#lgbt pageants

[blackqueernotables]

Jazell Barbie Royale: the first woman of African descent to win the Miss International Queen.

#jazell barbie royale #black queer firsts #black queer notables #black lgbt firsts #trans women #black trans women #lgbt #black lgbt #pageant #lgbt pageants

[animentality]

#twitter #transgender #lgbt #lgbtqia #beauty pageant

[ej-artyarts]

Barry Claus

Just a partial bear dude and his lovable companion :3 Will be your best hype man, self made himbo, good with animals

Battled for- Kawaii Assassin? That’s not the Right To Bear Arms. . . Whoops. Catch the stream reupload here to see if he won

This dude went through a few pose changes before I settled

#stab odp #stab tv #overdrawn death pageant #furry #furry artist #furry sfw #feral #anthro #hybrid #transmasc #lgbtq #polar bear #character design #lgbt artist #artists on tumblr #digital art #arty arts

[manonamora-if-reviews]

Pageant by Autumn Chen

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game See other games by Autumn or follow her @cyberpunklesbian

============= Synopsis

Your name is Qiuyi (Karen?) Zhao, and you’ve just been signed up by your parents for a beauty pageant. You’re not ready, not even close, but you don’t have a choice. But perhaps you can make the best of it. Maybe it’s the one opportunity to create a “hook” for your college application. Maybe you can reinvent yourself, get rid your anxiety and become someone new. Or maybe you can find true love (or some approximation thereof).

============= Other Info

Pageant is a Dendry* game, first published in 2018 and completed in 2020. *Autumn is also an unofficial maintainer of the Dendry format.

Status: Completed Genre: Dating-sim, Slice-of-life, LGBT

CW: / Note: homo/trans-phobia, talks of suicide, passing out from exhaustion, anxiety.

============= Playthrough

First Played: Some time in 2022? Last Played: 27-May-2023 Playtime: around +2h(-ish) - two proper playthroughs Rating: 5 /5 Thoughts: Winning the pageant is not everything, but the journey is worth the anxiety.

============= Review

Pageant follows Qiuyi (Karen) Zhao (mentioned as Karen below), a Chinese teenager living in the US, as she navigates through school and extra-curriculars, relationships and identity, family expectations and community, and the pageant her parents signed up for. Through limited storylets choice, you can carve Karen's priorities and relationships.

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

Did I once again read the Post-Mortem before writing this? Yes. Couldn't help myself. Also this is a bit more eclectic, tried hard to put my thoughts in order, didn't workl...

Pageant was created with Dendry, a storylet narrative program, where the player get to experience linear side-stories in fragmented way. Every week, the player can pick up to three options from the storylet lists to start or continue a path. As the list is often longer than three options, the player is forced to make choices and prioritise a certain path (a recurring gameplay type in Autumn's games). This makes for great and interesting replayability!

The story start with Karen being summoned by her parents, revealing that they signed her up for a pageant, happening in three months. There is no bargaining no quitting (it's good for college apps!). In three months, Karen will be on that podium*. During that prep period, she still needs to balance school (a full AP curriculum), the Science Olympiad, doing an understudy with a college professor (also set up by your parents), having dinner with your family, going to bible study on the weekend, and etc... Doesn't this sound like too much for a high school student? And was it yet mentioned that Karen is a socially awkward mess, who has trouble making relationships, is full of anxiety and self-loathing, struggling with her identity as a Chinese teenager in the US (her used name not being her birthname, and having the option to butcher your name's pronunciation) and a closeted lesbian (or something like that says the game). *well, there is a way.

Along the way you are introduced to a handful of characters: Emily, a trans woman still in the closet, Aubrey, a girl Karen had a crush on also part of the Science Olympiad team, and Miri, Karen's only friend. There is also Karen's parents and her little brother, Kevin; Professor Chen and his grad student; the rest of the Science Olympiad Team; and the other families attending the Church. Through out the game (and your choices) you get to learn more about these characters, like how Emily deals with her family's trans/homophobia, or Miri's feelings towards you, your family's history...* The storylets really shine here, giving you crumbles here and there, forcing you to piece those back together (and forces you down a certain path to learn everything). *Even after playing multiple times, I have yet to found all variations.

And at the centre of it all, Karen, the very flawed teenager. Yet, even with her self-deprecation and anxious spirals, with the awkward way she interacts with other people, with dealing with different cultural values and expectations about her life, or with her inability to stand up to herself (partly because of her guilt of "having it easy" compared to older generations), Karen stays a character you want to root for. You want to help her win that pageant and be more sure of herself. You want her to be more confident in her identity (and get a girlfriend). You want her to find her passions (in science?) and win accolades. You want to pluck her from her stressful world, wrap her in a blanket, kiss her on her forehead, and tell her that everything will be ok.

