R’Bonney Gabriel is the first Filipino-American to represent Miss USA in the Miss Universe competition and win the title, which given her Filipino heritage, is a big deal.
Pageant culture is very prevalent within Filipino culture and it is something that the country takes great pride in. In this year’s Miss Universe competition, the Philippines saw an end to their decade-long streak of advancing into the semifinals, which their representative, Celeste Cortesi, received much criticism over.
In this year’s competition alone we saw three women represent the Philippines: Cortesi (Philippines), Gabriel (USA) and Alicia Faubel (Spain). Gabriel and Faubel, although not representing the country directly, still proudly displayed and talked about their love and pride in being Filipino.
“Tap into what makes you unique and fully embrace that,” said Gabriel in an interview with CNN Philippines. “As the first Filipina-American Miss USA, I embraced that whole-heartedly. I think that is what makes me strong and I would encourage girls to really look into what makes them unique and what makes them special, and not compare themselves to anyone else.”
When homeland Pinoys criticize Cortesi or overlook the milestone that is Gabriel’s win, it perpetuates the double standard we hold in our culture of not being Filipino enough when you are Fil-Am.
I was reading discourse on social media the night of the competition, particularly TikTok, and the main point of discourse surrounded Gabriel’s win and Cortesi not even placing in the top 15 in the semifinals. With the commentary boiling down to “she didn’t deserve to win” and “she will go down as the one who ended the streak.”
How unhealthy is that?
The pressure we have put on these women is astounding. Especially once we take into consideration that they both have honorably represented their heritage with grace and pride.
“To represent my country, the Philippines, is my greatest honor,” said Cortesi.
My hope is that we can look back at Miss Universe 2023 as Filipinos from all over the world and simply acknowledge and admire the women that represented us because for so long we yearned for this type of representation. I hope that we can grow to appreciate those who take pride in their heritage just as much as someone who is from the mainland or have parents who happen to both be Filipino.
Panalo naman para sa kultura (It’s a win for the culture anyway).