Rotten Mango - #233: The Ugly Secrets of the Miss Universe Pageant - Allegations of Assault & Rigging

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

There are experiences that only few will ever have the honor of feeling. Winning the World Cup, winning the presidency, maybe even winning an Oscar. It’s a feeling that feels unexplainable. The adrenaline, euphoria, joy, the release of tension when you realize you’re being rewarded for your work. The Miss USA pageant was one of those brain chemistry altering moments.The two women stood there, holding hands, waiting for the winner’s name to be called. The host announced the new Miss USA for 2022, the confetti fell from the sky, and immediately the tension was palpable. The other 50 contestants clapped weakly before exiting the stage. Nobody stood around to congratulate the new winner. Something was seriously wrong. Let’s expose the dark secrets of the pageant industry, the allegations of abuse and assault. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast? With Progressive, it is. Just visit the Progressive website to quote with all the coverage you want. You'll see Progressive's direct rate, then their tool will provide options from other companies so you can compare. All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like. Quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 29 million drivers who trust progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates comparison rates not available

in all states or situations prices vary based on how you buy. Bada Bing Bada Bing Welcome to this week's mini-sode of rotten mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. I'm about to talk about something very niche. Okay, there's moments in life that not everyone's gonna understand the feeling of and I'm in that group I'm not gonna understand these feelings. I think about this now and then recently I saw the world cup winners The moment that they had won the crazy

Excitement of the crowd the energy the the them falling on their knees on the grass screaming up at the heavens I mean, what does that feel like? The adrenaline, the euphoria, the joy, the feeling of, I have worked my whole life for this. What does that feel like? It's, I like in it to the feeling of winning the presidency. Again, nothing I know anything about. Or perhaps winning an Oscar? The joy, a adrenaline. Maybe your heart is pumping so fast you can hear it in your ears. That feeling is such a precise, powerful, niche feeling that I don't think most people will ever experience in life. Okay, don't get me wrong.

We'll all feel happy. We'll all feel these crazy wild moments. But that level of anticipation of winning something so grand, all eyes on you. That is something. And with the recent Miss USA pageant, you could feel the tension. You could feel it because in a couple of seconds, the winner was going to be announced and the winner was going to feel this exact feeling, such a niche feeling. Only the winner would feel it. Nobody else.

Miss North Carolina and Miss Texas were standing holding hands They're facing each other holding both their hands together almost as if that they're in prayer Which side note did you know that impagent superstition the contestant with their hands on top wins So then they just fight for the top position or yeah, but you can't do it because the whole world is watching. So typically it seems like most of them know that one hand of yours goes on top and the other hand goes on bottom. But the superstition is the hand that's on top that's closest to the crowd is the winner. That's like a trend. Yeah. And so you actually see. So you start to start arm wrestling. Yes.

You actually see a very awkward woman in the recent Miss Universe competition where Miss Venezuela grabs Miss USA's hand and her hand away from the crowd. Miss Venezuela's hand is on top. And so naturally the other hand, if you go by like pageant superstition rules, I guess, is that Miss Venezuela's hand should be on the bottom, but that's the one facing the crowd. So she tries to move it on top and Miss USA moves her hand away and then places her on top and says something to Miss Venezuela with a smile that we didn't get to hear. And eventually Miss USA's hands goes on top. And did she

win? Miss USA one Miss Universe 2023. Yeah, there's a whole it's true. I mean, I don't know there's a whole Work on your arm wrestling skills, but you have to do it gracefully Because the whole world is watching so it's kind of like why are you doing that that's awkward? I mean don't get me wrong miss USA handled it gracefully, but it's just very interesting I mean, don't get me wrong, Ms. USA handled it gracefully, but it's just very interesting. So, Miss Texas and Miss North Carolina are standing holding hands, waiting for the moment that one of them gets to feel that feeling.

This almost gate kept feeling and the host announced. Oh, by the way, the winner for this is not just gonna get that feeling, they are going to win the Miss USA competition. And that person will be heading to compete in the Miss Universe competition. Well, right now they're announcing Miss USA. Yeah, where the most beautiful woman from all over the globe are going to travel to compete in a high stakes game of world domination.

That's what it's going to be. So the host announces that Miss North Carolina is the runner up and Miss Texas is the new Miss USA of 2022. The confetti starts streaming down from the ceiling. There's looks of shock, admiration, maybe even a little bit of tension. There's looks of shock, admiration, maybe even a little bit of tension. Normally, the Miss USA winner will be crowned, and she will have her walk around the stage with this big, sparkly crown pinned to her head, and they're gonna throw a giant bouquet of flowers in her arms, and she's gonna walk around in seven-inch heels in her beautiful gown waving at the crowd, thanking America for their service and the other 50 contestants.

Cause it's 51 contestants total. Cause DC is a competitor. 50 contestants are going to stand in the back, clapping and supporting the victor to show good sportsmanship. And afterwards, after Miss USA has had her moment, they're all gonna come up to her and hug her, congratulate her to celebrate with her like their old friends. Well this time, none of that would be happening. Miss Texas was crowned, and many of the contestants clapped weekly from the back. And before she was even done celebrating,

they start walking off the stage in the middle of the live broadcast of the MISUSA competition. Eyebrows were raised. Spectators at home were wondering, oh, that's not what normally happens. This is like the 71st competition. We've had a lot of competitions we've seen, and it almost never happens like this. What's going on? Did something happen behind the scenes?

What dark sinister secrets could a pageant hold? Well, this pageant has a long history of crazy allegations. Alligations that an entire competition was rigged. Alligations that the male vice president of the Miss USA organization was trying to abuse his power to sleep with the contestants. What makes that allegation even worse is that his wife is the president of the organization and he is the VP of that organization.

Welcome to the dark reality behind Beauty Patients. As always, full show notes are available at www.rottanmengapodcast.com, a lot of show notes. But with that being said, let's dive into the dark side of beauty pageants. Look, there is just something so deep rooted in humans. We just have to see things as beautiful or not. There's two categories, pretty or not, beautiful or not.

And even then, we gather up all the pretty things. We gather up all the beautiful people and we go, but which one is prettier? But which one is more beautiful, shinier, better, grander? Maybe it has to do with the fact that humans view beauty as a promise of happiness. It's a thing, I promise.

If you're beautiful, you'll be happy for the rest of your life. If you wake up next to someone who's beautiful, if you have someone beautiful on your arm, I promise. You'll be happy for the rest of your life. Which in today's world, if you have someone beautiful on your arm, I promise. You'll be happy for the rest of your life. Which in today's world, I mean, it's pretty easy to see how we all succumb to that sort of thinking.

But it's not just now. It seems that for as long as humans existed, we have been obsessed, obsessed with beauty and obsessed with the comparison of beauty. Who's prettier, stronger, more attractive, more handsome, has better proportions, and even though the beauty standards, they change through the ages. One thing is constant. Competition.

Did you know? Back then, the ancient Greeks held essentially beauty contest for men. It would be held at the yearly Athenian festival called the Anandrea, and there was a reason behind it for a long, long time. A lot of people believed that if you were born beautiful, you had been blessed by the gods. Already at birth, you were better than everyone else. You were favored. The gods looked at all the little spurmies, and they were like, that one, that sperm right

there, make that one pretty. That's what they thought. And as for the Greeks, being beautiful on the outside meant that you had a beautiful mind. Because why would the gods bless an unbeautiful mind? That's not fair. I mean, I think that that sentiment still kind of exists today. So they did studies. And if someone is conventionally attractive, more study participants just assume that they

were nice. Just a pure assumption, which is fascinating, because being conventionally attractive and being a good, upstanding moral person, they have zero correlation. Literally no connection, not in neuroscience, not in your brain chemistry, but our minds are like, oh yeah, that's the same. Science behind it. Yeah, there it is, because like, oh yeah, that's the same science behind it.

Yeah, there is. Cause like, you know how everything we do is come from like back in the day, you hunting gather. My mom would always say, if you think pretty thoughts, you'll be pretty. You just like that person. I think I saw that somewhere. You find someone who's visually more attractive. You already like this person. Then you, you kind of like their personality already, I guess. But I always find it interesting like what people deem pretty. Like sometimes you know you just a couple millimeter difference in your mind you can perceive someone as attractive and not attractive just by that very very tiny dimension.

It's all about dimension right everything is just a little bit of a proportion. So odd. That's so true. I grew up in everyone's side. Your features are a little bit too in the middle of your face. Like a tiny millimeter further away, you would have been very pretty.

That's what I said. That's what they said to you? My mom. That's what she said, okay? Okay, here's a chicken and the egg question. You know how we have this belief? And this is, I'm trying to get away from this belief system, but it's ingrained in us, especially Koreans. So for example, Americans have what's called like a first impression.

