The Miss Universe 2023 pageant, under it’s new rebranding, has come and gone and 2024 is the first full year where potential delegates will not be restricted on the grounds of having “aged out”, their marital status, or having a child. These are the most recent restrictions that were lifted in 2023 to create a more inclusive and diverse Miss Universe pageant. Some countries have already had their 2024 national pageants and have selected a delegate, and Canada will have it’s national pageant in July.
When I watched the Miss Universe 2023 show, I noticed that some wardrobe choices in the national costumes either dripped in pro-colonial ideas or tokenized the idea of diversity. As co-host and former Miss Universe R’Bonney Gabriel said, the National Costume Show is for fun, and it’s an opportunity for delegates to “let their hair down and rep their countries.”
In terms of ethnocentricity, Miss Great Britain’s costume was an elaborate portrayal of the Oxford Dictionary. As she modelled it, National Costume Show co-host, Nick Teplitz, exclaimed that “Great Britain gave the world English, the official language of 67 countries.” Though there is nothing wrong with being proud of a language or celebrating it, the phrasing was tone deaf. Great Britain (specifically, England) did not “give” their language to most of the countries that now count it as an official language. The English language was forced onto people groups in lands that England colonized. Although England is not the only colonial agent that stamped out indigenous languages to impose their language on the places they colonized, Miss Great Britain’s costume was the only one that celebrated the spread of a language- while mitigating that indigenous languages and cultures were violently killed off to make room for a new culture.
Lacking in “inclusivity” was Miss Canada’s national costume, which seemed to not grasp the meaning of inclusivity. Gabriel said that while Miss Canada took her turn on the runway, the costume “features elements from countries competing at Miss Universe intertwined with [a large red maple leaf].” That statement is factually correct: the flared part of the mermaid style dress featured miniature flags from the competing countries. Some countries’ flags were prominently displayed on top of the maple leaf, which read “INCLUSIVITY MAKES DREAMS COME TRUE.” Interestingly, this costume contradicted the purpose of the National [emphasis added by current author] Costume Show, which is, as Gabriel said at the top of the show, to represent the delegate’s country. Would it not have made more sense for the flags on Miss Canada’s dress to represent the various diasporas that make Canada a cultural mosaic? With the Chinese community being the largest diaspora in Canada, did Chinese Canadians not deserve to be represented on Miss Canada’s dress? With Iran and Syria being in the top ten countries of origin for new Canadian citizens in 2022 and Iran remaining on the list for 2023, do these communities not deserve to be represented as a part of Canada? And with the Korean population growing in Canada, they, too, deserve a place on the national costume of the country they now call home. Between Permanent Residents, naturalized Canadians, and first and second generation Canadians, millions of Canadians have a recent connection to another country, and that deserves to be celebrated. A large number of people groups keep Canada’s cultural mosaic strong, and it is a shame that the national costume presented a hierarchy of Canadian-ness by highlighting the countries that competed in Miss Universe while leaving out the countries that did not compete. It’s as though the concept behind the Canadian national costume was to represent the Miss Universe Pageant (and delegates) and not to represent the nation of Canada.
Although the idea of representing multiculturalism and inclusivity in a national costume is noble, there are ways to do it while representing all of Canada’s newcomers as well as Indigenous peoples who make the country diverse. This national costume seemed to tokenize the definition of “inclusivity” by representing some people groups while still promoting exclusivity of other people groups. It gives the feel-good warmth of showing inclusivity while turning a blind eye to other racialized groups in Canada. This isn’t meant to call out any delegates or any costume designers. This is a call for national directors to be more conscious of what messages they are presenting within their countries and to the world. This is a challenge for the Miss Universe class of 2024 teams to do better. This is a call to action for those in the pageant industry to construct a more socially responsible pageantsphere. The challenge has been issued, and I look forward to seeing the National Costume Show at Miss Universe 2024! I especially hope that after the Miss Universe Canada 2024 pageant in July, a costume will be designed that represents Canada properly and accurately, regardless of the theme of the costume.
Janice MacGregor 