I was in Manila to watch the 65th Miss Universe Coronation Night last Monday at the Mall of Asia Arena and boy, it was one spectacular experience for this pageant fan!
My 30-year-old self was transported to the year 1994 when India’s Sushmita Sen was crowned in Manila and captured the hearts of many Filipinos with her wisdom and humility. I became that eight-year-old girl once again who dreamed of being part of the audience in a Miss Universe pageant.
Monday — the 30th of January — marked the day when that dream came true.
History repeated itself when Colombia was again part of Top 3 (Andrea Tovar ended with a 2nd runner-up finish while Carolina Gomez in 1994 went home as 1st runner-up). Miss Philippines Maxine Medina finished in the Top 6 replicating Charlene Gonzales’ placement 23 years ago. Miss France Iris Mittenaere came out victorious (and rightfully so!) and I joined the predominantly Filipino crowd inside that arena who cheered for Iris (pronounced as ee-ris) when Pia Wurtzbach placed the crown on her head.
Not to be forgotten was Miss Haiti Raquel Pelissier, whose announcement as one of the Top 13 finalists until she was declared 1st runner-up came as a surprise to the minding mortals in the crowd who didn’t consider her as one this competition’s front runners.
While my close friend Jessie and I were basking in Miss Universe glow, social media was abuzz with negative criticisms of Maxine’s answer to the question “What is the most significant change you’ve seen in the world in the last 10 years?” I did not expect Maxine to perform well in the Q and A so when she gave her answer, I honestly didn’t throw a fit. I didn’t go ballistic although I was keeping close attention on my other seatmate (not Jessie) who started gathering his things because the “show ended as Philippines is not part of the Top 3.”
Unlike my dear seatmate though the entire arena seemed to have quickly moved on from Maxine’s Top 6 finish. By the time Boyz II Men were serenading Miss Colombia, France and Haiti, the crowd was already divided among the three countries. Everyone was cheering for their bets.
Public speaking has always been Maxine’s Achilles’ heel. While she underwent rigorous Q-and-A training, you cannot expect a person to change in a matter of months. She was up against time and in that period of time, Maxine did not transform into an extemporaneous speaker. To me, that’s okay.
She’s okay. She is no Pia Wurtzbach. I guess many people just compared Maxine to Pia that it is easy to bash Maxine and call her all sorts of negative monikers.
It is in this Miss Universe edition that I sadly saw one skill that many Filipinos are good at: the ability to crush another person’s world and make that person feel worthless and unloved. This is done through harsh words and comments broadcast to the entire social media realm.
I have had my share of it last year when GMA News Online wrote a story about me, a young mother who brought her three-year-old son to an anti-Marcos rally. Instantly, the unkind words appeared in the comments section of that article. I received more than 200 messages, about 50 of which said that I am brainwashing my child, that I’m teaching my child to hate President Duterte, that I am not helping this country and that I will go to hell for what I did. The nastiest one was a message from a woman who called me as the “worst mother in the history of humankind.”
Recently, a fellow journalist Ryan Macasero — who wrote in his CDN column that the mainstream media is not jealous about the Facebook engagement rate of certain blogs — became an unfortunate subject of online bashing.
As expected, the comments were nasty. Really nasty.
While public bashing was magnified a million times for her during the Miss Universe season, Maxine Medina is not the lone victim of cyberbullying.
There are several people like Ryan and I who received death wishes (I wish you die) and harsh statements (you are worthless) because of what we write, say or do. You don’t need to be a Maxine Medina to be slapped with endless criticisms from people who act like they know you and your life just because of a single post, column or speech.
It is unfortunate that cyberbullying is a culture that is being cultivated by irresponsible social media usage.
Cyberbullying is real and while Pia Wurtzbach campaigned loud against it, now is the time to be more active and vocal in speaking against this modern form of oppression.
As much as I love pageants, the truth is that beauty contests are not the only platforms to voice out your opinions and choices.
You don’t need to be Miss Universe to speak out.
Bullies don’t have power over you. You have the power to crush their evil ways: correct them when needed, block them when necessary and speak out when they have gone to eighth level of hell accusing people and organizations of being biased without proof and evidence.
Your crown is your conviction to stand against those bullies, who, in reality, are cowards hiding behind their social media accounts.