Q&A: Transgender Miss Singapore Universe

Limpeh has been asked to comment on this story: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/would-you-accept-a-transgender-as-miss-singapore-universe-.html and frankly, I didn't think I had that much to say about the issue until I read this other post: http://wherebearsroamfree.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/transgenders-miss-universe-controversy.html Barrie has been homophobic in previous posts and he has since gone on to become transphobic as well. Yeah I realized that him and I sit on opposites ends of the spectrum, I am an atheist liberal whilst he is a religious conservative - and it was pointed out to me that we will attract readers who will agree with our brand of opinions; so a big hello to all my liberal readers out there.

To begin with, I don't see what the fuss is. This whole beauty pageant thing is a joke to begin with - I honestly don't know why women subject themselves to it. The put themselves up there to be judged by others and everything from their dress sense to their hairstyles to the way they talk get scrutinized down to the last detail and judged. Nonetheless, it still appeals to the vanity of some people who adore that kind of attention. Heck, most of us can't be bothered choose to ignore it. The only Miss Singapore that most of us can remember is Ris Low - can you honestly remember any other winners? Ris Low only became a sensation because of the controversy which resulted in her giving up her crown - yet she is the only one who actually had 15 minutes of fame.

Like the commercial sex industry in Singapore as discussed in my previous post, most of us are willing to look the other way and totally ignore the Miss Universe pageant. We don't care who represents Singapore and we don't care who becomes Miss Universe either. There was a time when dirty old men used to enjoy the swimsuit round where they get to watch a bevvy of international beauties parade around in bikinis - but given the amount of free porn there is on the internet, even these dirty old men have lost interest in the swimsuit parade at these beauty pageants.

I have a friend here who actually takes part in such events - she is a model and actress and I don't like the idea of her taking part in it. Why? Because she really wants to win - sometimes she gets some small award like "best costume" and she is so happy and when she doesn't win, she gets so upset and disappointed. I'm like - how do you pick one beautiful woman over another? How can you say "this woman is more beautiful than the others?" Heck, I wanna tell them they're all beautiful and they shouldn't subject themselves to a panel of judges to pick one winner and then hang their self-esteem on the judges' decision.

Nobody should ever hand their self-esteem over to a third party like that - everyone should always believe in themselves and have self-confidence regardless of what life throws at them. I have told her so many times, "it doesn't matter if you win or lose, you know you are a beautiful woman both on the inside and outside" but she doesn't get it and she keeps taking part in these contests. Sigh.  It's not like she's some kind of silly brainless bimbo - she is so intelligent, yet she needs people to validate her beauty. She is not content with liking what she sees in the mirror, she needs a panel of judges to give her a score. Go figure.

In any case, why are people kicking up such a big fuss anyway? It's just technical change of the rules which says that transgender women can take part - it's not like there's a long queue of transgender women waiting to take part. There are none so far - given what kind of homophobic and intolerant society Singapore is. A transgender woman would have to be pretty strong (or a glutton for punishment) to take the kind of bullshit that ignorant, intolerant and bigoted Singaporeans would throw at such a contestant. And for what? A beauty pageant? You're simply not going to get any transgender contestants in Singapore. No way.

This story originated in Canada where you're simply getting a transgender contestant in their pageant, all she has done is won the right to take part. The same thing has yet to happen in Singapore and will probably never happen in Singapore. In any case, how many Singaporeans actually bother watching the pageant? Most of us have no clue who the reigning Miss Singapore is. We simply are not interested in who she is or how she represents Singapore abroad. Heck, we just hope she's decent in the looks department and is more articulate than Ris Low.

Let's use a different example. How many of you know the name of the Singaporean ambassador to Germany? Unless you're a Singaporean living in Germany, you're not going to know as it's simply not relevant to you. And even if you are a Singaporean in Germany, you're hardly going to meet the ambassador. Now what if we asked the hypothetical question: would you accept a transgender as a Singaporean ambassador to Germany? (Disclaimer: The current ambassador in Berlin is Mr Jacky Foo and I am not for a moment suggesting that he is transgender, this is but a hypothetical question!) If there was a similar poll on Yahoo! Singapore, then again, most people would vote 'no'.

