For the first time in its history, the Miss Universe beauty pageant will allow mothers and married women to participate in the beauty contest.
Starting next year, the annual competition will accept married women and mothers.
The new policies will take effect for the 72nd Miss Universe pageant in 2023, according to an internal memo obtained by The National.
Until now, the Miss Universe pageant’s strict rules did not allow participants to be married or be a mother. The winners were also expected to remain unmarried through the entire tenure with the title.
Mothers were also excluded from the pageant and winners were traditionally expected to not become pregnant for a year till they held the title of Miss Universe.
Andrea Meza, Miss Universe 2020 winner, applauded the change in rules. Speaking to Insider, Meza said, “I honestly love that this is happening. Just like society changes and women are now occupying leadership positions where in the past only men could, it was about time pageants changed and opened up to women with families.”
“A few people are against these changes because they always wanted to see a single beautiful woman who is available for a relationship,” Meza added. “They always wanted to see a woman that, from the outside, looks so perfect that she’s almost unreachable. The former is sexist and the latter is unrealistic.”
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