You meet someone and you're like, oh, I thought they were nice, right? Koreans have an even more intense version of that called in-sung. You take one look at someone, and you feel like their facial features are compassionate. You feel like they look smart, so they must be smart. You get a feeling from their face. So if you have resting bitch face, you gotta be careful around these Korean adjamas,

okay, these Korean middle aged women will be like, don't hang out with her. She looks like she's got something up her sleeve. Meanwhile, it could be the nicest person in the world, okay? But it's interesting. Do you think the chicken or the egg comes first? You know how in our minds we have an idea of who looks kind. Like you can kind of picture a kind of face.

Do you think we've taught ourselves that these people are kind because these features look kind? Or do these are these people born looking like this and their parents are like, oh, you're so kind, you're so kind anytime they do something kind. people born looking like this and their parents are like, oh, you're so kind, you're so kind. Anytime they do something kind, so it reinforces this behavior. I don't know because why does it a lot of the times correlate? Does that make sense?

A lot of the times I meet people who look kind and they're kind. See, what's more fascinating to me is what I was telling you about before about the, I think a lot of time we don't spend enough time analyzing our own features and impressions to others. Like for example, like when you see someone for the first time, you have an impression, right? And that impression is not something that we spend enough time studying for ourselves. Like for example, you were talking about the Chris Wu case.

Like Chris Wu is this K-pop idol and then turned into like a... If you guys don't watch Seppne Su on YouTube, but we talked about this after I finished the Chris Wu video and he was like, he is a K-pop idol that's trying to break out in mainstream Chinese media. And immediately when he's emerging in this new market, he and his management team, well, he and his mom, his mom, a jar, like we need to come up with some sort of image,

what's our branding. Now Chris Wu, generally speaking, if you look mom, his mom, are like, we need to come up with some sort of image, what's our branding. Now, Chris Wu, generally speaking, if you look at pictures of him, he has that high fashion model-esque look. So he doesn't have soft features. He's not like a softy look. Yeah, he looks very angular, you know? Yeah, sharp.

And very sharp. And so they thought, why don't we do a contrast? People will gravitate towards the contrast. You look like this high fashion sharp person, but we are going to market you as this innocent naive boy who's looking for true love Who's always getting his heart broken just once someone to love and share his life with which is the opposite of what people would think You would want when you just look at him. Yeah, but it worked right because it was that you look at someone who they look kind of mean And then as soon as you start talking to the imps instantly But it worked, right? Oh. Because it was that you look at someone who they look kind of mean. And then as soon as you start talking to the imps instantly, they're like, oh my god, you're so soft.

And then the contrast is creating a lot of interesting dynamic for people. The contrast is fascinating. I mean, maybe we should look into the psychology of this. I'm sure most people feel this way. When I meet someone who looks kind and they're kind, I still love them. It's amazing. Wow, such a kind person. When I meet someone who I perceive to be, oh, they look very powerful and sharp and kind of scary looking, intimidating, and then they're so kind, I feel like they're kind to

me because they like me. It feels more enhanced. It feels more special and hands more complicated. Yeah, there must be psychology behind that. But on top of that, what I was thinking is just, I think nobody ever taught that, but it's such a big part of our life, first impression. Obviously, the more you know someone,

the more you get to know their inner beauty, their personality, their charisma. But when you first meet someone, that has to do with getting a job, dating, you never know, at least for me, I don't know what people think of me when they first meet me. I was told that I look kind of cold and kind of not approachable,

but I'm like, huh, really? What made you think that way, right? With a scowl on his face, he goes, what makes you think that? That's definitely not the impression I want to give people. So what do I need to do to change that? And I think there should be studies and even classes or even just on YouTube video, for example, just to break it down.

I think everybody has strength in their appearance. If you look like a main person, maybe like me, I'm not honing into that, but like maybe I should know what's my strength and work on that, rather even not knowing that's going to hurt me. So I don't know, I find that very fascinating that we don't spend enough time thinking about that part in our life. Yeah, he was saying it's like getting to know your body proportions and finding the clothes that fit right for you.

Yeah. It should be that talks about in that just a basic human knowledge thing that people kind of focus on. Yeah, getting to know yours. Instead of fitting in this, this mold that everyone should look this way, act this way to be considered.

Like some people just looks like me, like looks kind of like a, whatever. The hottest sexiest seven foot man. So, some people just kind of look like that. And it's intimidating, you know? So, if you guys want us to do a spin off podcast podcast called based on your looks where we judge you based on your looks I'm just kidding But it is very fascinating. I think there should be studies on this

I will look into it But it's just the fact that humans make these connections to oh this person looks kind and kindness means this kind people look like this It's wild to me now in the ancient Greeks the concept of being beautiful and great only applied to men, which kind of stands to this day. Ancient Greeks actually said, women that were beautiful were beautiful evil things. They said a woman was beautiful because they were evil and evil because they were beautiful. What? Because the beauty of women only exists to cause trouble in the lives of men, you know.

So how do you heard the story of the judgment of Paris? Okay, this is Greek mythology. This is how the legend goes. Paris is the son of the king of Troy. Now his story, his whole life saga is a long one, where his parents basically banished him from the royal family when he was a baby, because they had a dream. They're like, uh-uh, the dream is a bad omen,

get him outta here. He was left for dead. These random poor shepherds found him, and they raised him as a shepherd. For the longest time, he had no idea that he was the son of the king of Troy. And eventually, he would find out, and he would later come back to Troy to defeat his other siblings and finally be accepted by his father later on. But that's a story

for another day. Paris is a shepherd at this point. He's doing his job when Zeus comes down. Zeus is the King of all the gods. He's the King of the Olympians. He comes down and he announces, King of the Olympians. He comes down and he announces, Paris, you are to be a judge in a beauty contest. There are three goddesses who are arguing that they are the most beautiful goddesses that have ever graced the mortals, who are the three competitors, you ask?

Only the most well-known goddesses of Greek mythology. Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, Athena, the goddess of war, and Hera, the queen of the Olympian gods, revered as the goddess of marriage. Why? Because she's my wife. Hera is Zeus's wife. So which one is it, Paris? Don't worry, your life is most definitely probably on the line, okay? Paris is confused, he can't decide. I mean, they're all so pretty. What do I do? I mean, I also don't know if I should decide, he's really second-guessing himself. And the goddesses decide, let's play dirty.

We're gonna bribe him. Athena comes down and she promises Paris. I will back you forever with my great military might. I am the goddess of war after all. Any struggle, any war, any battle that you find yourself in. I will support you. And if Athena is behind you, you will be victorious. Then she left, leaving him to ponder. Hera came down and promised him kingdom. Literally. Hera said if she were chosen as the most beautiful,

he would become the king of all mortal men. She would promise him that. I mean, of course she could. She's the queen of gods and goddesses. He can be the king of mortals. Then she let him ponder on it. Aphrodite sat on the side and she smirked. Because being the goddess of love and beauty,

she knew the weakness of mortal men. In the end, power being a king, winning wars, none of that meant anything if these men did not have the prettiest women at their sides. So Aphrodite came down, and offered to help him marry the most beautiful mortal woman alive on the face of the planet. Stephanie Sue?

Who would that be? Helen. The only problem was, Helen was already the wife of the king of Sparta. And can you guess who Paris truces as the most beautiful of all the goddesses? The last one. Alfredaidi.

Now, this beauty contest would effectively start the Trojan war. I mean I'm so busy. How this started? Miss Universe But it's Greek mythology, okay, but I mean it started the Trojan war because Paris ends up taking Helen the wife of the king of Sparta and Sparta is like, oh no you't. And they start this whole war, and it's this whole thing. Wow, yikes. Now, you can always find raw connections

to the stories of Greek mythology and human behavior, human psychology. And it's almost like beauty is a drug to us mere mortals. It really is. I mean, even the gods were pretty vain. So it doesn't come as a surprise when the mortals got bored

and we started twiddling our thumbs and we're like, you know what we should do? We should do like beauty pageants like contests. There should be like series. We want to see them in swimsuits We want to see them in gowns. We should have like a talent show portion. No, that's good. No, it's really good So let's talk about the big four real quick. The big four beauty pageants in the adult world don't even get me started on the child beauty pageants. I could do 25 episodes on that. In the big adult world, you have Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth. Now just to preface, these are all organizations that just I could create an organization and call it miss space tomorrow if it's not trademarks. It's there are a lot of like small ones too.

