Last year, the Miss Universe Organization was purchased for $20 million by Thai businesswoman Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip. The company that owns the Miss Universe pageant has never been owned by a woman, and now they are trying to convince everyone that history has been made by Jakrajutatip being the first woman ever to own the global beauty pageant.

However, despite what they might like you to believe, it is still not owned by a woman. Jakrajutatip is, in fact, a biological male.

42-year-old Jakrajutatip, the third richest transgender person in the world, is the CEO of JKN Global Media Public Company Limited, Thailand’s leading global content distribution and broadcast company.

Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip

In October, Jakrajutatip bought the Miss Universe Organization and since then has been hailed as the “first woman” to own the company. On Saturday night, the pageant crowned its 71st Miss Universe, USA’s R’Bonney Gabriel, in New Orleans.

During the final show, Jakrajutatip took to the stage wearing to give a long-winded speech on feminism and women’s rights, patting herself on the back for being the first woman to own the beauty pageant organization.

After welcoming the audience to the final round of the competition, Jakrajutatip said, “From now on [Miss Universe is] going to be run by women, owned by a trans woman for all women around the world to celebrate the power of feminism!”

“Diverse cultures, social inclusion, gender equality, creativity, a force for good, and a force for the beauty of humanity,” added Jakrajutatip as the crowd erupted into applause.

Twitter blew up over the new owner’s comments, many debating whether this was actually an accomplishment for women or just another accomplishment for men.

Republican politician and veteran James Bradley slammed the organization for touting their new owner as representing “female empowerment.”

“It’s not FEMALE EMPOWERMENT when the first ‘woman’ to own the Miss Universe pageant organization was born a MAN,” said Bradley.

Journalist Ian Miles Cheong commented on the absurdity of the situation, saying, “Listening to that transgender Miss Universe owner lecture the public on what it means to be a woman really takes the cake.”

Justine Brooke Murray, Miss North Jersey ’23, posted a video on Twitter in which she expressed her frustrations with a biological man taking away the position of ownership from an actual woman.

Murray put Jakrajutatip on blast for “mansplaining to women what the definition of a woman is in a women’s competition that prides itself on somehow being a feminist movement, but demands we must smile and shut up when biological men take scholarships away from actual women.”

“The more we ignore this forced re-education, the harder it will be to stop the gradual and complete rewriting of history and the truth,” added Murray, warning of a reality in which women “once again have no place.”

 

 

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