Of married women and mothers

New regulation for next year's Miss Universe selection

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

After allowing transgender women to compete in the Miss Universe 2018 pageant, Spain's Angela Ponce made history. Lately, social media is agog with rumors of a new regulation in next year's Miss Universe selection.

According to the official Instagram account of the national director of Miss Universe Dominican Republic, Magali Febles, the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) will start accepting married women and mothers with children in the 72nd Miss Universe pageant season.

This controversial post was concurred by the president of Miss France Society, Alexia Laruche-Joubert, in a comment she made with The Limited Times news portal on July 13, 2022. As an evolution of the Miss France regulation for 2023, she said that "the ban on married women and/or mothers from participating is also over."

While the Dominican Republic and France may be singing the same tune, the rest of the pageant world has been speculating whether this new rule could bring about a positive change!

Interestingly, the Miss International Organization, through its spokesperson Stephen Diaz (@DiazStephen) wrote a Tweet saying, "Change is good but there's a reason why our pageant is meant for single ladies at certain age bracket. The presence of such limitation gives extra value to the title because you got to have one shot at it while you're still young and is eligible."

While not all countries and cultures may subscribe to this new rule, it's interesting to note, if indeed such a regulation becomes permitted, that the MUO has made a change of heart after being resolute on this matter for seven decades.

In fact, in 1957, when the Miss USA winner was selected on the same time as the Miss Universe winner, Miss USA Leona Gage was stripped of her title in less than 24 hours of being crowned. It was known that she lied about her age, had been divorced, remarried, and is the mother of two children. After her dethronement, Leona went on to marry four more times!

Whatever happens to this new controversial rule will see light in the coming days. Stay tuned!