Thaindian News

Aug 23 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The ‘Miss Universe’ competition began in 1952 and has always been known for promoting women who are strong, smart, independent, and respectable, a fact which has a former Miss Universe pageant organizer screaming “foul” at this year’s photo shoot, which featured the contestants completely topless, except for the body paint which glittered on their bodies.

The Miss USA pageant, which is a branch of the Miss Universe Organization, drew a great deal of criticism earlier in the year for the racy photos, which were released showing the fifty one Miss Universe hopefuls wearing nothing but smudged eyeliner, sexy looks, lingerie, and not much more.

And now the Miss Universe competition seems to be following a similar path after the release of a photo shoot which was done by photographer Fadil Berisha in Las Vegas in which some of the contestants wore body paint and swim suit bottoms, and nothing else but heels.

Angie Meyer, who has worked with the Miss USA contestants, and with the organization for many years stated, “It’s alarming that this has been turned into a playboy-esque masquerade. When you bring nudity into the equation, the pageant no longer becomes about the entire package of brains and beauty. Rather, the focus shifts to body image. The notion that ‘beauty’ embodies absolute physical perfection is a frightening slippery slope, and quite dangerous for young women around the world to adhere to.”

She went on to explain that by doing this, they have split the contestants into unfair groups…those who are willing to pose topless and those who are not. “By implementing topless photos as part of the pageant process, they’re putting applicants in an extremely compromising position,” she said.

A rep for the pageant argued back, “The contestants who compete at Miss Universe are diverse as they represent more than 82 countries around the globe. Many of their cultures embrace nudity. These photos are a form of artistic expression for each contestant and we respect their desire to pose topless, or not. We feel the images captured are fashionable and cutting edge!”

Behind the scenes footage of the photo shoot can be seen embedded below, and pictures of the contestants in their body paint can be seen here .