The whole game is filled with such genuine interactions, with teenagers blurting out their deepest secrets to strangers, declaring their love to one another even after but a few meetings, being self-loathing with a self they don't recognise or don't want to be anymore but unable to leave that shell, trying to handle the stress and anxiety of the expectations of others and not being able to reach those. And those are made all the more vibrant through Karen's inability to react "properly". Faced with bad and worse choices, you get to experience that anxiety of what would happen if I say or do the wrong thing. It feels genuine, because it feels real and lived through.

As the ending came around, and you get the rundown of Karen's actions, it felt like, while winning the pageant is definitely one/the goal, the journey was much sweeter than the destination. And that's what keeps making me want to come back to it...

Some other notes:

The visual of Dendry is quite reminiscent of ChoiceScript games, with its simple and contrasting colours and choice box or its achievements list; as well as Ink games in the story/storylets parts, as the text linked to the chosen option is appended to the main body, breaking only when the storylet ends and you need to pick another one or the story needs a break. It's honestly fun to see how two program can be merged (visually) and work this way.

There's kind of a fun parallel between Pageant and Great-grandmother and the war in the way the characters of Karen and Emily are portrayed similarly to Zhang and Yan. The first is socially awkward, introverted and filled with anxiety; the second is out-going, harbouring a secret, and yearning to live their truth. But this is only obvious if you do interact with Emily in this game.

#Pageant #Autumn Chen #complete #interactive fiction #2020 #review #LGBT #romance #slice of life #dendry game #choice based

[mothandnessieread]

Oh wow, I just realized I’d forgotten to review this wonderful book back when I read it! I read The Santa Pageant recently and absolutely loved it! Tove and Effie just might be some of my favorite characters ever, and I’m so glad I got to spend my time with them. The author did such a great job of making them relatable and likable, I couldn’t help but root for them the entire time. The way their relationship grew throughout the novel was so sweet and so genuine. I loved how much they each respected each other and actually did their best to communicate (if only more romance novels could let their characters communicate!).

And the pageant! I loved how each of the contestants got to know each other and how each of their characters was gradually revealed. I was a little confused at first as to how the pageant would work for the plot, especially with both Tove and Effie competing. But in the end, I loved how it was used to further the plot and allow our characters to grow.

I want to extend a huge thank you to Lillian Barry for sending me an ARC of this! This ended up being one of my favorite books and I highly recommend it for anyone who’s looking for a Christmas story with good LGBT+ rep!

#bookblr #amreading #the santa pageant #cozy #cozy reading #lgbt books

[books4evermorr]

This makes me sooo happy 💗

#lgbtqia #lgbt pride #lgbt #lgbtq people #lesbian relationships #wlw #beauty pageants

[kwento-mo-yan-eh]

Gender is Fluid: A seemingly everlasting evolution

By Mutya

As someone who joins pageantry, I can already say that all the glamor that we see on stage is very much different from the struggles of the candidates behind closed doors. As a candidate, I am exposed to different issues of life, particularly gender. It is much more complex than most issues because gender is not a solid construct. To me, gender is fluid. It is ever-changing and the very definition of gender is evolving over time. This liquidity of gender is becoming more and more evident in Philippine Pageantry.

Recently, Miss Universe Philippines 2023 Michelle Marquez Dee came out as bisexual. The LGBT Community and the world of pageantry welcomed her coming out. She wasn't the first one to come out as part of the LGBT Community because even the owner of Miss Universe is a trans woman. The very pageant of Miss Universe is slowly but surely evolving. As a media mogul, the trans woman owner of Miss Universe is also changing the perception of audiences around the world towards Miss Universe candidates who are a part of the LGBT. This evolution, we all welcome.

In this day and age of gender inclusivity, it is our obligation to empower those who are struggling and the responsibility of ""out-ing"" someone is never ours to bear. This goes with assuming one's gender based on physical appearance. In this epoch, mankind should be more sensitive and responsible for their mistakes. But these mistakes should never hinder us from learning, moving forward and evolving. The construct of gender will always exist and it will always evolve. The question is, are we ready to evolve with it?

