Miss Finland clearly isn't native Finnish. What sort of name is Noora Hatuankangas, or however it's spelled?

http://www.missuniverse.com/dele...7/files/ AU.html

Ahem - note the name and hand position. Does she have to make it so bloody obvious?

I think I used to go swimming with Miss Canada when we were in middle school. She is a ditz who wanted to go to Hollywood her whole life. Can't believe she made it so far.

yuk! they all look pretty much alike -- or is it just the way they are being presented? unearthlings






/

Peter: Dude, "Noora Hautakangus" sounds very Finnish to me. It has that characteristic Uralic multisyllabic quality to it. You're not thinking that Finnish names should sound Scandinavian, are you? (Bad! Finns will fucking beat your ass for confusing them with Scandinavians.) Google "Noora" and see how many Finnish women you pull up.

Well, Miss Norway, Kirby Ann Basken certainly looks Scandina... uh, I mean, Filipina!

http://www.missuniverse.com/dele...photo- swim.html

;-)

Her full name is Kirby Ann Tan Baken, apparently. Last year she competed in the Miss Intercontinental (huh?) representing the Philippines:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Mis...ontestant_notes

Is that really kosher?

bio says her mom is filipino & her dad is norwegian. kind of like having one parent resident in one state and another resident in another...in state tuition both places!

Kirby Ann Baken -- Norwegian father and Filipino mother:

http://www.dfa.gov.ph/news/pr/pr...7/apr/ pr230.htm

I'm with Luke - you could die of boredom thumbing through that lot.

Purely on the grounds of phenotypical interest, I have to go for Miss Tanzania - cute as a button and stone motherless bald. I hope she wins it.

Second Miss Kazakhstan.

Miss China's a bit meh this year (doesn't her first photo remind you of Bjork?) Japan's gorgeous in the swimsuit shot. Korea's got the right idea (Honey Lee, what a name!), so does Thailand, but Miss Borat's king of the Orientals!

Miss Argentina's scary. Check out Miss Barbados, you rarely see black girls with such gorgeous hair.

Look at Germany, Belgium, Croatia, why are the Euro's all so tanned? Miss Egypt looks more Euro.

Miss France has proper feminine dimples!! Never though I'd see those again. Why don't the others smile? I dislike the intense album cover pose.

I could find you a cuter Russian than that.

Miss South Africa and Miss Mexico of course look nothing like the majority population.

Miss Estonia, Miss Israel, Miss Poland, Miss Serbia, Miss Slovenia, hell yeah! Slovenia vs Poland in my op, with the edge going to Poland.

I dislike the intensely angled faces of most of them, I prefer cuteness.

Or maybe South Africa... goddamit I don't know...

Many of them seem to have gone through plastic surgery, and I don't like that overproduced look. Miss Germany looks like a transvestite (look at "her" bathing suit photo). Miss Australia, Miss Belgium, Miss Estonia, Miss Serbia and Miss Czech Republic are among my favorites. Miss Russia seems particularly unimpressive for a Russian. I like Miss Kazakhstan's oriental cuteness (one thing that angered me about Borat, is that it portrayed Kazakhs as Mediterraneans, instead of East Asians). And Miss Tanzania might be the first bald contestant ever into Miss Universe.

Germany's Angelina Glass is half-Filipino as well. Norway and Germany are not exactly known for their dearth of hotties, why are they picking these girls?

Miss Egypt is half-'American' and doesn't even speak Arabic, ridiculous. She looks kind of Celtic, especially in the swimsuit photo.

Is it that time of year already again?

One of my favorite recurring GNXP features...

I like Miss Kazakhstan's oriental cuteness (one thing that angered me about Borat, is that it portrayed Kazakhs as Mediterraneans, instead of East Asians).

Sacha Baron Cohen originally modeled the Borat character after a Russian (or possible Moldovan) physician he knew. When he started portraying the character on British television several years ago, Borat had become Albanian. Baron Cohen then decided that maybe it wasn't too safe to have an Albanian Borat, as Britain has many Albanian gangbangers who might not take kindly to such a portrayal of their homeland. So Borat became Kazakh, from a country far enough away that its citizens were unlikely to present any danger.

Movie scenes set in Kazakhstan actually were filmed in a Gypsy village in Romania.

I like Miss France the most (call me 1/4 chauvinist). She's gorgeous, and like Omar said, she's very nonchalant and smiley / giggly. That probably has to do with the fact that she's 18 -- she has less cause to be jaded.

