Miss Italy – one of the country’s most popular beauty pageants – has banned transgender women from participating. The decision was announced by Patrizia Mirigliani.
Miss Italy Will Not Embrace Trans Activism
Speaking in an interview, Mirigliani explained that she disapproves of pageants that allow transgender women to participate and claimed that such decisions are only made for media attention. She made it impeccably clear that Miss Italy will not open its doors to transgender contestants as long as she’s in charge.
The Rule Isn’t New
Mirigliani isn’t changing the rules; transgender women have been banned from participating in Miss Italy since its conception. Mirigliani merely doubled down on the rule and explained that she’ll never change it as long as she’s in charge. She said: “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.”
The Pageant Embraces Inclusivity in Other Ways
Despite its ban on transgender competitors, the pageant embraces inclusivity in other ways. Over time, Miss Italy has changed its rules to allow women with hair extensions, tattoos, and piercings to participate. While this is good to see, it hardly compensates for banning the most marginalized group of women in the world from taking part.
The Netherlands Took the Opposite Approach
Despite Miss Italy’s undoubtedly transphobic policies, not every pageant in the world is so conservative. Transgender women are allowed to participate in Miss Netherlands and recently, one such woman won. She’ll compete in Miss Universe later this year.
Miss Italy’s Refusal to Change Highlights Common Issues
Miss Italy’s lack of trans-inclusive policies highlights a common problem perfectly. If Mirigliani saw transgender women as women, she’d have no issue allowing them to compete in a women’s competition. It’s clear that society’s inability to understand the difference between biological sex and gender identity, not to mention the nuances of biological sex, which aren’t taught in school, has stuck once more.
The Transgender Community Bounced Back
In response to Mirigliani’s announcement, in which she claimed the pageant would only allow “biological females” to participate, over 100 transgender men have applied to enter. One trans man said: “I took courage, used my deadname, and signed up for Miss Italy because fighting transphobia is intersectional and, even though I’m not a trans woman, I’ve decided to fight for their rights. Miss Italy is not just a beauty contest; it’s part of the country’s cultural history, and excluding trans women automatically means excluding them from history.”
Another Trans Man Summed up the Situation Very Well
Another transgender man said he was applying to “trigger, through a joke, a reflection on the absurdity of some logics out of time and out of the world. Someone imagines us as three-headed monsters who could never aspire to win a beauty contest because even the media representation often brings forward narratives that fetishize our bodies. With this campaign, we are giving visibility to the truth of trans people.”
Online Commenters Criticized Italy’s Treatment of the LGBTQ+ Community
Some online commenters criticized Italy’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. One forum wrote: “Italy has been falling closer to fascism and has taken more anti-LGBT measures recently. They also took away some parental rights from lesbian couples.”
Some Online Communities Made Jokes
Some online forums joked about the situation. “So the only eligible contestant is Athena, who sprung fully formed from the forehead of Zeus, I suppose,” one individual said, referencing the fact that women – trans or not – aren’t born women; they’re born girls.
Some Talked About Italy’s Political Situation as a Whole
Some forums talked about Italy’s political situation as a whole – and it was pretty bleak. One person wrote: “Yet again, it’s a case of ‘this sucks but I can’t say I’m surprised.’ As someone said above, Italy is the only large Western country without marriage equality. Italy has consistently lagged behind countries like the UK, France, and Spain when it comes to LGBTQ rights. On top of that, they just elected the terrifying Giorgia Meloni, who’s practically a fascist.”
Others Tried to Find Logic in the Pageant’s Rules
Some communities tried to find logic in the pageant’s rules. One user wrote: “Surgically created beauty is not what they want to promote. Even cisgender women who had surgery can’t participate. However, I’m sure they will find excuses not to let trans women who didn’t have surgery compete.”
A Minority Agreed With the Ban
A minority of online commenters agreed with the ban. Most of them, though, referred to transgender women as men, conveying instantly that they’d not only fallen into the all-too-common trap of conflating gender identity and biological sex but that they hadn’t conducted any further research into the subject of the latter since their school education.
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