How Being The First Non-Binary Person Vying For Miss Colorado USA Changed Their LifeBeauty pageants
How Being The First Non-Binary Person Vying For Miss Colorado USA Changed Their LifeBeauty pageants don’t always elicit the most enthusiastic responses in 2019. The idea of women being judged based on antiquated beauty ideals and outdated gender stereotypes seems less and less relevant as our society continues to evolve to be more understanding and accepting of identities and approaches to gender that were virtually non-existent just a few decades ago. But that’s not how O. Stecina, a 19-year-old non-binary college student, sees beauty pageants. Or, at least, it’s not how they see it since participating in one. Stecina, who does not identify as either male or female and uses they/them pronouns, competed in the 2019 Miss Colorado USA pageant. On Oct. 26, they stood alongside 73 other contestants intent on winning the title, which was first handed out in 1952. But Stecina wasn’t contending for the Miss Colorado USA crown. They were vying for, if anything, the Mx. Colorado USA crown. “I’d kind of thrown around the idea of doing a pageant before I realized I was non-binary,” Stecina told HuffPost on the phone last month. “I wanted to give myself permission to be beautiful outside the confines of womanhood and I’m interested in breaking those gender stereotypes, so it’s not about womanhood necessarily, it’s about beauty in all genders. Also, it seemed a little absurd ― it’s the last thing anyone would expect me to do, so I wanted to go for it” [laughs].Continue reading here. -- source link
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