Puerto Rico is going to get slaughtered -- in Sweden, you could find at least 1000 girls who were pretty, blonde, and 6' tall, so the best among them would be stunning. In PR, this is probably the only 6' tall, blonde Teutonic looking and named girl, so you're stuck with her. They went overboard with the "let's make sure she looks somewhat Euro" idea, and they'll pay.

I didn't write down the numbers, but after looking through everyone, I noticed that the median height is a lot shorter than I would've thought -- I'd guess 5'8, as opposed to 5'10 or something.

These competitions are pretty tough on African-origin girls, as their comparative advantage isn't given priority. If the girl has to be pretty skinny, then the attractiveness of her body is pretty much reduced to her WHR and breast size. From observation, African girls tend not to have the exaggerated hourglass figure the way most Mediterranean-origin girls do. Notice that most of the Black girls are pretty mixed. The one with most promise, I'd say, is Miss Angola, who looks Dominican and has a Portuguese first & last name.

I think China went a bit overboard on the pedomorphism, look at her in an evening gown.

Agnostic - I just glanced at Miss Puerto Rico, didn't even realize she was blonde! The first photo looks like something out of Trainspotting.

Agnostic -

In her interview segment Miss Angola says that she's racially mixed.


On a separate note, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but could this year's absence of a Miss Turkey be attributable to rising Islamic beliefs in that country?

Peter - Turkey participates in all manner of Eurotrash shows, so no. Ireland and the UK are unrepresented as well. The country I'd really like to see more of is Iran.

omar.k -- Miss Argentina's scary

THANK you! I was gonna say that, but I thought it would be too catty coming from a girl. ;-)

Emerging technology is making these competitions somewhat obsolete -- before they were a kind of showcase of what the different parts of the world have to offer. But if you're curious about what hot Persian or Turkish girls look like, you don't need to rely on the ambassadors that their country has chosen -- just search Facebook.com for typical Persian and Turkish female names. Make sure you search "All Networks."

Suggested Persian name: Pardis. Suggested Turkish name: Nazli.

These girls are mostly current college students or college grads, so they're smart enough to compete in Miss Universe type events.

I like Miss France the most (call me 1/4 chauvinist). She's gorgeous, and like Omar said, she's very nonchalant and smiley / giggly. That probably has to do with the fact that she's 18 -- she has less cause to be jaded.

Chauvinist because you like her comments about ironing, or because of her personality? I like cute and giggly also, but I don't care for the look of Miss France's jawline. Miss Colombia and Miss Canada come across as having similar personalities yet have much cuter faces IMO.

I also like Miss Norway, she's really cute. I also like how Miss Japan comes across in the video, though Miss China doesn't seem to be anyone special. I bet those of you who like women in science would like "Miss Borat"--read the interview if you haven't yet.

Miss Finland's name is correctly spelled "Hautakangas". "Hauta" means grave and "kangas" (in this context) means a type of forest terrain. It's a very typical kind of a name: the vast majority of Finnish last names have been derived as a description of the place the family used to live in back when families were being given names. The first name "Noora" is just a Finnicized spelling of a common European name (which probably originally comes from the Middle East).

The site both misspells her name and lists the wrong eye colour next to her pic... also, the colours on all almost all the girls' pictures look bizarre and unnatural. It looks like whoever has done the photographs has decided to make pale girls look dark and vice versa and it all looks just weird.

Germany's Angelina Glass is half-Filipino as well. Norway and Germany are not exactly known for their dearth of hotties, why are they picking these girls?

I think it's been awhile since Germany sent any girl to Miss Universe that looks anything like the "look" that was all the rage in the 30s. I doubt anyone would care if they did (though I would be somewhat surprised if she won), but still I can imagine the audience's reaction. Is that bitch goose-stepping under that evening gown? Isn't her right arm twitching? She's probably doing all she can to avoid thrusting it out. She's so disingenuous talking about world peace when we all know the only thing that's ever been on her mind is Lebensraum.

Your Miss Universe contestant is an ambassador of sorts for your country. It's a message to the world. Germany's message this year is that the modern German is of no particular race - or sex. :)

By the way, if you were wondering (like I was after reading your comment) what the beauty pageant winners looked like during the National Socialist era, Wikipedia has the answer. There were none. The government banned them as "Jewish-Bolshevik decadence". If you think that's funny, later the GDR banned them as "degradation and exploitation of the woman by capitalism". If bolsheviks and capitalists can agree on beaty contests, I think we all can! You know I'm joking around, but on second thought the latter doesn't seem so far off...

