Dear Editor,

I want to congratulate the 2017 Miss Universe Jamaica Davina Bennett, who executed an excellent presentation of herself and of her culture onstage at the Miss Universe live show in Las Vegas on the weekend.

The Clarendon native’s appearance at the Miss Universe pageant was more than just about her physical beauty. She represented a much wider political statement. Davina stood out of the pack with her afro and her ostentatious yellow dress which would have been a perfect fit with the crown.

She became the voice of Jamaica on the international stage when she greeted the audience by saying “Wah gwaan, Las Vegas” in an unmistakeable Jamaican accent. I saw several tweets and Facebook posts saying she should not have worn her afro because it is a beauty pageant — speculating why she didn’t win. If those people were correct in their assumptions, then it is true that Davina is indeed a winner beyond their comprehension. Her performance in each round was enough to take her to the top three along with Miss Colombia and Miss South Africa.

The Miss Universe competition missed an opportunity to redeem itself of the whitewash standard of beauty by not crowning her the winner. The pageant, in keeping with an apparent status quo over the years, has selected 45 white women as the winners in the 66 stagings of the competition. The winner, of course, usually represents the accepted television lighting standard of beauty for the entire universe.

After the competition ended and the cameras were off, Davina was asked to come back out for a standing ovation by the audience and a royal bow by the host, Steve Harvey. This is a testament to her power play at the competition. What everyone recognised — except the judges — was that a win for Davina Bennett wouldn’t only have been a win for Jamaica, but a win big enough to represent all the marginalised communities, countries, and forgotten geographical regions of the world, including South Africa that has a population of 85 per cent black people.

The victory in Davina’s performance was seen by all women and girls who were ever told to groom their hair by a boss or a teacher because the kinky hair does not fit into the institution’s organisational policy. Her victory is for every black girl, boy, man, and woman who was ever told that they could not be black and excellent by wearing their natural “unkempt” hair to school or to work.

Davina’s second runner-up performance highlighted that all the women who represented their countries at these pageants have tremendous power beyond their physical beauty and they should not be afraid to use it. Imagine if every woman who enters the international pageants each year continue to challenge the social norms, standards of beauty and accepted identity.

I know there is a complicated relationship between pageants and sponsors, so contestants may not be encouraged to express their cultural or political views verbally. However, if women continue to express their uniqueness and find creative ways to make purposeful statements that matter to marginalised cultures and people, instead of sticking to the scripted narrative of beauty, both the sponsors and the status quo would have to evolve.

In every competition, there will be persons who will not get the crown, but the spotlight will be on Davina Bennett for a long time because of her belief in herself, and her display of excellence as herself in a world where many would prefer to change her.

I certainly hope that both the Jamaican Government and the private sector will honour her, sponsor her brand, as well as support her charities and social causes. Additionally, every Jamaican should support her even after her reign as a beauty queen.

Donovan Watkis

jrwatkis@gmail.com