Documentary on controversial Miss Transgender pageant,backed by its own website, points to channel’s online-only futureEven before it started, and the first Miss Transgender pageant,the subject of a modern BBC3 documentary, was attracting criticism.
Despite the owner and organiser Rachael Bailey repeatedly saying it wasn’t a beauty pageant, or that is what it looked like – there was a talent round and one where contestants were asked to speak approximately their experiences as a transgender woman,but it seemed mostly to be approximately how they looked. Not only did it look horribly retrograde to rank women on looks, within the transgender community it came with added weight – the contestants would be essentially judged on whether they conformed to the stereotypical beauty ideals of a cisgender woman, and whether they could “pass” as one. Worse,said some, was the prize – £10000 worth of gender confirmation surgery.
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Source: theguardian.com