Illustration By OLAF HAJEK

#today on tumblr #KwentoMoYanEh #happy pride 🌈 #SafeSpace #pride month #Pride2023 #lgbtq #genderqueer #queerspace #thoughts #self reflection #MissUniversePhilippines2023 #pageant #lgbt community

[258punkweight]

i rly do think it's about time to stop with excluding teens from online lgbt spaces. a lot of us just don't have anywhere else to go

like once in spanish class our teacher showed us this article about trans women entering beauty pageants. and i heard the majority of my classmates saying transphobic shit which made my blood boil. my school has a confessions page on instagram and i see people saying bioessentialist things about who can use the girls' bathroom. despite my school having a gsa, if i was trans i would NOT feel safe here ! and i live in california which is known for being a blue state !! i imagine it's probably worse elsewhere

yes there are queer youth centers but unless u live in a major city (i don't) that's not an option. even then, a lot of lgbt kids don't have accepting parents ! going to one might be dangerous for someone in a situation like that. so for a lot of us, online is the only place we can truly be ourselves... and it can be quite disheartening to see half of who is SUPPOSED to be ur community say shit like "if ur a minor gtfo or i'll kill u !!!!!"

i'm not trying to tell u a rebranded version of "think of the children." i don't think u should censor urself. bc surprise surprise, we're human beings just like u ! human beings fully capable of filtering out the content we don't want to see !! i promise, a teenager will not explode and die if they see a boob

[betomad]

Mark Firner, first runner up in the 1978 Mr Houston pageant

📸 by Michael Middleton (c. 1980’s) via Houston LGBT History Project

#1980 #80's #speedo #nordic guys #summer #vintage #retro #lgbt

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 19 January 2018, Sāmoan Fa'afafine activist So’oalo To’oto’oali’i Roger Stanley died. Fa'afafine is an umbrella term for people assigned male at birth who identify in a range of ways from trans women, to third gender to non-binary to some gay men. Roger Stanley co-founded and was president of the Sāmoa Fa'afafine Association (SFA), advocating for Fa'afafine and LGBT+ rights, and established Fa'afafine beauty pageants in order to raise money to fund community services, despite transgender dress being illegal at the time, although it was later decriminalised. She and the SFA also campaigned for rights for fa’atamaloa (lesbian or assigned female at birth but with stereotypically "masculine" qualities) and fa’afatama (trans man) people. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/2190147774503694/?type=3

[theconcealedweapon]

"I'm not homophobic. I just don't want children being exposed to things that are inappropriate for them."

That's a lie.

If you simply believed that certain content was inappropriate for children, and your beliefs were consistent regardless of gender roles or orientation, no one would call you homophobic.

There's no good reason to be okay with children having crushes on their classmates but not if they're the same gender.

There's no good reason to be okay with flirting and romance in children's TV shows but not if they're the same gender.

There's no good reason to be okay with children being at Hooters but not at drag shows.

There's no good reason to be okay with child beauty pageants but against boys experimenting with makeup.

And don't give me that "I'm against both" bullshit. The heterosexual and gender conforming content has been around since forever. If your response this whole time has been "I don't like it but it is what it is" but your response to LGBT or gender non-conforming content is "WTF BAN IT NOW!", then you're not "against both".

#homphobia

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Ballroom Culture Reinvents Itself in Brazil

A movement born in New York in the 70s takes root in Latin America's largest country thanks to a new generation of Black LGBTQIA+ artists

There is a place where Black LGBTQIA+ people are free. It’s a space where they are respected and admired, and where they can be recognized and celebrated through art. This place of gathering and celebration is called Ballroom.

The Ballroom scene was born over half a century ago in the United States as a space for leisure, artistic experimentation and resistance to violence and discrimination. It all started with Crystal LaBeija, the founding mother of Ballroom culture. Outraged by racist antics in the drag pageant scene, she decided to organize the first Ball for Black and Latino LGBT+ folks in 1972.

Going to a Ball is a unique experience. It’s a thrilling spectacle that blends elements of fashion shows, drag shows and, of course, epic vogue battles. Voguing is a performative dance style born in the Ball rooms of Harlem, in New York City.

Ballroom has a special place in pop culture. Beyoncé references Ball culture in her latest album, "Renaissance". In 1990, Madonna released her hit song "Vogue".

The scene has also inspired the TV series "Pose", the reality competition show "Legendary" and the documentary "Paris is Burning", a queer classic.

As such, Ballroom has become a global phenomenon that livens up the nightlife from Paris to Lagos to Tokyo. The movement has taken root in Brazil throughout the last decade and has quickly spread to every region in the country, where it is reinventing itself thanks to a new generation of trans and Black artists.

Continue reading.