Yes. Some random. A lot. Miss worldwide international. Yeah. Yeah. Because I saw one like I had a friend who was in it. She said I just want this Miss worldwide international. I'm like really and I looked it up. It's just a random Competition someone made. There's a lot and like you I guess if when you think of these you imagine that they're correlated to the world somehow Maybe these politicians can involve the government gets involved It kind of feels like the Olympics where all the countries get involved in there like involved. It kind of feels like the Olympics, where all the countries get involved in there. Like this is the prettiest one. We've searched high and low. We found her in the bunker in Colorado, send her up.

Like you think it's like that. But no, it's just a for-profit organization typically that facilitates these pageants, and then they're like, this is the one. Now, just for a good reference for this particular story, whoever wins Miss USA goes on to complete in the Miss Universe pageant. I would say that the Miss World and Miss Universe are the biggest ones of the four.

So the Miss USA and the Miss Universe pageant are directly linked. Think of it as like a web. So Miss Universe is this big parent company that facilitates the big Miss Universe pageant. And then they pretty much third party source every country. So Brazil is going to have their own little company that handles the Miss Brazil. Miss USA is going to have their own company that handles the Miss USA pageant. And eventually they will all pick one winner and they'll go to the Miss Universe. Now in that web from the Miss USA organization, there's 51 districts, 50 states and DC.

And each of them is like another organization that only does the Miss Texas organization. So they handle the Miss Texas, then they send them to Miss USA, then to Miss Universe, right? Now, side note, I'm sure if you guys were watching the dumpster fire of politics that is the US Miss Universe was a big big topic at one point in the political world in the US because Donald Trump was a former owner of that organization Miss Universe. Yeah, he owned it and he would later sell it to WME and IMG in 2015 And they recently sold it to the first tie owner of the whole pageant. The Miss Universe pageant is now owned by a tie transgender business tycoon.

Yeah. Really? Wow. Which is very exciting, okay? It's speculated that she's going to be making a lot of changes to the pageant, a lot of great changes that are going to make it more inclusive. Which, wow, long time coming needed to be done because let me tell you about some of the qualifications of entering into the Miss

Universe pageant because, I don't know, maybe this is inspiring. Well the first you have to do is when you're state pageant, that it could be hundreds of girls from one state. There's no one person per each county. It's like hundreds and hundreds of girls. Then once you win your state, you have to win Miss USA. And in order to win Miss USA, you have to be between the ages of 18 and 28. 28 is the oldest because once you hit 30, you know, you're done. What's beauty?

You go one year left. I should start today. You have to be recognized medically and legally as a female in the US. And you're not allowed to have been married or have children. It's really bizarre. You can't even have plans on getting married when you hold your title. So basically what happens is you win Miss USA. And for one year you are the current Miss USA. You get paid a full-time salary and your whole job. You're not allowed to have your regular job. Your whole job is to run around the country

doing speaking gigs, charity gigs, like just all these gigs, non-stop meetings and schedules. That's very interesting. Yeah, it's very, I think. Like are they representing the US or are they just representing the organization? Just the organization. A kind of like marketing for the organization?

Yeah, basically. And they get paid I think like 200,000 something. I get that ear marketing for the organization. Yeah, basically and they get paid I think like 200,000 something Yeah, it's good money. Well a lot of work to get that good money But yeah, so they they excuse that Miss Universe as a whole gave was well if you're married and you have kids You can't be on the road 24-7 for your year of holding the title. You can't be going to non-stop obligations, you're gonna be so busy with your family and kids. Which side note, the marriage thing is changing, so as of 2023, women are now allowed to be married and you can be a mom. Ooh, one step for women.

What are these rules? Miss Mexico, who was Miss Universe in 2020 said, you know, a few people are against these new changes because they always wanted to see a single, beautiful woman who was available for relationship. I guess it's like that sick thing that some people don't want their celebrities or idols to find love because it's like that hope, maybe they'll come to you one day.

She said, they always wanted to see a woman that from the outside looks so perfect that she's almost unreachable. She said the former sexist and the latter is unrealistic. She also argued, just like any other industry, women are capable of having demanding leadership positions with or without a family. It's no different in this case. Which yes, the organization took this marriage role seriously, right? But the public took it very seriously too, which is bizarre. When Miss Mexico won Miss Universe in 2020, the public found a picture of her standing on top of a cliff with a man. The man is wearing a full tux. She's wearing a white wedding dress and is that a val see blowing in the wind? Immediately, the internet went up in flames. Rip the crown off the top of her head

and snatch some hairs out of it too. She's frickin' married, little skimster. We hate her! Yeah, turns out she was doing a promotional shoot for the city of Chihuahua in Mexico. It was a sponsorship, and everyone, the public, was ready to wrestle her to the ground and take her crown for that was wild. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the

office parking lot or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby. Or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or paid subscription starting at 12.99 per month. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there? Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's going to catch us?

What a police! It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers and I know how to do it. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers. And I know how to do it really well.

This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul, just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your shows.

I'm not a big guy, man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. I would just like to say that I'm not a pageant girl. I guess it just doesn't interest me watching it that I can never compete, but I don't think that pageants are the root of all evil. I've seen a lot of people say, get away with them, it's like 10 steps back for women. I don't necessarily think that. I think I'm just indifferent to them. I think the women that compete are typically independent, intelligent, strong women that would

make great mentors for future generations of women. But I do think that the pageant world is a very easy breeding grounds for corruption, abuse, sexual harassment, eating disorders, body dysmorphia. So with that being said, let's talk about the MSUSA organization. Because in order to know if the MSUSA competition was rigged, we need to get to know the organization. It is spearheaded by the highly respected crystal steward. She was the former director of the Miss Houston Pageant.

She was the Miss Texas for a year. She was a former Miss USA winner in 2008. She was the eighth runner up in the Miss Universe competition that year. And she's also the first black woman to be runner up in the Miss Universe competition that year. And she's also the first black woman to be in charge of the Miss USA organization. So she's very multifaceted, very talented woman. She even has a pageant school called Miss Academy.

She said that her whole aim in this organization is to make pageants relevant again. She says, at the mention of pageants, what comes to mind for most people is stereotypically a slim woman, big hair, superb polish, but that's not enough for the image of the future. Our mission in reimagining pageantry is to catapult our competitions into the mainstream audience by showing people the confidence and power that pageantry can give to young woman. And they desperately need it.

So a lot of these pageants, when they first started, they were raking in close to like 100 million views per pageant. And now the big, big ones are struggling to rake in six million viewers. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, it just feels a little outdated, right? Yeah, so she's trying to make it more modernized You know, and that's why a lot of these bigger pageants have taken out the swimsuit portion and they've tried to make it more based on merit and intelligence Yeah, so they're trying I don't know what it is. Maybe just the word pageant throws people off Maybe so crystal steward going to take the lead. She's the president of the organization and her husband Max, who was a former Belgian model, is now the vice president of the Miss USA organization. Right. So we've got this crazy power couple president VP and behind every

great woman. This is like a quote that I made up just now is a man trying to burn everything that she has built from the ground up. Listen, I don't know why. Okay, maybe he's an arsonist. Not to generalize, I'm kidding. Most men are not like that. But he fits into that small category of male partners who are just horrendous, just literally want to see their wife burst into flames.

Because Crystal is this incredibly accomplished woman. I mean, she really just killed it in all the competitions. The competition was cutthroat. Even when she was winning Miss Texas, there was 121 other girls that she had to go up against. She graduated from the University of Houston. She's also an actress. She's a very close friend of Tyler Perry's and she has featured in a lot of his series and movies. Yeah, she's a mother of two. Just in terms of skill and charisma, Crystal Stewart is the type of woman that I would probably piss my pants if I was around.

But also, be so in like admiration, slash, almost devotion to her, because I'm like, wow, what a powerful woman. She actually fell. Okay, this is, this tells you everything you need to know about Crystal Stewart. She actually fell during her misuniverse competition. And without even skipping a beat, she gets right up in the most poised manner

I've ever seen in my life. And instead of, you know how some people would shy and like, oh my god, I felt it would smile or wave, right? No. She puts her arms up above her head, and she does big claps while she's smiling valiantly and at first when she felt the crowd so they didn't even know how to react. Now I think if she had gotten up and just weakly clapped and smiled people would have been like oh we feel so bad for her but the fact that she looked so powerful just clapping for herself like yeah that's even better I fell and I got right back up so let's keep it moving was just incredible I mean the crowd could not help but

cheer and cheer and woo she just had it I mean she has the effect or what can I say and her husband Max Max C-Brett he's a pretty big. He works with brands like Gucci, Burberry, Rolex, he did runways, campaigns, very accomplished. He went to the University of Florence in Italy. He speaks Mandarin, majored in business and economics. I mean, just all around a very accomplished man. So Crystal Stewart is the head of the Miss USA organization. And Max is the vice president. And he would later be in a lot of hot water for allegedly trying to Sleep with contestants and abuse his power as the vice president of the Miss USA organization We're gonna get into all those really cringy nasty emails very very soon. So hold on to your

Arms from the outside. They seem like the power couple, right? Now let's introduce Miss USA and recently crowned Miss Universe. So Miss Universe 2023 is Miss USA. She just won. Like a month ago. No, maybe like two weeks ago. Yeah, she won. But we're getting there. So it's Gabrielle Arbony. She's originally from Houston, Texas, which later comes into play because Crystal Stewart is from Houston, Texas, which later comes into play because Crystal Stewart is from Houston, Texas as well. Anyway, Gabrielle is a Filipino American fashion designer. She focuses on creating designs that are sustainable. She creates gowns and t-shirts that are all made from recycled material. Her designs are really beautiful, by the way, also that I try to buy something.