Let's expose homophobia and transphobia for what it is. Most Singaporeans have no idea who the current Miss Singapore is or who the ambassador to Germany is - it is simply not of interest to them. Yet the moment they are given a chance to exercise homophobia and/or transphobia - they want to voice their disapproval of transgender people. This is such utter hypocrisy.

I say, if people wanna run these pageants and can find willing participants, then why not? It's a big industry that attracts loads of sponsors from the beauty and grooming industry. Some of the sponsors of the Miss Singapore Beauty Pageant include those from the beauty and grooming industry: Grace Mask, Aileron Wellness,  The Hair Secrets and White Dental Group. Of course, it is hardly surprising to find such brands wanting to sponsor an event which celebrates physical beauty and use this as a platform to sell their expensive treatments and products. Such is the way the commercial world works: the more money you spend on your body, the better you look - hence isn't this an implicit discrimination against poor people who cannot afford spa treatments, expensive wellness packages, the best make up your money can buy, beautiful clothes and cosmetic surgery?

Barrie based his argument on the fact that male to female transgenders would have had the unfair advantage of hormonal treatment to make their bodies more feminine and had undergone plastic surgery to create a more beautiful female face. Hang on a minute, is there anything in the rules of the contest which forbids the contestants from using any kind of beauty therapy or beauty enhancing treatments including plastic surgery? 

I was curious, so I looked it up: http://www.ermworld.org/spore/htmdocs/events/ms_sg_pageant.htm The rules are as follows: 

A Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident 17 to 26 years of age as at 1st May 2012 Not married or had marriage annulled A natural female by birth Has never given birth to a child Who have never won a Miss Singapore Pageant title previously. No criminal record or under probation.

Ris Low had a criminal record and was under probation when she took part...

As you can see, there's no reference to cosmetic surgery or any kind of unfair advantage when it comes to using expensive beauty treatments - why? Because these are our very sponsors of the event. The White Dental Group is one of the sponsors of the event - they're not cheap, oh no but they're very good. It doesn't matter how screwed up your teeth may be, let their dentists work on your teeth they will work their wonders - straightening up even the most crooked teeth through the wonders of modern orthodontics. Yellow or even brown teeth? No problem, they have a whitening programme that will bleach even the most coffee and tobacco stained teeth - with the right amount of money, they will give you the perfect smile you desire.

But wait... doesn't that tantamount to cosmetic surgery? After all, one's teeth and one's smile is one of the most important part of the face - aren't we simply paying a dentist a lot of money to surgically create the perfect smile? Isn't that cosmetic surgery? And guess what? There's nothing in the rules which forbid that - on the contrary, White Dental Group are a key sponsor to the event - they would love it if all the contestants used their services to surgically enhance their smiles to boost their chances of winning the pageant. The people involved are all out to make money and boost profits - grow up, no one is there to celebrate natural or inner beauty. Wake up and smell the coffee. We call this the business world - it's money, money, money.

It's all about money at the end of the day.

Another part of Barrie's argument (which is so ignorant and stupid it is laughable) is this:
"If a bodybuilder artificially enhances his physical appearance with steroids to win the Mr Universe title, that would be illegal, right? So what if a beauty contestant artificially enhances her looks with female hormones to win Miss Universe? Won't that be illegal too?"