I like the Cypriot.

Gauhar Rakhmetalieva (Kazakhstan) perfectly represents Altaic hotness. She looks more Korean than Miss Korea.

(Andres: WTF?! Who says "Oriental" these days?)

check out this hot video of all the miss universe candidate's past and present dancing with shakira and beyonce. ;)

Emerging technology is making these competitions somewhat obsolete -- before they were a kind of showcase of what the different parts of the world have to offer. But if you're curious about what hot Persian or Turkish girls look like, you don't need to rely on the ambassadors that their country has chosen -- just search Facebook.com for typical Persian and Turkish female names. Make sure you search "All Networks."

Very true.... and there's pornography easily available from the all the popups. G-rated beauty contests are little passe given what's available to satisfy curiosity.

Contrariwise, if you want to talk to intelligent women from another country... visit any major metropolitan area in the Western world and you'll find them in every conceivable ethnicity. Many of these women will be hot... so you have your very own Miss Universe candidate in front of you, in the flesh.

Bonus -- you can actually talk to her rather than looking at her phosphorescent image.

AJ

Henri

well Germany's message to the world should be 'it's 2007, we don't give a f**k about PC and we're gonna show an Aryan belle to the world!' Nazi uniforms were sexy on girls.

But yeah, maybe we'll soon have some 'transgendered' individuals participating. Given the amount of plastic surgery used at the moment, a little snip here and there probably won't matter in the future. The gay men who dominate the fashion industry will blaze the trail methinks!

chairmanK - oriental is a wonderful word! I hope it makes a comeback, 'east asian' is so boring.

amnestic - wtf?

Omar,

Re: Miss Japan. Don't be fooled. She's got short little legs. Bow legs.

I'm with Luke & Sandgroper - they all look like the same mediocre plastic mannequins.

The greatest beauties in the world were from post-war II Italy. Right Michael Blowhard?

PS I stand partly corrected. I haven't checked 'em all out, nor will I, but....Miss Egypt is quite distinctive & lovely. She beats Miss Israel (slut, dull) by a mile!

When I read "oriental", I think of Edward Said. Persia and Nippon have little in common except that they are both further east in Eurasia than Europe, yet the word "oriental" applies to both Persia and Nippon. It's a useless word.

Also, "oriental" only makes sense if your frame of reference is Eurasian landmass. If you switch your frame of reference to the Pacific Basin, then "the orient" becomes "the occident".

I've never spoken with anyone who used the term "oriental" when referring to any place other than east asia.

re: 'oriental,' this is part an american vs. non-american issue. europeans seem to use it a lot more than americans because on this side of the pond we are told that 'oriental' refers to things, not people. consider the usage of the term 'asian' in the UK. chinese are sometimes in their own category, as opposed to 'asians.'

btw tggp, you don't know anyone who has heard of said's orientalism? to use 'oriental' in such a manner is archaic, but when you read narrative history which describes the shift from the de jure republicanism of the principate to the naked 'oriental' despotism of the dominate it is pretty clear that the context of oriental isn't the eats asian kow-tow but the persian king of kings.

RE: 'oriental' -- it's quite commonly used in the UK as a non-derogatory descriptor for someone from East Asia. 'Asian' is reserved for 'South Asians'.

So. Hot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsJURLOSgEg

Chauvinist because you like her comments about ironing, or because of her personality?

Chauvinist because I'm 1/4 Frog. Judging from her last name, she's only 1/2 herself (and 1/2 Italian?). I thought she was Spanish based on her adorable overbite -- lots of bunny rabbit smiles in Iberia.

I don't use Oriental b/c it's too vague. The good words are more precise and more sexy: "Levantine," "Persian," "Anatolian," "Hebrew," * etc. To my knowledge, there are no sexy words for Chinese, Japanese or Korean. At least the Thais have "Siamese" -- that sounds pretty hot. The best I can think of are the French words "Chinois" and "Japonais," but those are too transparent to connote mystery, the exotic, and so on. There's the prefix "Sino-" for Chinese, but it can't stand alone as an adjective.

* This is one of those words like "Frog" or "Macaca" that only the members of the group are allowed to use, usually in an ironic way. But I don't observe propriety much if it gets in the way of expression. If a Jewish girl embodies Semitic sex appeal, "Hebrew" just does the job better.