She's all about empowering other women. She's been sewing for 13 years and she's been teaching sewing to survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. So she's a part of this program that teaches survivors life tools so they can learn new skills. Which side note, she's actually 28, which is the oldest you can be to compete in the Miss USA and Miss Universe contest, which is fascinating. She actually paid a mod to it. She had a cape during her Miss Universe swimsuit walk, and on the back it said, if not now, when? And she was asked one of those Q&A questions that they asked at these projects. And they were like, if you could change one thing about our pageant rules, what would it be? And she said age. Because why should age stop anyone from running?

If you go to her website, she talks about how much clothes mean to her and how creating a sustainable brand means the world to her. She said, there is a special feeling I get when completing a garment that I've dreamt up. The process of transforming a simple piece of fabric into something much more captivating is quite amazing.

Endless possibilities, always problem solving, always learning, in a lot of ways the art of designing clothes reflects life. It's challenging, unexpected, beautiful, and if we as humans wear clothing every day, why not make it good? I mean, she too, just like Crystal Stewart sounds like a remarkable intelligent woman. So what's with the scandal? Why are these people being accused of rigging the competition? Well, technically, it all started with the crowning

when the other contestants walked off the stage. You know, eyebrows were raised, people were confused. There were a lot of speculations in the air, but it didn't explode until less than 24 hours after the crowning of Miss Texas becoming Miss USA, a random Med Spa Instagram account posted a story. This Med Spa is called Mia Beauty. Now, this Med Spa is the sponsor of the Miss USA competition, but they also sponsor Miss

Texas competition. This Med Spa posted on Instagram of Gabrielle, the new Miss USA, less than 24 hours after winning, add a resort in Cancun, where they have a med spa location. The Mia Beauty Spa is inside this resort. And she's going through the resort. It's a promo ad.

She's going through the resort, getting her facial done. It's a promotional video. In the other contestants, the other 50 contestants that didn't win Miss USA 2022, they shoot up and they're looking at this video because whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You cannot fly to Cancun that fast.

So was this shot before the Miss USA competition? She just won less than 24 hours ago. You're telling me she got on a plane right after? I highly doubted she has other production obligations that she has to do because she just won. There's press, there's all these other things. If that means she did shoot this video a while back. Why would she shoot a promotional video as Miss USA weeks prior to the actual competition

even taking place unless they knew that she was going to win before the competition took place. I'm going to give you the other side to these claims in a second, but I'm just going to go down the road of allegations first, because these are how they came out to the public. This is how even I received these little allegations, right? Now a contestant said, after I saw that video, it was very evident that something was not right. That was the first moment I really thought, wow, we just got played big time. She said that she had heard of alleged rigging weeks before the competition even started, that there were whispers that everyone, the judges,

the organization was in favor of Miss Texas, and she was new to pageantry, so she just assumed she's pageant gossip. But maybe that explains why everyone walked off the stage right after she was crowned. Former Miss USA contestant from years ago, Jasmine Jones, she went on to TikTok and said that she had been in the pageant industry for 10 years, and she thought that it was obvious that something happened when all those women left the stage.

There was more behind the scenes. She said, in any pageant that you've ever been in, the production manager tells you to stay on the stage until the winner is done. You stand there, you clap, and in the background you see that the girls are kind of weakly clapping, and they start exiting the stage before Miss USA even turned around for her congratulatory hugs from the other contestants. I'm sure if you've even seen snippets, I can recall on snippets of them all hugging and the confetti's falling and it seems like a blast. Before she even got halfway down the runway for her crowning moment, the contestants behind her were exiting the stage. Jasmine Jones said it was a telling moment that something was off to her. Just being in the

industry, being in these competitions, she knew that it was kind of weird. The internet also found a picture of Miss Texas and the founder of Mia Beauty, the sponsor, who is Asian American by the way, and that comes into play later. There's a picture of them together that was posted to the Mia Beauty social media accounts. Okay, that's a little bit weird, right? People were arguing about this picture. Some said she's so close to a sponsor. I mean, of course, the sponsor has some say in the competition, what do you think?

Because these organizations basically work for these sponsors, no? You would imagine to a degree. But other people said, no, but look at the photo. It's not an intimate photo of them dining out at a restaurant, hanging out off hours. It looks like she went there to shoot a promotion for Mia Beauty. And he was like, let me take a picture with you before you go. Because it's in that office setting, he's wearing his coat, like his esthetician coat or doctor's coat, right? It looks like it happened in the office. They don't look like they talk on a regular basis or anything. But then people said, well, he was a judge. The founder of Mia Beauty, the sponsor, was a judge on one of the portions of the Miss USA competition.

He was a judge for the costume portion. And guess who won the costume portion of the competition? Miss Texas. So it's getting wild. It's starting to go from conspiracy to, oh, that's a lot of, you know, connections. A lot of dots that are coming together, right? That mean, something's gotta be going on. Bear with me. I'm gonna get to the other side. I do see the frustration of these other contestants that a major sponsor, the Med Spa sponsor,

who is sponsoring the entire Miss USA competition, was also only promoting Miss Texas through his Instagram stories. So during the Miss USA competition, he's only showing Miss Texas. Just only posting her pictures, only showing her doing her walks, everything just Miss Texas. That's it, nobody else. Miss Montana has been the most outspoken of it.

Her name is Heather O'Keefe, and she says that her being outspoken has a lot to do with the fact that she just passed the bar exam. So she's gonna be a lawyer. She's not interested in competing anymore. She's done with the fact that she just passed the bar exam. So she's gonna be a lawyer, she's not interested in competing anymore, she's done with the pageant world, she felt like there was this injustice being done, and she needed to speak out. Because other girls, they were too scared, this is the industry that

they're trying to move upwards and they're trying to get into the entertainment industry, it's all kind of connected. She's the only one that can afford to really burn these bridges. She took to social media to air her speculations that the whole thing was rigged from the get go She was even on a podcast which I did use this podcast for the research But I'm not gonna link it in my show notes because these guys are pretty misogynistic I um decided to make that decision because they sat there in Miss Montana's very eloquent She's trying to explain the situation and one of the guys go, or do you think, okay, just think about it, bear

with me. If 51 girls are like competing in hotness and there's just like 51 hot girls, you don't think there's going to be drama because I can get three girls together and you won't believe the drama, drama, drama, drama drama drama they have no leadership. I have to tell them what to do. Oh, yeah, literally one of them said that girls have no leadership. Meanwhile, the class of the Miss USA that was just competing doctors, lawyers, researchers, like literally the crem d'Allah crem of professions. This guy is itching his butt hole going, I mean drama, drama, drama, drama, drama.

These ladies have accomplished careers and degrees, and you have a microphone you bought off of Amazon. So tone it down. Now, Yikes, also they said, Ms. Montana mentioned that there was a group chat between the Miss USA contestants. And I thought that was interesting, right? Oh, well, like, how do you remember all these names?

I'm thinking of all of these logistics. Or do they write their state name? Do they write their real name? Because they always refer to each other as their state name. Anyway, I thought that was intriguing, but the guys sit there and go, wait, how do we get on this group chat? This sounds like the hottest group chat

that every exeusted. Yeah. That's what they were saying. And I'm like, oh my god. Anyway, Ms. Montana said on this podcast that it wasn't just her that thought this competition was rigged. It was at least 40 out of the 50 other girls that believe that the winner for the Miss USA contest had been long decided before the contest even took place. Ms. Montana posted a TikTok talking about all of this prior to her appearance on the podcast, and she said, if you're new here, welcome to page in drama TikTok.

Miss USA 2022 was crowned two nights ago. I competed, I didn't win Miss Texas one. The drama all started when one of the huge major sponsors posted a video almost immediately after this girl won, showing her at their resort having this luxury vacation which is supposed to be part of the Miss USA prize. There's no way that she was already flown out there and having all these treatments. It's pretty clear that this video was pre-recorded and she was flown out there about nine weeks ago. Then she goes on to bring up more evidence, she says. Ever since Texas was crowned,

she has been shown favoritism by the Miss USA organization through their businesses that are all owned by the same woman who owns Miss USA Academy, who owns the whole Miss brand, which are all very closely knit. Miss Montana goes up to pull up a screenshot of the owner of the Miss brand, Crystal Stewart, and she's doing Gabrielle's hair in the back.

