‘I cried like a baby, it’s terrible,’ says Carolina Aguirre, former Miss Ecuador who did not qualify for Miss Universe 2012: This is the emotional effect of candidates who do not enter the finals

Social networks allow us to visualize the sad side of beauty contests like Miss Universe, which remained more hidden for decades, the frustration and disappointment of female candidates due to not being selected as the desired representative of a country.

AND live (live) of Costa Rica’s representative, Lisbeth Valverde, in which she appears crying and expressing her sadness after not being invited to the top 20 semi-finalists, went viral the day after the final gala party of Miss Universe 2023 took place last Saturday, November 18 at El Salvador.

“It makes me very sad, obviously, it was very difficult in Central America. There are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes, which I will talk about one day… I am happy because I gave everything, gave everything, did everything in my power… It hurts, it hurts, it is too hard and sacrificed.. “I will go out again with a smile to congratulate my colleagues, many of them deserve to be there,” she said.

How does a candidate of a country feel when she is not invited to the top of a competition such as Miss Universe?

Carolina Aguirre from Guayaquil represented Ecuador at the Miss Universe 2012 pageant where she was considered one of the favorites.

He says it’s a “terrible” feeling to go on stage in a group knowing he’s out of the competition. “It’s scary because you’ve spent a year looking in the mirror, talking to yourself, telling yourself I can do it, doing visualization exercises, imagining yourself with a crown.thinking how happy that would be since on top of that we are in a country that loves queens. And suddenly they don’t call you, as if the floor is moving, all your hopes die. at that time and you want to lie on the floor and cry“, he says for EL UNIVERSO.

The impression is strong after the painstaking preparations: “You have to be strong, hold on, I said I wouldn’t give them pleasure, at night in the hotel room when everything was over, I cried like a baby there, but At that moment when they call the last finalist and you are not there, the feeling is terrible. You don’t lose hope until the last second, you try to be optimistic, but suddenly everything you did didn’t work, the law of attraction, nothing, so it’s a super big disappointment,” he adds.

Such reactions are visible in the candidate’s videos published on social networks. Some cry, console themselves, and there are also cases where the girls, after learning that they are not top, withdrew from the stage, refusing to appear again in the next group outings during the final selection.

Miss Universe 2023 has 72 years of history. In more than seven decades, Ecuador has participated in 69 of those editions and has only been invited to the summit three times. in 1981 with Lucía Vinueza in New York, in 2004 with María Susana Rivadeneira, when it was held in Quito, and in 2013, in which Constanza Báez reached third place (second finalist) in Russia, the highest place that a representative of Ecuador has achieved so far achieved at this beauty pageant.

Every representative creates expectations, some more than others. Nayelhy González, born Esmerald, stood out in the 2022 edition with her life story; she always mentioned her humble origins in international competition, she says. “Since I was a candidate, I wanted to show my authenticity.”

González is also, like Aguirre, in the group of sixty-three representatives of Ecuador who did not reach the top in the final edition of Miss Universe (the country participated with one delegate every year except 1952, 1953, 1954, 1967, 1973 and 1974). .

Nayelhy admits there is disappointment, frustration and tears when he realizes he is not making it to the top. “There are many mixed feelings, there is always a desire to call Ecuador, but when it is not, sadness comes.”

It also gives you a positive feeling of contributing more than you have and gratitude to God. “I did my best and even more with the little resources I could have, things happen for a reason in life and the satisfaction of the job done remains with the candidate.”

The weight of the tape has an impact, González stresses, referring to countries that have set the stage in beauty pageants for the level of preparation of their contestants, such as Venezuela.

Therefore, the presence of several nations in the top is regular, such as Venezuela, Colombia, the United States, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Thailand, South Africa and Australia.

In this edition, something that almost never happens happened, Sheynnis Palacios from Nicaragua, a Central American country that did not win the Miss Universe crown, won. The last time it happened was twelve years ago at Miss Universe 2011, when Leila Lopes from Angola, in Brazil, triumphed.

Miss Nicaragua, Sheynnis Palacios, is Miss Universe 2023, the first time the country has won the pageant

Anxiety, depression and an ode to suffering, says the psychologist

Psychologist and professor at the University of San Francisco in Quito, Ana María Viteri, indicates that anxiety is another emotion that appears in situations such as beauty pageants. “Also something called learned helplessness, which is certainly felt by those who have already resigned (and do not want to appear in the group of those who are not elected to the top anymore), and that is the feeling that whatever they do, they will not succeed . ” to function, as if they do not own what they do.”

Furthermore, depression occurs especially among those who come in confident that they will win, says Viteri. “You have to understand that this is not like a sport where there are objective points. In these competitions, victimization is used, people’s vulnerabilities are shifted, in the long run it shows that if you don’t have a complicated life, you don’t deserve to win because you haven’t suffered enough.”

This is a trend that is also observed in influential persons and the consequence is that people do not start living positively. “Many of them tell their sad story on social media because that’s what drives them. There is a wave of not having specific goals and they seek refuge in the lives of others, so people feel more identified,” says Viteri.

There is a movement towards suffering and sadness, says the expert, even seeking suicide, because being good is not right.

In the case of the group of finalists, there are always those who mention during the broadcast that they tried to commit suicide at some point in their lives and that they got over it. “They present it as something normal, usual. Yes, it’s true that it’s more common than before because of the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. If they managed to overcome themselves and did not commit suicide, that is something positive, but the desire to commit suicide already shows the kind of society we live in, it shows as something extraordinary,” says Viteri.

Businessman and former President of the United States Donald Trump owned the pageant and was behind the editions that took place from 1996 to 2014, a period in which the glamor and beauty of the finalists and winners prevailed.

Then the IMG company took over the competition until 2022 when Thai businesswoman Anne Jakkapong Jakrajutatip he acquired it. In this last period and until today, more attention is paid to the candidate’s oratory, life history and social projects. A more comprehensive beauty is sought, the organizers indicated.

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Carolina competed in the Trump era. She admits that when she was there, the political interests of the countries were also ahead, as the owner was a political businessman. “Now they’re looking for the most dramatic story, that’s a realityAnyone who has not suffered enough has no right to the top, that is the criteria of the authorities.

Beauty pageants, says Viteri, focus on stereotypes. “If you’re not beautiful, you can’t be there, so there’s already marginalization there. And those who lose, even though they had the beauty to enter, were not enough to win, so it is very superficial, that’s why it’s being talked about now. It remains at the end of a Show which focuses more on what you have on the outside.”