As we all know, Filipinos are into pageants just like how we love basketball. Every candidate that represents our country has been fully supported and watched, from their walk, to their gowns, how they present themselves, how they answer questions, and how they leave a mark on everyone’s mind.
Recently, the 72nd Miss Universe 2023 was held at the Gimnasio Nacional José Adolfo Pineda in San Salvador, El Salvador, on November 18, 2023. Eighty four beautiful contestants competed for the title, but Sheynnis Palacios, the candidate representative of Nicaragua claimed the title this year.
Michelle Marquez Dee, the Philippines’ candidate representative and the daughter of Melanie Marquez, our Miss International 1979, ended her course as a top 10 finalist, which made our fellow citizens feel disappointed not at her performance but at the management of Miss Universe. According to some, the decision was a bit suspicious as they saw a Facebook post from Miss Universe management, an initial announcement of the finalists, and it shows that Dee is included on the list. However, a few minutes have passed, and it was deleted, and the management posted another announcement that they claim the real and final list of the contestants that will proceed to the next level.
Despite all of these frustrations, Filipinos congratulated Michelle as they saw her efforts and journey before she got to the pageant. On Facebook, here and there, it was all spread all over feeds. What people mostly appreciate is her positive character and, of course, her gown inspired by Apo Whang Od’s unique tattoo technique called “pagbabatok,” a handcrafted manual way of doing tattoos. The gown dedicated to the Philippines screams sexy, elegant and passionate, but at the same time, features our beautiful and one of a kind culture, proudly made by our very own Mark Bumgarner.
In the study of Capstone-Intel, there were a total of 11, 438 posts regarding this event and Michelle, 22,660,802 reactions which breaks down into ‘love’ reactions with 54.8 percent (a total of 12,429,117), ‘likes’ with 38.8 percent (a total of 8,803,430), ‘haha’ reactions with 3.4 percent (a total of 759,749), ‘sad’ reactions with 1.7 percent (a total of 384,720), ‘wow’ reactions with 1.1 percent (a total of 254,356) and ‘angry’ reactions with 0.1 percent (a total of 29,905). It was also revealed that the Miss Universe 2023 pageant got 77 percent of positive mentions regardless of Michelle’s unsuccessful try of taking home the crown and 23 percent of negative mentions that were obviously because of everyone’s disappointments and frustrations.
While some may think that this ends here, we can also remind ourselves of how strong, brave, and passionate a Filipina is, and that’s what we should be proud of because that’s what makes us stand out among others. We are unique in our own way. Even though we didn’t get the chance to bring home the bacon, somehow, we showed the world, how beautiful our culture is, how supportive Filipinos can be, how we can face and accept defeat and how we move forward to be the best version of ourselves. Michelle Marquez Dee is definitely the best example of a successful woman and how every Filipina should be, as what Pia Wurtzbach said, we wanted to show the world how Filipinas are confidently beautiful with a heart.
