The Miss eUK debacle

Day 2,107, 10:18 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Butjam

Ladies and gentlemen, let me open up with this article with a simple statement. I am flowering fabulous.



Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to the serious business. As you may know, the Miss eWorld competition has reared it’s head again and this time the eUK thought we better submit someone. In fact, you can find the whole discussion and all the printscreens I’ll be including in this thread here.



When I entered I didn't have any expectations to win (I even promised the 100g to Jennifer-mo, as she did have first dibs on being our entrant and needed some TG upgrades!) or to even get in after all. But I was still a little disappointed to receive this...


To clear things up, before anybody gets up in arms or feels like I’ve cheated them and they’ve rallied people round a false banner, I’ll come clean. I’m not actually transgender or transexual, this is only the second time I’ve ever even worn traditionally female clothing and I’m only so used to makeup because I’ve been acting onstage since I was 11. I’m decidedly cis-male unfortunately so sorry if anybody feels like they’ve been deceived....



But hey, that’s the least important part of all this. What is important is that I was turned down automatically from the competition. Not only is it a little insulting that I was taken to be a fella’ physically straight away (I thought I was the epitome of gorgeous) but more outrageous is the fact that I was robbed of my right to choose and decide who I am. I’ve tried to figure out how to best put the issue into words and actually, I think I’m just going to have to hand over to King Woldy....



I didn’t choose to be born a guy, and I guess I’m lucky in that I don’t have any conflict between my identity and how society perceives me. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that as a supposedly progressive society, we’re still leaving people behind. Just 9% of countries have legalised gay marriage, whilst 38% actually have homosexuality as a crime. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of prejudice that we find today and is exacerbated by treatment and assumptions like the one we’ve seen the OCB commit.



That wasn’t our only motivation in this of course. A big issue raised was the inherent sexism behind a competition like this. Now I can’t say I’m surprised, there is a huge discrepancy in eRep between the number of male to female players, and from what I’ve seen the majority of the fabulous ones are concentrated in the eUK! So, no, I don’t think anybody is shocked by this continuation of the status quo. That doesn’t mean we have to stand for it either.



There’s nothing wrong with appreciating physical beauty. I for one stand in front of my mirror each morning and do 100 flexes, just so I know that I’m as dashing as ever. But there is a problem when we expect just one gender to fit this role in our society. This doesn’t apply to just eRepublik of course, it is a worldwide problem that needs resolving. and it doesn’t happen overnight. Nobody’s here to start a revolution, but if anything comes from this I hope it’s just a little bit of progress, a change of worldview for some people, that we shouldn’t just rely on one group of people to fulfill the sexual function of society just because they were born looking one way. Simply and succinctly, Nohjis said it best,



Sorry for waffling on at you all, I’m gonna pull up the reins now and close it off, I’m not here to preach...much. First of all a big thank you to all the support that we’ve seen, I’m incredibly proud of the response, especially from my fellow UK members. If you want to get involved, then feel free to message Karl of the OCB here!

Thank you all very much, I’ll leave you now with some more fantastic messages that have been sent out,
Lots of love
Butjam, Miss eUK xxx