The Miss Universe pageant rules are reportedly set to be altered in a historic effort to become more "inclusive."
Miss Universe Bahrain's national director, Josh Yugen, revealed the beauty competition wishes to reform their image by "breaking stereotypes and unlearning the stigma that the old society has forced on us from many many decades ago," as reported by The National.
Since its formation in 1952, the beauty competition's rules have limited entrants to childless, unmarried women between the ages of 18 and 28. Currently, participants may be disqualified if they are found to be married, have been married, have children, or even if they have had an abortion.
However, these rules will be adapted to allow married women and mothers to enter, effective next year for the 72nd Miss Universe Pageant, per Insider.
Andrea Meza, the competition's 2020 winner, told Insider that this change was long overdue, saying: "Just like society changes and women are now occupying leadership positions where in the past only men could, it was about time pageants changed and opened up to women with families."
She added: "A few people are against these changes because they always wanted to see a single beautiful woman who is available for a relationship.
"They always wanted to see a woman that from the outside looks so perfect that she's almost unreachable. The former is sexist and the latter is unrealistic."
Meza, who was the reigning Miss Mexico before being crowned 2020's Miss Universe, had to defend her victory after amateur internet detectives unearthed an Instagram photo of her in a wedding dress.
The post was captioned "3-09-19 [ring emoji]". However, it was eventually discovered that this image was from a photoshoot for Meza's role as a tourism brand ambassador for her home city of Chihuahua.
Many critics of the beauty pageant have long denounced its old-fashioned regulations, labeling them as "extreme". Though, as Bustle explains, these restrictions serve a purpose:
"These rules might seem extreme, but they're arguably there to ensure the woman crowned Miss Universe is readily available for the many appearances she'll be expected to make in the following 12 months."
Meza corroborates this statement, telling Insider that a Miss Universe winner's reign is a serious and demanding job, but one that all women should be allowed to perform.
"Just like in any other industry, women are capable of having demanding leadership positions without or with a family, it is no different in this case," she said.
In an internal memo obtained by The National, the Miss Universe Organization stated "we all believe that women should have agency over their lives and that a human's personal decisions should not be a barrier to their success."
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