#brazil #politics #LGBT #antiracism #brazilian politics #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[mightyflamethrower]

Lt Col Bree Fram Stars in LGBT Version of Star Wars

The nice thing about LGBTism is that it allows even those burdened with pale skin to join the privileged ranks of the “marginalized.” Career benefits are obvious. Making a pageant of being psychosexually insane has allowed Bree Fram to become a Lieutenant Colonel in the Space Force — or as America’s adversaries are likely to call it, the “Space Farce”:

For a guy to climb the ranks in the US military under Democrat rule, it takes more than showing up in a dress. Fram doesn’t just walk the walk; he talks the talk:

“So inclusion is a national security imperative. We fight today and we are going to fight in the future using brainpower. And if that brain, who’s going to revolutionize the way we fight in space, we fight in cyber, just happens to be in a trans body, you should want them all serving alongside me and for your organizations, it’s the same way. Those perspectives that we get from a diverse set of individuals. It’s been talked about on stage a lot regarding the science behind high performing teams. We need those perspectives, but it’s inclusion that actually drives that because you can bring people in and if they don’t feel safe to speak up, if they don’t feel safe to bring their full selves to work, you’re not going to get the value of the diversity. So for us, it is absolutely critical to drive our future success as an organization and potentially on the battlefield.”

He won’t be much use in a war except to the USA’s enemies, but no one can doubt Fram’s credentials as a space cadet.

Bringing moonbattery like this to public attention is how Chaya Raichik recently got herself suspended by the leftists running Fakebook again:

If Fram is going to star in Star Wars as reenacted by our repurposed military, it ought to be in the cantina scene. George Lucas never imagined a creature more freakish.

I'm sorry but if we can not win without men in womens underwear we deserve to lose.

[burmanana]

Today's Highlight, Myo Ko Ko San: Burmese model/actress, LGBT rights activist and beauty pageant titleholder

She is first transgender model in Myanmar and won Miss International Queen Myanmar in 2014 and ASEAN - LGBT Community Pride Awards in 2018. She is also the first transgender woman to compete in Miss Universe Myanmar was placed at Top 10 in 2022. Myo has also regularly advocated for transgender and gay rights in Myanmar.

I love seeing Burmese women being empowered... I am really looking forward to following her career and watching her grow in the entertainment industry!!!

#myo ko ko san #burmese #transgender #trans rights #trans women #lgbt #model

[arkipelagic]

When Shika Corona was growing up in Malacca in the 1980s, her Muslim Indian family would take her to visit pop-up fairs. The fairs always featured "paper doll" performances in which trans women (mak nyahs in Malay) would perform on stage as though they were in a beauty pageant. Shika was born into a body that was assigned as “male,” but she’d already begun to recognise that this didn't feel right. “They were so beautiful, I wondered if I could be like them,” she said. “Malaysia was a very different place back then.”

At the time, the Malaysian government offered gender-confirmation surgeries—the only other country in Southeast Asia to offer the surgery aside from Thailand. Trans health was so widely embraced that even the government contributed funds towards the Mak Nyah Association. But then in 1983, everything changed.

That year a fatwa was issued by the National Fatwa Council, banning such surgeries, and the hospital was shut down, marking the beginning of a repressive, anti-LGBT chapter in Malaysia’s history.

Shika was about six years old when the fatwa was issued. As a child she was obsessed by the glamorous mak nyahs she’d seen at the pageants, and she collected any newspaper or magazine clipping mentioning a trans woman. The first story she ever cut out was from a British newspaper article on Caroline Cossey, a trans actress featured in a 1981 James Bond film. “When I read about her when I was really young, I really thought to myself ‘that is me,’” she said.

All of the positive depictions of mak nyahs Shika found were in Western publications. Sadly, almost all portrayals of trans women in local Malaysian newspapers were either neutral or negative. Some articles even claimed that when trans women died, the earth would refuse them due to their sins. And yet, despite the terrifying portrayal of trans women in Malaysian media, Shika still held on to these articles as proof that people like her existed.

#malaysia #southeast asia #historical revisionism #human rights #asia #x #lgbt rights #sogie

[andreablog2]

Does rupaul count as a drag queen you hate

Not really bc Rupaul existed in such a specific space that no drag queen has really fulfilled yet. The genius of his show is that any famous drag queen that follows will now be seen as kind of a successor or under his shadow in a way. I think Rupaul is a terrible person but is also so iconic in a way so idk. But I basically have no respect for cis drag queens…the final nail in the coffin is when they casted that “straight male” drag queen. Idk it’s really only specific kinds of drag that I can’t stand and unfortunately that’s most drag queens today. I like pageant queens bc that’s a whole other thing from the like blue humor overly contoured misogynistic abrasive lady bunny vibe or the Ryan Burke fashiony kind of drag. I also tend to like black drag queens better bc there’s this larger issue w cultural appropriation/borderline black face in the lgbt community