And that feels kind of like favoritism, right? Miss Montana says she's doing her hair. It's not clear when this photo was taken, if it was before or after the competition, but I can tell you that this is the room where all the contestants were getting their hair and makeup done before the competition. And add to that, Crystal Stewart has a mis-academy where she coaches people on how to be contestants, at how to win at page entry, how to carry yourself, and apparently Miss Texas was there. Heather said, a lot of girls felt that they needed to work with Miss Academy,

spend their money there to feel like they had a chance at doing well at Miss USA, which I think is really unfortunate. It's not feasible that all the contestants can attend because tuition ranges from $2,500 to $100 and there are $500 all of the card classes you can take to. It's a lot of money, that's the point I'm trying to make. They really lead us to believe that we needed to go to Miss Academy to take these lessons for them to do well at Miss USA. At least a lot of us were under that impression.

Heather herself has attended some online classes through Miss Academy, which, side note, I do agree that pageantry is incredibly expensive. So I did read a story of how there are some countries where pageantry for women is their way to make it out of poverty, because there's just not enough opportunity. And there's not a lot of chances for women is their way to make it out of poverty. Because there's just not enough opportunity and there's not a lot of chances for women to move up the socioeconomic ladder in some of these countries and these parents will spend all their money, will go into debt to try and give these girls a chance at life, like a real chance. And it's not because these women are so vain, they want to look the prettiest, they want

to be crowned the prettiest, that is such a superficial take. This is their chance, this is like their ticket to putting food on the table. And these patterns are very expensive. It reminds me of the bachelor. Obviously that's a very, not a great comparison, but you watch it and you're like,

hee hee ha ha, this is so fun, the bachelor is so fun. But all these girls had to buy all of their gowns, all of their outfits. They had to bring like two cases of new and clothes these put together outfits because the world is gonna judge them and same with Padden true. So everything's personal, clothing? Everything's personal.

Oh wow. I think once you get to the bigger levels, you can find sponsors. So I think once you get to like misuniverse, I'm sure they're sponsors for the costumes. And stuff like that. Yeah. Kind of insane. So Heather is saying, you know, that is in itself already a lot of money. And the makeup, the hair, it's just the travel time, the time it takes off of work. It's a lot. And then add to that, these classes, incredible. Heather herself attended the online classes through Miss Academy, and as she's continuing to advocate for clarity in regards to this competition,

she even posted a very cryptic and I guess it's not cryptic. She posted an Instagram story that said, LOL at all the sponsors, judges, staff, etc. watching my stories and videos. I see you. When will y'all speak up? Silence is compliance. She also said that the walking off stage during her crowning. Ms. Montana agreed that it was unprecedented. It had never happened before where all the girls just started walking off. She claimed that nobody planned it. It wasn't done because they were sort of losers. She said, and I quote, we all just acted in the moment. What we thought was right is what we did. We are a class of division one athletes, Harvard alumni, lawyers,

doctors, scientists, people who fought for their citizenship in this country. We are the furthest thing from sort of losers. She also said, nothing against Texas as a person. I truly think that she could have won fair and square, but unfortunately all of this drama has tainted her win. There is just too much evidence of favoritism to let this go unnoticed. There were other allegations that the competition was rigged, like other pieces of proof that were provided. And some reasons were that she was asked easier questions during the Q&A portion compared to the other girls, which I like to say a note. Let's go on a tangent about this questionnaire portion of pageants.

This whole questionnaire part, I get it. I get it. You want to get to know a person, you want to get to know a contestant, you want to know that there are good representations of your state, of your country by asking these hard-pressing questions. But you're asking them things

that you're not even asking world leaders. You're not even asking politicians that handle foreign policy. It's just so bizarre to me. And I think the internet reaction, the public reaction mixed with the questions asked, it's a loose-lose situation. It seems like it's being wielded as this way for pageants to be like, see? We do care about intelligence. It's not just about looks.

And then the viewers at home get the sick satisfaction, the kevans and the chads are sitting on the couch arms crossed. I knew it. She's so dumb. She's pretty, but she's dumb. Because clearly, everyone knows how to take down ISIS. What an easy question to be asked. I mean, if she doesn't know how to take down ISIS,

how can we crown her Miss America? Let's just go through some of the most wild insane questions asked during Patrons. This one is recent. During the Miss Teen USA competition, one of the contestants was asked, and you only have 30 seconds to answer it, and the timer for the 30 seconds starts right after

they're done asking the question. She was asked, recent polls show that a fifth of Americans cannot locate the US on a world map. Why do you think that is? First of all, what a loaded question! Don't ask her! Ask the fifth of Americans I can't locate the US on a world map. Ask the politicians that are in charge of school curriculums. Miss South Carolina teen probably doesn't have the answer for you.

Admittedly, she struggled with this answer. To be fully transparent, her answer was pretty bad, horrible even. But the audience, oh, they ate it up. It could have been a moment where you're like, that's not really a good question for a teenager. But the internet, this is my chance but the internet, this is my chance. The internet, this is my chance to shine. I have been waiting, waiting for a tiny little reason to bully a teenager. And now I have it. The memes came afterward. People were commenting things like this chick probably can't even find the earth on a world map. Yeah, another one said, wow,

if she's the best in South Carolina, imagine what the rest would have said. These are all probably people who failed geography. Add another beauty pageant. A contestant was asked, if you were to choose to become beautiful, but not too smart, or very smart, and not too beautiful, What would you prefer to be and why? They really asked for this, but the worst part is that it was during the part where the contestants were forced to wear bikinis, so there she is standing, shivering on stage in her bikini, clearly looking nervous,

clearly looking uncomfortable, being asked this question, which is a loose-lose question, because you're in the middle of a beauty pageant, it would be ironic for her to say, I value brains. It would be ironic for her to say, I value beauty. Either way, she's gonna have a group of people shitting on her.

And so she hesitates because what kind of freaking question is that? But the host condescendingly, the male host, condescendingly asks the panel of judges, can you repeat the question one more time for her? I mean, it's a trick question, like they're all trying to laugh at her. In another one, a mis-universe pageant, the question was asked, what is the greatest

contribution of your country to the entire world? Please tell us in 30 seconds, if you are wrong, your whole home country will probably clown on you and hate you forever. Don't be nervous! We would just like to know. Yeah, can you ask this at like a UN meeting? Please? Because I don't know what these presidents would fucking say, they're crazy. They'd probably be stuttering the whole time like having no clue what to say. And yet you're like, tell me right now. But probably the worst I've ever seen. Miss Virginia was asked. This was just a few years ago. She was asked. The savagery of the ISIS threat to our security was demonstrated by the gruesome videos of two

journalists and an aid worker being beheaded. What would our country's response be? They don't even give her two seconds to think. The countdown immediately starts and she has a whopping 20 seconds to solve what politicians before her have been bamboozled with for decades. And honestly, she killed it. Her answer wasn't life-changing, but it was very PR. It was a very graceful way of handling this bizarre question. She said,

This is an absolute outrage and something definitely needs to be done. But I don't think America needs to be the only one to do it. I really think it's important for the world, for the UN to come together and decide what's the best thing united that we can do to really come together as a bigger and more impactful source, to end this horrid, horrid thing that's happening. It's pretty good. I mean, if you ask me that, oh my gosh, I would be literally giggling in nervousness because

I don't even know what to say and then I would get canceled for giggling. It's such a serious question. Like, I can't think of a better way to handle this question. And even though she gave this PR answer that was pretty good, given the circumstances, everyone clowned on her online. Why? She probably had this answer ready for any foreign tragedy policy question. Okay. Yeah, they're like, she's not actually smart, she memorized these answers. What? What? Okay, that just shows this whole thing is flawed.

Yeah, you can't win. Exactly. You cannot win. And then in the 2014 Miss America contest, two vastly different questions were asked, which were both horrendous questions, by the way. Miss California was asked. The US has threatened to attack Syria over using chemical weapons on its own people. It's a terrible crime, but is it our responsibility to punish them for it? What? And then Miss Oklahoma was asked. Miley Cyrus. Okay. Miley Cyrus has caused a media sensation with her twerking performance at the VMAs,

and appearing nude in her new videos, and so on. What do you think? Is it just Miley expressing herself artistically or Miley please? What are you thinking? Miley please Miley please like what are these questions? So back to the Miss USA 22 questions There were five top contestants. These are the five finalists Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Illinois, Nebraska And each contestant is going to be asked a question by a judge. They have 30 seconds to answer that question.

