing was rigged. She wasn't even in the top three but the main organizer wanted her to win all along.
After the judge came forward, Torika then issued her own statement. She was told she was too young to compete (after she won mind you). She was 15 when she took part and only turned 16 a few days ago. She was living in Sydney, Australia when the organizer friended her on facebook pursuing her to compete. She told him she was too young but he lied and said they will make an exception.
The whole thing has since blown up and the whole race drama has now turned to who or what that organizer(s) is/are and how could they allow such crap to happen.
Yes tons of race debate which as well know turned personal and violent (on the internet only) but everyone was behind Torika because they thought at that time she won fair and square.
There will always be a race debate in Fiji because Fiji is made up of many different races. The whole racial thing came up because they have sent different races to Miss World before, they were merely suggesting that to be different how about send a real Fijian...then all hell broke loose.
Besides...they'd have to send someone who can speak...Torika could not fulfill that...she's a teenager with very little public exposure,but she can take all this and compete again later on.
To be fair, Torika has a lot of supporters whether they wanted a real Fijian or not. Only the people on the internet were going cray cray over the whole thing...which of course they have changed their tune by now because of this whole thing has taken a big turn...towards the main organizer: A. Blake...problems with who chose the winner, judging, prizes and...the money.
So no...it wasn't because she wasn't Fijian enough, it was because of her age as stated by Miss World, the organizer and Miss Torika herself...in her statement.
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