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Hugo and the Hottie
When she arrived at the academy, Fernandez was 17 and, Sousa told me, a shy, unworldly country girl. Fernandez and the exacting Sousa came to establish a kind of rapport. “He’s very easy to get along with as long as you do everything by the book that he tells you to do,” she said. Sousa’s daily regimen included classes on English, etiquette, hair and makeup, fashion, the art of walking. “I developed a sense of maturity because I was by myself without my parents,” Fernandez told us. “That was what I took the most from the education—I matured.”
Sousa is well aware of the artistic gulf between Venezuela’s reigning beauty queen and its president. “If politics comes up, I tell them to change the subject,” he has said. But that doesn’t always work. This spring, while Chavez was denouncing Guantánamo Bay as America’s “miserable prison,” Dayana Mendoza, who was then the reigning Miss Universe, paid a diplomatic visit to Guantánamo. She wrote a gushing blog entry: “I didn’t want to leave. It was such a relaxing place… The water…is soooo beautiful!” The post vanished from the Web shortly after.
But Chavez is nothing if not a cagey populist, and things took a surprising turn last week when Fernandez made her return to Venezuela. Maybe it was her entrance at the new Miss Venezuela pageant among falling rose petals, maybe it was the nonstop coverage on TV shows like Super Sábado Sensacional, but the president had a change of heart. Last Wednesday, he made a very belated call to Fernandez to convey his congratulations. "What a welcome joy to talk to Stefania Fernandez!” he told a TV station. He dubbed Fernandez “the daughter of Venezuela” and praised her work with AIDS awareness. What took so long? “I was in Russia when she won,” Chavez said, rather unconvincingly. But score one for democracy and pageantry. In a related story, Stefania Fernandez said her focus as Miss Universe would be international relations.
Bryan Curtis is a senior editor at The Daily Beast. His story about his grandfather’s softball career is in The Best American Sports Writing of 2009.
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johnnyapplecd
Not the biggest fan of Chavez, but he's right about this-- beauty paegants are disgusting displays of treating women like objects--fantasy fuck toys for the greasy masses. A ceremony in which we crown a woman for being genetically lucky, or for being wealthy and dysmorphic enough to afford plastic surgery? How horrible for these women that they imagine this will earn them respect and therefore allow themselves to be molded into an image of beauty almost soley defined by prurient motives. What they recieve is not respect, unless by "respect", one means "millions of men the world over masturbating while thinking of you naked."
I am filled with pity for the beauty queens of the world, and I am ashamed for humanity.
sophia5
Sounds like someone needs to put away the Star Trek Figurines
and move out of their Mother's Basement.
aninigma
I completely agree with you. Being deemed the best looking fake woman trotting around in front of millions of people barely clothed is hardly a triumph for your country! These women perpetuate the falsehood that women are just tits and ass to be conquered. Yes, smart women can be very beautiful (it happens alot), but as a beautiful smart woman myself, I shouldn't have to pull out the goods in order to be a positive force in my society.
Utaneus
Don't hate, that beautiful young woman followed her dream. I'm really not a fan of beauty pageants at all, but you people have no place demeaning those who participate.
And aninigma, of course you don't have to "pull out the goods" to be a positive force in society, but because you don't, do think yourself better than women who enjoy showing off their beauty?
retired-army-1SG
I don't think I would go as far as you did about the whole "shamed for humanity" thing, but I don't like beauty pageants either. When my daughter was about 12, her mom entered her in a school pageant. She didn't win and it crushed her. She would cry and say she was ugly - it broke my heart. I like what Dove soap company is doing (I know it's a PR thing) helping girls feel good about who they are, not who they aren't. We need more of that.
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n--Y--Portmanteaucrymeariver
But score one for democracy and pageantry.
____________
I missed that part in the constitution where our forefathers wrote that democracy = half-naked women in beauty pageants.
But I guess if winning a beauty contest is the type of achievement that gets the president of your country to give you a personal call then more power to her.
johnnyapplecd
Right, you know, I don't begrudge her the phone call, just hate the glorification. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the U.S. president has or would call an American Miss Universe winner. I mean, they call the winning Super Bowl QB, which I think is total fucking bullshit, and I LIKE football.
Eh, maybe I'm just a spoil sport. It's a just a phone call. Still, beauty paegants are a sad display of our baser instincts.
Utaneus
What's bullshit about congratulating a national champion? And don't give me this "he's got better things to do" bullshit because it only takes 2 minutes to extend such a gesture.
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onedirector
You would thing one of the world's most disagreeable men would at least be able to acknowledge something so positive about his country. She is not only beautiful, she is charming and a great ambassador of her country.
Maybe this is yet another example of what seems to be obvious. Who hates beauty except the jealous and the ugly? It might annoy Chavez, who is certainly far from handsome, that a smile and a good word is worth more than a frown and a curse.
johnnyapplecd
Indeed, she is beautiful, and charming, and I don't hate her, or beauty, at all. I'm just depressed that sometimes the most exalted women in the world are the ones who are most willing to be sexualized-- to be reduced to nothing more than pretty and charming.
I agree that Chavez is one of the world's most disagreeable men, and that a beautiful woman can be a positive for a country, but don't kid yourself that paegents have nothing to do with the objectification of women.
fran1522
Well lets just talk about the CBS that handles all of CITGO GAS advertizing on TV. They take his money and tell us to buy his gas. He is an evil man and we should not even be selling his gas at the stations in the US. Would you please join me and e-mailing CBS to tell them to stop advertizing on US Television? thank you,
aninigma
"Who hates beauty except the jealous and the ugly?"
Since when does not agreeing with the objectification of women as sexual objects mean someone "hates beauty"? You skipped over his legitimate reason for not supporting beauty pageants and went straight to the fact that you don't find him attractive. I guess in your reasoning, since he's not charming or particularly attractive he must be dumb and a poor leader. On the other hand, if he were to get some plastic surgery and hire a coach to make him stage-worthy he would be "a great ambassador of [his] country." Better yet, get a woman to walk around in a bikini or a prom dress. The perfect world leader!
Joelwiens
I was expecting a steamier story. Like, "Chavez has slept with every winner so far...no phone call indicates new rejection by the masses". But this...really? He just doesn't like pageants? That's a story? SENSATIONAL!
crymeariver
LOL!
topdocjim
Women are *supposed* to be appealing to the opposite sex. That's how you got here. If someone appreciates physical beauty in a woman, it doesn't demean her any more than appreciation of scenery demeans the mountains or valleys.
Is it to a degree sexual? You bet. What's wrong with that?
crymeariver
Nothing wrong with it as long as they have MALE beauty pageants too. Appreciation of men walking around a stage half-naked in Speedos should also not demean them. So where are the male beauty pageants?
Matt572
Male beauty pageants don't exist because there's no market for them. Female pageants are starting to decline for the same reason. On a lighter note, something close to a male pageant exists, with half naked men in speedos. Except instead of a talent or evening gown or any other part of the competition, they are judged solely on their ability to jump into or race across a pool. Professional swimming and diving, huzzah!
Utaneus
Actually there are male beauty pageants (did you really think there were NONE?). But why do there have to be male pageants in order for the female pageants not to be demeaning?
confused
While I congratulate Ms Fernandez, I think Chavez has the right attitude for a world leader.
Utaneus
The right attitude toward beauty pageants? Or the right attitude all-around for a world leader?
santiagosorio61
This post confirms that there is not a friendship or an alliance between Chaves and Cisneros
Thank you.
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