Now, Ms. Montana alleges that Ms. Texas was asked a question by an Asian American judge, which side note just to clarify again, Gabrielle is a Filipino American. She's Asian American. And so she was asked by an Asian American judge, and her question was more related to the fashion industry, allegedly. I thought it would be interesting to show you guys the question and answers.

Just so you can see immediately, does something is there a red alarm going off? Like, oh, that is weird. Her question is so easy. Everyone's asked about these crazy political things, like ISIS and Syria, and she's asked about my Lee Cyrus. Let's just see. Nebraska was asked.

Miss Nebraska. You're in the early stages of your professional life in 2022. Why do some women still face inequality issues in hiring, especially in traditionally male dominated fields? Miss Nebraska answered. From my experience as well as a lot of the research I've done into women in higher professions, a lot of the potential in full talent of females continues to be neglected and failed to be recognized. A lot of the reason being is because of a subconscious neglect for women. We are still regarding women as less than, and as a corporate attorney, I'm going to continue to pave the way, pave the avenue for specifically female attorneys

after me. Thank you. Wow, incredible. Miss Illinois was asked. Voters your age have become quite vocal about age limits for elected officials. Are placing age limits young or old on any profession ethical? Illinois responded. I absolutely do not think that it is ethical.

I think that anyone no matter your age, no matter your race, no matter your gender, I am a champion of inclusivity and diversity. And I think anyone and everyone should have the opportunity to go after and pursue their wildest dreams, and so I absolutely do not believe that that is ethical. North Carolina was asked. We heard your thoughts on social media influencer fashion trends earlier. Should content creators and influencers be required by law to disclose whether they're being paid or if they use the products as advertised.

North Carolina answered, I'm not sure if they should be required by law to provide that information. I think if you're following an influencer, you chose to follow them and you believe that the things they are posting are things that they truly love and hopefully content creators are sharing things they do truly use and would buy with their own hard earned money and those are the influencers that I choose to follow. Also did you guys know that Olivia Pondton was a judge? I was so shook when I was watching this. I was not expecting it. So all the other judges, I-

Olivia Pondton is a social media influencer. All the other judges I couldn't recognize. One of them is like a Korean American ping pong player. I had to Google her. And then all of a sudden I was like, Olivia! Ariana, what do you two in here? Yeah, she's the judge. Very cool. Very cool. I here? Yeah, she's a judge! Very cool, very cool, I like it. But she was a judge asking Miss Ohio for her question, which is, representation and entertainment is under a microscope lately,

from color blind to non-traditional casting and live-action movies to musicians playing historical instruments. Why is there so much pushback on representation? Miss Ohio said, I think as a country, we have to take the time to understand that we are the United States of America. And in order for us to be united,

we have to stand with one another. And yes, we are pushing back, but in order to become united, we have to change the trajectory of the different platforms that we've seen. And that's getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Ms. Texas was asked by an Asian American judge, the Korean ping pong star, she asked. Global studies indicate that women are increasingly

as seen as more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. You are asked to create a task force to help address this issue. What is your first priority? Ms. Texas responded, I think there's ways we can implement a dressing climate change within our careers or our lifestyles. It's as easy as adding a recycling bin to your house,

everybody can do that, or being creative. In ways you can also implement it in your job. I'm a fashion designer, and I actually made the outfit that I'm wearing, and I upcycle pieces, and I recycle different clothing to be worn, and to be more sustainable in my own industry. I feel like it's my duty.

I think that's something we can all do is look for ways in our industries or in our homes to be sustainable. This part I personally didn't see a problem with, but I think it was the argument of sustainability is huge for her fashion brand and she was asked a climate change question, but I think that's, I don't know. I think a climate change question is already a hard question. And it's a broad question. It's broad, it requires knowledge,

it requires a lot of forethought. You can talk about a lot of things, right? You can talk about laws, you can talk about government, you can talk about. Massive corporations. Yeah, you can talk about a lot of things. Yeah. I think it's very similar to the Miss Nebraska question

where it's talking about women in male predominantly male fields And she brought up the fact that she was a corporate attorney and I think it's just their way of personalizing these questions Yeah, this is like it's like interview questions. How do you make it about something you've like cheap? Yeah, it's kind of like that every opportunity is for you to sell yourself How do you tie the question to make yourself seem more valuable to the judge? Well, it's not the biggest part of the whole argument that it was rigged, but Miss Montana did point it out, so I just thought I would include it

so we can cover all the bases. Now, more than it does in Miss USA contestant said that this year's pageant was either rigged or heavily favored Gabrielle. Miss Marzari said, a lot of the girls felt like it was the organization's plan from the beginning for Gabrielle to win, no matter who else was competing. Miss Marzari said she didn't walk off the stage as a way to knock Gabrielle's win, but she said, is just to send a statement that we all had an idea of what was really going

on behind the scenes and we felt disrespected. We felt paraded around for a show. Miss Ohio said, we are given the opportunity to use our voice to stand up for what we believe in and be a voice for the unheard, which is why many of my sisters are speaking out against what we experienced. We want to protect the woman to come in the future

and protect the longevity of what Miss USA is truly about. Miss New York posted on social media, I am at a loss for words. The way I entered this pageant and gave it every last bit of my heart and soul. At limiting beliefs of the outcome and did everything to ignore the signs, we were humiliated. Thinking we entered something with a fair chance, however, I'm not here to create a sub story. You also don't have to believe what we're saying. The only reason I'm speaking up is to prevent future contestants from feeling the way that I do.

For all the little girls that watch Miss USA with the same dreams I had of working hard to be in that position, you deserve a full chance. Now, at this point, it's going viral on social media, even the parent organization of Miss Universe gets involved. And a lot of these are attempted to be debunked. Now there's not really a straightforward, was it rigged, was it not, who was involved. There's going to be an investigation, but these are the ways that they're trying to debunk

these allegations of competition being rigged. So the promotional video for the Mia Beauty Med Spa. Yes, the Mia Beauty Spa is a sponsor for the Miss USA competition, but they are also sponsors for the Miss Texas competition. So when Gabriel won Miss Texas, they used that video that she had shot after winning Miss Texas, where she was flown to the resort, which side note she paid her own money to fly back and forth to the resort, and back to Texas. She shot that promotional video and they just never posted it. They saved it till after the Miss USA competition.

It's speculated and assumed that even if she hadn't won they would have posted it after the Miss USA competition because it's gonna get a lot more attention. Since now it's on a national level. Not just, hey Miss Texas is here. It's like, hey a contestant of the Miss, hey, Ms. Texas is here. It's like, hey, a contestant of the Miss USA competition was here. Like I said, Gabrielle also stated that she paid for her travel to and from the resort. Now, remember how that founder of the Med Beauty Spa was a judge on the costume contest. And Miss Texas won it. Will the final score for the costume contest does not count towards your final score for Miss USA? So it has nothing to do with your score. It's not even the same judges that actually find Will the final score for the costume contest does not count towards your final score for Miss USA?

So it has nothing to do with your score. It's not even the same judges that actually find the winner for the Miss USA. It's just a fun little segment to get more audience, to get more eyeballs on the screen. It's like the cool part. Which to this, I don't think it's even fair to draw a conclusion that Miss Texas was in on it or that Miss Texas did anything shady. I think Miss New Hampshire said it best. She said, things get messy when you have a national sponsor offering more to their home state girl.

Now, I don't know if I agree that they were offering more to Miss Texas, but I do think that it's messy, that the same company that sponsored Miss Texas and then got to know Gabrielle as Miss Texas then also went on to sponsor Miss USA as a whole. But I also wonder if there are other sponsors that sponsored their home state competition and then later Miss USA as a whole. I guess it's like Delta sponsoring a Georgia competition and then the US as a whole. Are there? Because in that case, I don't really think we can say much about this sponsor. Maybe we're only bringing it to attention because Gabrielle won. Otherwise, would it be moved to point? Would it not matter? Now, the picture of Crystal Stewart doing Gabrielle's

hair in the back where the girls get ready, that was used to show favoritism by the head of the Miss USA organization. Well, Crystal and Miss Texas Miss USA have come forward to say that this was the morning after she had won Miss USA. So they're doing press, they're doing all these like production things. So it makes sense. Miss Montana did admit that she had no idea when this photo was taken. So that makes sense. So as for the girls not congratulating her, Miss USA said, I got a lot of hugs and congratulations after I won. The other participants were asked to leave the stage because of production schedules. So they didn't have time to hug me one by one on stage. She also passionately stated, she would never, ever enter in a competition where she was

slated to be the champion. And in a now deleted video, and in a now private account, Ms Montana Heather Leo Keif says, what I know is that judges they selected for this year's Miss USA competition have a lot in common with the winner. Here's one of the judges and she throws up the Korean ping pong player and she says, she's an Asian American and as we know our new Miss USA is also an Asian American. Yeah okay yeah um well there's a little more but I do think if that's your argument, everyone should be disqualified. For the longest time, patrons were run by white people with predominantly white women as winners.

