Credit The Nation
Fleeting beauty
For half-Thai young women, there are a few lessons to learn from Angela McKay’s 10-day reign as Miss Thailand World 2005.
If you’re going to enter a Thai beauty pageant, read the contract carefully, and if it’s in Thai, get a reliable translator. Second, don’t sign up expecting not to win (you could well win with your “exotic� mixed-culture appeal and ability to speak a little Thai).
And third, don’t try and pass of nude pictures of yourself as art in Thailand.
Born to a Thai mother but raised in her father’s homeland of Australia, “Angie� just wasn’t ready for the culture shock that began when she won all three titles at the pageant – Miss Congeniality, Miss Photogenic and of course Miss Thailand World.
She had a good chance of going on to win the Miss World crown for Thailand too.
But problems emerged soon after she’d begun her reign. Angie’s parents and those of her half-Danish friend, first runner-up Sirinda “Cindy� Jensen, ask the pageant organisers at BEC Tero if they could make some changes in the girls’ contracts. BEC Tero said no.
Angie wanted a place to live during her planned 18-month stay in Thailand and a monthly salary, since the pageant contract barred her from having a professional agent and doing modelling work other than what the organisers assigned.
Angie’s father Robert was worried the girls wouldn’t have enough money and end up spending all their prize money, with nothing left over when their reigns ended.
“Because our cultures are different, I didn’t know how to ask for the things that we needed,� an apologetic Angie told the media after she handed in her crown.
“For Westerners, this is the normal way of doing business. From my heart, I did not mean to give offence, and I’m sorry if I have.�
Angie felt she had nothing to apologise, though, about photos that had made the rounds since the pageant of her posing in bikinis and lingerie in America’s W magazine, Style in Singapore and Maxim in Hong Kong.
“I was advised by the organisers that the pictures I’d taken prior to entering the pageant were too rude and unfit for someone who was crowned Miss Thailand World,� she said.
The pictures had never been a secret, she said, and the organisers were aware of them when they allowed her to enter the competition.
“I didn’t to want offend the Thai people and Thai culture,� she said. “I love Thailand, and I didn’t want everyone to feel that I’ve done something wrong by Thailand. I didn’t know what else to do, so I’ve resigned.�
“I’m not ashamed of what Angie has done in her modelling work,� her father added. “This is normal for modelling work. It’s not pornography. It’s not obscene.�
Angie and her family are in fact proud of the pictures and want the public to see them and judge for themselves whether they’re really so awful.
Kupluthai Pungkanon
The Nation
Fleeting beauty
For half-Thai young women, there are a few lessons to learn from Angela McKay’s 10-day reign as Miss Thailand World 2005.
If you’re going to enter a Thai beauty pageant, read the contract carefully, and if it’s in Thai, get a reliable translator. Second, don’t sign up expecting not to win (you could well win with your “exotic� mixed-culture appeal and ability to speak a little Thai).
And third, don’t try and pass of nude pictures of yourself as art in Thailand.
Born to a Thai mother but raised in her father’s homeland of Australia, “Angie� just wasn’t ready for the culture shock that began when she won all three titles at the pageant – Miss Congeniality, Miss Photogenic and of course Miss Thailand World.
She had a good chance of going on to win the Miss World crown for Thailand too.
But problems emerged soon after she’d begun her reign. Angie’s parents and those of her half-Danish friend, first runner-up Sirinda “Cindy� Jensen, ask the pageant organisers at BEC Tero if they could make some changes in the girls’ contracts. BEC Tero said no.
Angie wanted a place to live during her planned 18-month stay in Thailand and a monthly salary, since the pageant contract barred her from having a professional agent and doing modelling work other than what the organisers assigned.
Angie’s father Robert was worried the girls wouldn’t have enough money and end up spending all their prize money, with nothing left over when their reigns ended.
“Because our cultures are different, I didn’t know how to ask for the things that we needed,� an apologetic Angie told the media after she handed in her crown.
“For Westerners, this is the normal way of doing business. From my heart, I did not mean to give offence, and I’m sorry if I have.�
Angie felt she had nothing to apologise, though, about photos that had made the rounds since the pageant of her posing in bikinis and lingerie in America’s W magazine, Style in Singapore and Maxim in Hong Kong.
“I was advised by the organisers that the pictures I’d taken prior to entering the pageant were too rude and unfit for someone who was crowned Miss Thailand World,� she said.
The pictures had never been a secret, she said, and the organisers were aware of them when they allowed her to enter the competition.
“I didn’t to want offend the Thai people and Thai culture,� she said. “I love Thailand, and I didn’t want everyone to feel that I’ve done something wrong by Thailand. I didn’t know what else to do, so I’ve resigned.�
“I’m not ashamed of what Angie has done in her modelling work,� her father added. “This is normal for modelling work. It’s not pornography. It’s not obscene.�
Angie and her family are in fact proud of the pictures and want the public to see them and judge for themselves whether they’re really so awful.
Kupluthai Pungkanon
The Nation
