The Italian version of the Miss America Pageant, Miss Italy, made a controversial ruling recently that sure to illicit cries of transphobia and bigotry from the woke left: In the wake of Miss Netherlands being won by a biological male, Miss Italy has vowed to allow only biological women to compete for its crown.
Patrizia Mirigliani, the woman overseeing the event, recently clarified the pageant’s stance and laid out the direction they will be taking moving forward. In her view, competitions that allow biological males only do so to seek attention, and that won’t be happening under her watch.
Mirigliani had this to say: “Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news by also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd. Miss Italia, on the other hand, will not jump on the glittery bandwagon of trans activism.” Mirigliani continued: “Only those who are women, biologically speaking, can participate, and not those who perceive themselves as such.”
The Italian competition has significantly loosened the rules in recent years, allowing those with such body alterations as tattoos, piercings, and hair weaves to compete for the crown. However, that is where the competition has decided to draw the line for the competition.
Mirigliani clarified her stance further: “Since it was born, my competition has foreseen in its regulation the clarification according to which one must be a woman from birth. Probably because, even then, it was foreseen that beauty could undergo modifications, or that women could undergo modifications, or that men could become women.”
She concluded: “Tattooed girls, with piercings, and extensions participate in our contest. It’s all part of the new way of talking about women, but we try not to facilitate everything that is excessive to accentuate the aesthetics. Excesses are not good.”
Rikkie Valerie Kolle, the transgender individual in the Netherlands who won the beauty pageant, said, “I was in full disbelief the moment they called my name, I was like ‘oh my god, is this really happening’? You’re living through a really intense but also energising period. And you just want to finish the great final with other contestants. I just enjoyed every single moment of it.”
Kolle added, “The journey started as a super insecure little boy. And now I’m standing here as a strong and empowering and confident woman. I’m really proud of that. And that I always got the support around me from my family and my friends and my chosen queer family. I know a lot of people don’t have that.”
Continuing, Kolle said, “They [people] told me ‘she’s a pretty girl but she can go to the trans pageantry because it [Miss Netherlands] is for real women’. So then I’m like ‘OK you’re calling me a pretty girl, but also telling me that I’m not a real woman’. For me, it’s to break boundaries and to step up and go to a beauty pageantry and tell my story, be Rikkie, enjoy every single moment of it. The pageantry gives me a stage to talk about what I want to change in society and I think that’s a really important thing. In the Netherlands, I also got a lot of backlash. It’s also showing that we’re still not there in the Netherlands and that the inclusivity is on the bare minimum now. I thought we were way further than we are. But it only gives me more inspiration to step up my goals and to achieve what I want to do now.“