So this is kind of a goofy look, but she continues. This is also the judge who was hand selected to ask Miss Texas her final question on the live telecast for Miss USA Finals. So insinuating that the Asian American judge gave her an easier question because she's Asian American. Yikes! She said, and compared to the other girls top five questions, the one that Texas got was oddly very specifically tailored to her profession in the fashion industry. It was global warming, correct? Yeah, climate change. Climate change, okay. I don't know. Again, I don't know. I don't see that one. I do feel like the questions they all hit all the relevant topics equal pay representation and media social media.

Yeah climate change. Yeah. Just feels very. It's all similar to me. Yeah it's all just things in public discourse right now. It's all very relevant topics. Yeah. So I don't know it's weird. And then she puts up another photo of one of the judges who is a person of color and he is a fashion designer. So she's drawing a connection that he's a fashion designer and Gabrielle is a fashion designer. So she continues to say that the judges seem to really have a lot in common with her. And I don't know if that's coincidence or not. That's what she said. Hmm. Okay.

It's like conspiracy territory. Why? It's giving microaggression. I'm going to give it a little bit of microaggression. I can understand both perspectives. Maybe I can't because I'm Asian American, so I'll be biased. That's our cousin, by the way.

But it is kind of a wild, wild reach. And again, I'm not trying to discount anyone's feelings or say that what they believed happened didn't happen because I wasn't there. But I do think this is getting very messy. It's one thing to raise awareness to what you believed is a rigged system versus making connections between people based on their race industry

or the fact that they're people of color. That is never going to be productive. From what I could find of Ms. Montana, she seems like a very kind, intelligent woman. And I would like to think that this video was made out of pure frustration. Like this is her just venting. Maybe there's some high emotions, frustration. She's not getting answers. She feels cheated.

I still find the video problematic, but she did delete it. So maybe her taking down the video is her recognizing, okay, maybe this is not a good message to spread. And I wouldn't want someone to think I won something because of my race. I'm just trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. But I do think that all these women who are coming forward, I don't think they're doing it

out of jealousy. I saw that circulating, like as a public discourse on Reddit and all these other forums. I think that's pretty superficial. It's very much giving girls or just jealous of each other's makeup and clothes. I think these women are far too intelligent. I think most women are far too intelligent and too graceful to be doing things out of pure spite and envy as their driving force. I think it's also very brave of these women to speak up against an organization that has a track record of not handling allegations pretty well. And it's terrifying.

I know for us, it's like, okay, who cares about beauty competitions, whatever, but to them, it's their world, it's their community, it's this organization with power in the industry that could make it hard for them to find work later on and I think Anyone who stands up to voice their concerns whether it's true or not in light of all of that is Braver than I could ever be but I do think it's a very It's a sad situation. I think that Miss USA Miss Universe Gabrielle Arbony. I think she deserves her time to shine. I think she's displayed. She's an incredible person from what we've seen and the fact that she's Asian

American makes me very happy. She's proven herself to be incredibly articulate, elegant, compassionate, not just in the Miss USA contest, but during Miss Universe which she won. So it's just overall a really shitty, shitty, shitty situation. I even saw allegations that she was sleeping with the founder of Mia Beauty. With no basis, no evidence, no proof, just pure speculation by people on the internet who have never met either of these people. And it feels very nasty, it feels sexist, and kind of feels like a weird microaggression towards Asian women and trying to hyper-sexualize them.

Just very bizarre. So a lot of bad has come out from something that could have been good. If anything, the allegations of rigging should be aiming fire towards the organization and not any of the contestants. Because even if it was rigged, which I don't know if it was, I don't think it was, I highly doubt Gabrielle knew. Now there are some other small things that are added to this whole scandal.

Apparently during the competition, there's a strict curfew that you have to abide by, which is 10 p.m. All the contestants have to be in their hotel room 10 p.m. It's very strict. Miss Texas posted a video at night on the roof of the resort, and it's alleged that she was able to leave outside of curfew

because she was getting preferential treatment. It is not specified when the video of Ms. Texas was shot. Maybe she got there the night before the competition shot this video posted later. Maybe it was 9pm, not after 10pm. We don't know. It's just a lot. I guess suspicious things, but not a smoking gun, necessarily. A lot of people alleged that Miss Texas didn't look shocked

and surprised when she won Miss USA. So I'm sure we can already see those compilations in our head of, you know, people winning, being crowned, they're shaking, they're almost falling to their knees, they've got tears streaming down their face. She kind of looks calm. Yeah, she looks rather calm for someone who dressed one Miss USA. Now, this particular part of the theory gets debunked, though, but before we get into that, let's talk about the steps that they've taken. Miss Universe, the parent organization, has suspended Crystal Stewart and the Miss USA program while they're having third-party investigations conducted. Wow.

This is not to say that the allegations are true or false is just to say that they're taking it very, very seriously. Crystal Stewart has said, the allegations against the Miss USA organization are misleading and against everything I stand for personally and professionally. As a former title holder, I learned firsthand the importance of a fair and unbiased pageant competition and I respect the voices of the Class of 2022 and every woman's right to have their voice heard. So again, what's going on here was Miss USA rigged,

is the Miss Universe competition looking into it because the sponsor could have had too much of us way in influence over the Miss USA results, the founder of Mia Beauty Spa? Well, the theory kind of went down the toilet and I'm not saying it definitely wasn't rigged, we won't know until the investigation is concluded. But Miss USA went on to a Miss Universe in the 2023 Miss Universe competition. And there is no denying that she is a force to be reckoned

with. It's not like she was fumbling and everyone else was eons better than her. I mean, she really was such a strong contender. Her answers to questions, she's very strategic, she's very, very put together, and she's almost like this inspirational figure, so it's very hard to say that it's rigged when she's killing it. Again, very proud day for Asian Americans and America as a whole, but I think her reaction to winning Miss Universe was also very telling because she looked the same as when she had one Miss USA. I guess if I tried to look too much into her reaction in the Miss USA competition, I could be like, yeah, she looked too calm, you're right. But when I saw it in Miss Universe, which

is arguably a more massive one, she had a very similar reaction. She looks overjoyed, don't get me wrong, beautiful, glowing. And you can kind of tell that she looks nervous like her heart is racing, but she's not screaming or crying. I think it's more like that. Oh my god, my heart is pumping type of luck. So while Crystal is under investigation from the parent company Miss Universe organization, her husband is also under investigation. But that one is an internal investigation. And you guys know how I feel about Internal investigations and his scandal is so much more serious. Why is it internal then? That's what I'm saying

Not saying that rigging a competition isn't a serious allegation, but his is really wild So let's talk about Max C. Brett's first second the vice president Well former VP of the Miss USA organization and former husband of Crystal Stewart, the national director of Miss USA and Miss T. USA. He has removed himself from the organization as of January 2022. There is allegedly an internal investigation going on, but nothing has really come about it so far. And he wasn't retiring.

No. Max was accused of sexually harassing young models and contestants. The first allegation came when a former contestant complained to the organization, not just Miss USA, but the parent organization in a massive email thread, that he, Max, the vice president, had invited himself into her hotel room during the competition

and kissed her. She said, I remember freezing in that moment. I knew that it was something that should not be happening, and the only thing going on in my head was, are you stupid? You are not only the co-owner of this organization, you are married to Crystal Stewart. Crystal is an icon in the Pageant World. She was my personal my personal icon like there's so many levels to this being messed up First of all, it seems non-concentral. She did not want this. He's married the imbalance of power is insane Insane the fact that his wife is an idol to most of these girls also is a

Added layer of complexity because no one wants to tell their idol what their husband just tried to do to them. I mean, what? Other contestants started coming forward. They said that they were constantly disgusted by his abuse of power and slowly the allegation started piling up. There is a shirtless photo of him now on the internet, a practically naked photo of him where it just stops before his business.

And he allegedly emailed a young model in 2018. Again, the abuse of power. And these are some of the emails that were leaked that are allegedly from Max. He wrote, Okay, I was worried. I would have never thought it would be my thing, but you definitely got me there with your penetrating eyes. I've always wanted to at least tell you that I felt deeply attracted to you despite my personal situation.