OMFG. Barrie doesn't know what female hormones are. He missed that lesson in class - so let me try to educate him. Female hormones - estrogen - are a group of compounds named for their importance in the estrous cycle. The function of estrogen is complex and is as follows:

• Structural
  • Promote formation of female secondary sex characteristics
  • Accelerate metabolism
  • Increase fat stores
  • Stimulate endometrial growth
  • Increase uterine growth
  • Increase vaginal lubrication
  • Thicken the vaginal wall
  • Maintenance of vessel and skin
  • Reduce bone resorption, increase bone formation
  • Reduce muscle mass
• Protein synthesis
  • Increase hepatic production of binding proteins
• Coagulation
  • Increase circulating level of factors 2, 7, 9, 10, plasminogen
  • Decrease antithrombin III
  • Increase platelet adhesiveness
• Lipid
  • Increase HDL, triglyceride
  • Decrease LDL, fat deposition
• Fluid balance
  • Salt (sodium) and water retention
  • Increase cortisol, SHBG
• Gastrointestinal tract
  • Reduce bowel motility
  • Increase cholesterol in bile
• Melanin
  • Increase pheomelanin, reduce eumelanin
• Cancer
  • Support hormone-sensitive breast cancers (see section below)
• • Sexual desire is dependent on androgen levels rather than estrogen levels.

The list above (taken from Wikipedia) is long - please take a moment to read it and understand the many different functions of estrogen. No where on the list does it state that estrogen will enhance the looks or physical appearances of a woman. Oh no, this is why you have women who are ugly. Their ugly bodies naturally produce estrogen but they need the help of a plastic surgeon if they want to be conventionally beautiful by modern standards.

Estrogen will not enhance your looks. It will not make you prettier. 

If all it takes is estrogen to be beautiful, then ugly women around the world would be asking for it at the doctors and pharmacies. Ooh and then all women who can afford extra doses of estrogen would become great beauties, right? No, it doesn't work this way. Estrogen is not miracle cure that delivers instant beauty and having higher than levels of estrogen poses a health risk.  This can lead to an increased risk of thrombosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, invasive breast cancer, pulmonary emboli and DVT in postmenopausal women 50 years of age or older and an increased risk of dementia in postmenopausal women 65 years of age or older using PremPro, which is 0.625 mg of CEE with 2.5 mg of the progestin medroxyprogesterone acetate.

In essence whilst it is a vital hormone for women, having enhanced doses of estrogen in your body does not make your more beautiful - instead, it brings serious health risks that can lead to death. This basically rips apart Barrie's argument - he has written an entire piece based on totally flawed science. Dude, please, tolong lah, very malu when you get the science wrong. If you want to talk about plastic surgery, then what about the biologically female women who have had plastic surgery as well? There is no rule banning plastic surgery. But you're totally barking up the wrong tree on the issue of estrogen.

And let's say, even if there is a rule banning all contestants who have ever had plastic surgery, how are you going to enforce it? Are you going to say, "excuse me Miss, your breasts are rather large, I am going to have to inspect them because I suspect you have had breast enhancement surgery. I am the official boob inspector." Would you be subjecting every single contestant to detailed medical examination for any kind of surgical scars? Where do you draw the line anyway? Is a nose job okay if it's to repair an injury? Is a bit of botox acceptable? What about a bit of collagen for the lips? What about Lasik surgery for the eyes? What about models who have had extensive orthodontic work to get the perfect smile? What about a course of expensive teeth whitening then?

What is the alternative then? Some kind of Amish-style beauty pageant where women are not allowed any kind of cosmetic enhancement, no make up, no fancy clothes, where everything is stripped down to the bare minimum? Good luck finding a sponsor for that kind of event.

Not that I condone plastic surgery (I think we should all be content with our bodies and focus on inner beauty), but if you start banning contestants with any kind of plastic surgery, well you won't be left with many contestants and you'll scare many of the sponsors away. Let's face it - it's a shallow contest, it's not about inner beauty, that's how Ris Low won. Let's not pretend it's anything but a shallow, frivolous, hedonistic fun activity - and if that is the nature of the event, why should one exclude transgender women if they want to be a part of it?

