Instead Of Body Stats, Miss Peru Contestants Share Facts About Crimes Against Women On Stage

Who run the world? *Girls*

Well, they do that but after going through a lot of trouble, facing the big bad world and standing their ground. We are the harbinger of change (no offence guys, but we are). 😉

In years of practice, beauty pageant winners have helped in shaping and fostering dreams of millions of young girls. But, using the platform to speak about issues that could raise awareness and reach every household, was a seldom practice.

Now, in a whirlwind of change, beauty pageant contestants at Miss Peru 2018, instead of citing their body stats during introduction they opted to cite facts about gender discrimination and violence against women.

“My name is Camila Canicoba and I represent the department of Lima. My measurements are: 2,202 cases of murdered women reported in the last nine years in my country.”

The contestants followed suit and while introducing themselves quoted the statistics about crimes against women.

“My name is Bélgica Guerra and I represent Chincha. My measurements are: the 65% of university women who are assaulted by their partners.”

Juana Acevedo said her measurements were that more than 70 per cent of women in her country are victims of street harassment.

From female infanticide to rape to sexual abuse to deaths, these 23 contestants presented the raw facts to the audiences and we are lauding for them.

The winner of the Romina Lozano spoke about human trafficking.

“My name is Romina Lozano and I represent the constitutional province of Callao, and my measurements are: 3,114 women victims of trafficking up until 2014.”

According to a Daily Mail report, that translated it in English from Spanish, other contestants shared shocking facts.

“Samantha Batallos from Lima shared that a girl dies every 10 minutes as a product of sexual exploitation. Luciana Fernández shared her measurements as the 13,000 girls in her nation that suffer sexual abuse.”

On stage, there was a montage of newspaper clippings playing on-screen of these crimes and stats.

The organisers of Miss Peru, took this big step and the central theme of the pageant was to bring out the violence against women.

In the question and answer round, the judges asked the women how they would approach addressing the problems and what laws they would like to change. This is a big step and we are so proud. The pageant’s organiser, Jessica Newton (a pageant winner herself) was the brain behind the drive.

#MisMedidasSon took over Twitter and netizens were lauding for the bold move of addressing gender issues.

Take a bow, ladies. This is a change for sure.