I hope you understand. Maybe we could try something, but definitely with no strings attached. Tell me what you're thinking about when you think of me. And of course, this is all between us, okay? He ends the creepy email with jumping in the shower, with a tongue face emoji, and a shirtless photo of him. Another message shows him inviting a girl to come to his presidential suite to look at the quote, spectacular view. Another email is a video of a guy we don't know who this is masturbating. It's described to be graphic. Graphic groans of pleasure in the words, oh God, I'm so hard I want you here. Allegedly it was sent from Max to a contestant in 2018.

Other allegations were that he kept messaging contestants telling them, you are my personal favorite. He also allegedly wrote to another contestant, I was under the impression that you looked at me as if you were going to eat me up like a good diver chocolate ice cream. And I was terribly attracted to your looks, of course. Those tights you were wearing looked awfully sexy on your tight body. Then he continued to give some sort of weird relationship

advice right after he said that? He said, Mr. Wright will come, but it's always hard to maintain a relationship. Whoever is around, you know, there will be down times and exciting times. It's all about finding the right balance between a healthy life and hobbies and your shared life with someone else. There's great sides to a relationship like financial stability, overcoming personal challenges, etc. But then there's boredom at times and various concessions to make, freedom decreases, etc. Lots to think about. I'm at the office right now, I'll send you a pick tonight unless I run to the restroom.

The thought of imagining you and those tides with that underwear has quite an effect on me. She responded with, well that escalated quickly, lol. Honestly Max, I'm flattered, you're very attractive and successful, but what about your marriage? I have much respect for Crystal and I wouldn't want to interfere with that. And he wrote back, I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything to disrespect of that. On the contrary, I love my wife more than anything. I assumed that when you looked at me seductively, you were okay to overlook the fact that I was married. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your intentions.

I also suppose, yeah, I know. Why in the world? That's not even, I don't even know who comes up with that. I misinterpreted your intention. On not even, I don't even know who comes up with that. I miss Interpreter. You're in catching one. On the contrary, I love my wife more than anything. But you looked at me seductively, so I thought we were going to go hit the hay. What?

I also suppose you were not looking for a flirt or any intimate chat with no strings attached on both sides. Where are you in Los Angeles? Side note, in the allegations, most of the woman said it was consensual. But in hindsight, they realized what a sick imbalance of power he had over them, which agreed. They said, around the time I was really young and impressionable,

and he knew the power he had in that position, especially considering that a lot of girls look up to crystal, and he used that. He also took pictures of the contestants working out in their bikinis when he was backstage, which the contestants said was highly unusual. Backstage is very much girls' only energy, that's what they said, and the fact that he was sneaking back in there? Well, he wasn't sneaking, but he was like confidently waltzing in, people were kind of

thrown off. The guy was just allegedly a giant sleaze. The kind allegedly to ask for a hug, like you know what I'm talking about. He also liked to call everyone missy, so a lot of contestants were upset that the issue wasn't taking care of immediately. Someone had to email all the heads of the parent organization for an internal investigation to be organized, and people had a lot of problems with the MUS USA organization because of that. It just felt like a massive failure. One of the contestants says, this is absolutely unacceptable. The brand is supposed to be giving women a voice and uplifting women. There has always been an imbalance in the power dynamic in the industry that allows

men to get away with this type of behavior. And I'm not going to be complicit in this. It needs to change. I mean, I don't think it gonna be complicit in this. It needs to change. I mean, I don't think it gets any worse than in a beauty pageant. Yes. Because you're competing for, like, you know what I mean? Yeah.

And then you throw a man in the middle who's like, who would you look like this? You look like that. Like, that's gross. Come on. So it's so gross. He should be the furthest person to be in this position. Yeah. But meanwhile, he's the vice president. Like to be in this position. Yeah, but meanwhile he's device president

Like what when he goes to work he should be acting like a monk Like a celibate monk like that's what I would advise most men I'm not saying you can't be the vice president I'm just saying when you go to work you better shut it off. Yeah, and you're out there just looking at your wife and being like I don't know. I'm here to do admin work, guys, don't talk to me. Wow. Now, unfortunately, these are not the only scandals to happen in recent years in the Pageant World.

In 2014, the CEO of the Miss America organization, Sam Haskell, another man, was emailing the telecaster of the pageant. So he's the one in the production side of live streaming, not streaming, but live casting it. His name is Lewis. They're discussing one in the production side of live streaming, not streaming, but live casting it. His name is Lewis. They're discussing changes in the script.

Sam said that he wanted to change the script to say former Miss America's rather than forever Miss America's. Okay, not a big deal. He sends that email. Lewis, the telecaster, responds, I've already changed forever to CUNTS. Does that work for you? Sam, the CEO, responded perfect, ha ha ha ha ha. Calling all these woman CUNTS.

But allegedly, that wasn't the only time he was misogynistic. Apparently, he was known for calling women, um, shocking names, slut-shaming contestants, even laughing at jokes. I don't know how they're jokes, but, of one of the contestants should die. And he laughed. Another email from a colleague to Sam, the colleague asked if Sam had sex with a former Miss America winner.

I'm not gonna disclose her name, but let's call her Abby. And the two were bonding over the fact that they did not sleep with Abby, and Sam responds in that email. It appears we are the only ones that haven't slept with Abby. Slut-shaming the former Miss Maricopiner. Ironically, the same guy has a book out called Promises I Made My Mother, where he talks about living a principled life in unprincipled times. Yeah, I don't think your mom is very happy with you, but what do I know? We also have the case of Miss Kentucky, Ramsay Carpenter Beers.

Ramsay was exactly the type of candidate that you would imagine to run for Miss Kentucky. Beautiful. A teacher at a school in West Virginia married to a wealthy man, well she got married after, but married to a wealthy man from a wealthy coal family, a coal family. She was arrested for sending nudes to one of her students. Yikes. She claimed that she had taken a picture of herself to send her husband, but she accidentally sent to her male student who was a minor. But it's too late, she couldn't un-send it. And that kid was like, why want more photos of you?

And she said, no, of course not, this is not okay. He threatened to report her to the authorities for sexting him. She said that she was so scared of losing her job, she felt trapped, pushed into a corner, and sent him more noots. Kind of a far-fetched story, but maybe it could happen. Well, the police went through her phone and they saw that the two were texting non-stop, and both of them had shared various photos of each other. So, yeah. She was arrested, stripped of her title, she pled guilty, and was sentenced to two years in prison, and will have to register as a sex offender for the stripped of her title, she pled guilty, and was sentenced to two years in prison, and we'll have to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.

The whole thing is strange because, you know, why did she have the kid's phone number in the first place? And why didn't she turn herself in the minute that she took that picture? I would have immediately gone and gotten the principal, the parent, the police, and explained the situation and dealt with the consequences because the consequences, she probably would have lost lost her job but it is better than going to

jail. If her version of events were to be true which they weren't. Now this one's nowhere near as serious but if we're talking about scandals in the pageant world you guys know Steve Harvey. Steve Harvey had had hosted multiple misuniverse pageants and during the 2015 misuniverse pageant, he had an envelope in his hand. And that envelope had a name. And that name was going to be whoever won misuniverse. On his left, he had Miss Columbia on his right,

he had Miss Philippines. Who was it going to be? Everyone was staring at Steve Harvey for answers, and he dramatically opens the envelope, reads the letter to himself looks up reads the teleprompter in front of him and he confidently announces Miss Columbia as the winner the crowd is screaming Miss Columbia is crying. They're putting the crown on her head pinning it in place She's walking the stage confetti roses bouquet of flowers and as soon as Steve Harvey makes it backstage

he's like yeah what a good day he knew some shit went down he just hears the production team screaming we gotta do something we gotta do they're running around with chickens with their heads cut off he's like what's going on he's trying to track people down what's going on just tell me what's going on oh my god he read the name for the first runner up Not as universe. Oh my god, dude. He went back on to stage to apologize that the first runner up is Columbia and miss Philippines is actually miss universe And they had to awkwardly swap crowns in front of the whole universe

It was uncomfortable. But that's crazy because if it was on teleprompter, that means people outside like the contestants probably saw that too, right? That's true. Oh my gosh. What is this show? What is it show? So just, oh, a couple years after they were all joking about how you had made a miss out, right? Between Miss Columbia and Miss Philippines. And then he joked that the cartels weren't happy with him. Incineating that Columbia was just known for cartels, and then he was in even more hot water after that is,

just a lot of hot water that he was in, okay, it's just a lot. So, a lot of dark happenings in the pageant world. And don't even get me started on child pageants. If you want an episode on that, let me know because if you know how evil people can be, how sick and depraved people can be, you know that child pageants are darker than the adult ones. So I guess that leaves me with one question before I see you on Wednesday, which is mere mere on the wall. Who's the fairest of them all? Stay safe and I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!

the wall. Who's the fairest of them all? Stay safe and I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!