Besides, Barrie isn't just ignorant of science, he had a very flawed view of female beauty as well. He seems to think that the more womanly or feminine a model is, the more beautiful she is. Well, it doesn't work like that. There are many female popstars, models and actresses who are boyish, even quite androgynous in their appearances and are incredibly popular and considered very attractive. Take British actress Tilda Swinton  for example, her style is very androgynous and quite deliberately so - and who is to say she is or isn't beautiful the way she is? American actress Kate Moennig is another star who has a very boyish look - and guess what? She doesn't need to be extremely feminine for the public to adore her: this gender-bending androgynous look works!

Perhaps the most famous of them all is British diva Annie Lennox, once the voice of the Eurythmics, whose videos were once banned by MTV in the USA because she was deemed to be in "male drag" for dressing like a man. It didn't stop her from becoming one of the world's biggest selling recording artistes of all time having sold over 80 million records worldwide. Despite her iconic short hair and androgynous style, Annie Lennox is not a lesbian - in fact she had two marriages (she's currently divorced) and has two daughters. There are many ways for a woman to be beautiful, attractive and sexy and Limpeh knows how to appreciate the various forms of female beauty, unlike Barrie who makes simplistic assumptions on what female beauty means.

Yes transgender women are given estrogen treatment because their bodies do not produce enough estrogen, but it merely serves to make their bodies more female, more womanly - and not more beautiful. All human bodies produce both estrogen and testosterone, in biological males, they produce more testosterone and in biological females, they produce more estrogen. Hence you get intersex people where the amount of estrogen/testosterone levels produced are such that they are not clearly one gender. I have met transgender women who are not beautiful (sorry, I have to be blunt) - they may have the body of a woman but how good they look depends on two things: how good the plastic surgeon is and what the plastic surgeon had to work with. After all, a plastic surgeon is not a magician - s/he can only enhance what is already there rather than build a brand new body from scratch like in the 1970s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man.

There were plenty of other homophobic and transphobic readers who will jump of this bandwagon and take any excuse to attack trasngender people. I'm not asking Barrie to change his ways and become more gay friendly and less bigoted - I'm merely asking him to get the science right before basing his entire argument on very salah science. Dude, honestly. Tut tut tut. Just google estogen and take a moment to read lah.

I the rules do change and transgender women are allowed to take part, what makes you think they want to - given that in Singapore, this contest has been won by people like Ris Low. Whoopee. Can you imagine little girls in Singapore saying, "when I grow up I wanna be like Ris Low". Look, I actually like Ris Low, I think she's cute and funny but she's just comedy fodder for comedians like Michelle Chong. If they wanna take part in silly pageants, let them - really, who cares?

There is this major confusion by Singaporeans in general between drag queens and transgender people. Drag queens are gay men who put on women's clothes for a laugh and are loud, camp and very attention seeking (and often drunk). Transgender people are those who are born with the wrong gender, they feel like a woman trapped in a man's body or vice versa. These people just want to have a sex change and get on with a normal life. For most of them, the last thing they want is to get on a stage at a beauty event to be subjected to the scrutiny and judgment by a panel of judges and the public. Heck, they are judged by society everyday already. Okay, so there's one (just one!) transgender contestant in Canada - why are Singaporeans imagining that all transgender people can't wait to take part in this beauty pageant when this is clearly not the case?

As for the rest of his post - it's just more anti-gay and anti-feminists hatred. He attacks the "deconstruction of gender in society" - but his argument is nothing more than a hideous string of bare face lies about AWARE teaching gay ideology to school girls and introduce sex to girls under 12 - erm, hello? Absolutely no citation about where these claims came from apart from - you guessed it - his own blog. Any serious blogger would always cite proper references if s/he wants to be taken seriously.  If this guy was genuinely a religious fundamentalist hell bent on introducing some kind of strict religious law in Singapore, yeah then I would have been more worried. But given the way he based his entire argument on such flawed science about estrogen, the joke is on him and us liberals are not worried. We're laughing. Female hormones. Estrogen. LOL.

Estrogen. LOL.

So! Have you anything to say about the issue of transgender people? I am particularly keen to hear from women who have any opinions on female hormones or female beauty. Leave a comment, thanks!