Written by R. Galvez [@the4ofustraveling]
The Miss International 2022 pageant concluded with the crowning of Miss Germany Jasmin Selberg in a glittering pageant held at Tokyo Dome City Hall . Her victory came as a surprise as beauty experts and analysts did not tag her as frontrunner. In fact, she was ranked 8th at the Final Hot Picks of Missosology. How she managed to outflanked the frontrunners will be an interesting topic to discuss but here are some of the takeaways from Miss International 2022:
1.) The Japanese society in general is resistant to change and that reflects on how Miss International conducts itself. The pageant is not prepared to adopt a new system let a lone a new mindset even if it is wrongfully accused as a racist and boring pageant. Today, Miss International had a huge chance to make history and break away from its traditions by crowning either Miss Cabo Verde (which would make her as the first African Miss International) or Miss Peru (which would make her as the first Peruvian to ever win the title). Instead, the pageant crowned a blonde European whose country already won the crown twice.
2.) Persistence at beauty pageants pays off. Jasmin Selberg competed at Miss Globe 2021 and Miss Supranational 2022 where she was unplaced. However, her failures didn’t deter her to try her luck somewhere else and she even competed at Miss Universe Germany 2022 and was named as one of semifinalists. Every failure is a lesson and those experiences allowed Jasmin to triumph at Miss International.
3.) Sash weight does not always matter. The last time Germany made it to the semifinals of Miss International was in 2010 and the last time they won was way back in 1989. Germany is no longer a pageant powerhouse and its Big5 Ranking is slowly declining from 15th place in 2017 down to 18th in early 2022. Despite of these headwinds, Jasmin prevailed and beat the frontrunners!
4.) It wasn’t Asia’s night. In other Big5 pageants held earlier this year, Asian candidates where enjoying high placements leading many experts and analysts to believe that the pageantry world is shifting from Latin America to East Asia. That is not the case at Miss International 2022. The lone Asian at the Top 15 is Miss Philippines and she didn’t even advance to the Top 8. The usual placement of Miss Korea and Miss Japan did not materialize and strong candidates like Miss Vietnam and Miss Indonesia were largely ignored.
Photos by Bong Tan [@bong.tan]
