Bold and Beautiful

there was Flaviana Matata, an electrical technician who represented her homeland Tanzania for the first time in the pageant’s history.

With her resplendently shaved head, she proved that bald truly can be beautiful. I mean, look at her! She’s absolutely luminous. According to gambling site The Online Wire, Flaviana defended her right to be bald by saying, “I never let anyone define me, neither by hair nor clothing, as I believe God made me perfect as a pure, natural African woman.” Her words made my heart swell with pride. She destroyed the old cliche that a “woman’s hair is her beauty,” by demonstrating that true beauty really comes from within.

I’m all about celebrating strong black female role models, and I think that this year’s Miss Universe contestants should be applauded. It is just a pageant, and anyone who dismisses such events as being anti-feminist constructs or outdated definitely has their point. But to people who hail from these small corners of the world, they matter. And regardless of the pageant’s final outcome, I’m sure all of these women made their homelands proud.