OK, I spend the last 2 hours watching all the videos, so here are a few thoughts/comments:

1) My favorites are Miss Kazakhstan, Miss Japan and Miss Ukraine.

2) What's so wrong calling someone of East Asian descent oriental? I thought this site was un-PC.

3) Miss Puerto Rico says in her video that she is a survivor of thyroid cancer.

4) Miss Switzerland is really, really ugly. She looks a younger Donatella Versace.

5) Miss India is too white in comparison to an average Indian (but that happens every year)

6) Most of these girls sound like they are really, really dumb (then again, nothing new)

7) Miss Georgia says "perfect evening for me is reading books" and "I always wanted to give charity but haven't money for it"

8) Miss Philippines wishes to shave her hair

9) Miss Paraguay wishes to read God's diary (sic)

10) Miss Jamaica is an ugly rasta

2) What's so wrong calling someone of East Asian descent oriental? I thought this site was un-PC.

there's nothing wrong with it, just like there's nothing wrong with calling muslims 'hagarians' or 'ismailites.' but there are common terms which we use in modern discourse to refer to particular groups, and there is a trade off in precision between 'oriental' and 'east asian.' when 'oriental' was a common term in the USA it occasionally referred to south asians, and even arabs. east asian has no ambiguity. this is the same reason i prefer 'white' or 'european' to the term 'caucasian.' caucasian can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

'Hebrew' has about zero sex appeal to me agnostic, just brings to mind grannies telling you to eat your vegetables.

What we don't have, in the United States, is a general term for South Asians. "Asian" is generally restricted to East Asians. "South Asian" itself has not entered general use. South Asians often end up being called "Indian" even if they're Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Sri Lankan, not to mention the fact that Indian is a doubly confusing term in America.

What we don't have, in the United States, is a general term for South Asians. "Asian" is generally restricted to East Asians.

1) brown

2) for gov. work south asians are unambiguously 'asian,' fyi

I feel ashamed from Miss Bulgaia, she is ugly and stupid. The thing that I was wondering about is: when she became Miss University Bulgaria 2007, I hear her name for first time in my life. Bulgarian women are gorgeous and I really wonder who chose this one to take part in the competition.

brown

That can mean Hispanic as well as South Asian.

That can mean Hispanic as well as South Asian.

yeah, i think they need to give up on the name. they've got like 6 terms they can use, and we're browner than they are anyway.

BROWNS ARE HOT.

http://mykiru.blogspot.com/2007/...est- photos.html

Only Austin Powers, Man of Mystery, should judge this thing, for almost every click reveals a fembot.
He'll get to the bottom of it.

I know you like 'brown', Razib, but it's not going to become popular. Like Peter said, it's too ambiguous, but more importantly I think you'll find whites uncomfortable with it. Or maybe that's just me because in my experience whenever the word 'brown' comes out of a brown guy's mouth, it's usually disparaging. South Asian goes nicely with East Asian and should make all the NRIs happy because they're assured North Americans know they're from Asia too. :)

Besides, Jesus never loved the brown children.

Oooooh yes he did, and there was a picture on the wall in my Sunday school to prove it.

Like Peter said, it's too ambiguous, but more importantly I think you'll find whites uncomfortable with it.

you shouldn't tell me what i'll find whites uncomfortable with, since i live within a 99% white population and use the word brown ubiquitously and aggressively (i.e., i particularly make a point that latinos/chicanos/hispanics have enough names as it is). what you might find is that whites are uncomfortable contradicting the self-definitions of colored people, no matter how ludicrous those self-definitions might seem to them. but hey, what do i know? i'm not white and i just interact with whites.

what i'll find whites uncomfortable with, since i live within a 99% white population and use the word brown ubiquitously and aggressively

Right, but *they* don't use the term ubiquitously and aggressively :)

Personally I prefer macaca.

I didn't mean whites are uncomfortable hearing it. I meant they may be uncomfortable saying it themselves.

Jesus didn't love the brown children because they're not in the song - "red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight". According to Wikipedia, there is now an updated politically correct version which removes the "offensive" red and yellow (we assume, since black and white are ok). As an aside, it also says some kindly Christians do seek to include you, by inserting brown between red and yellow.

The point being if I can't call a Native American red or an Asian yellow, why can I call an Indian brown? The answer could be because Indians don't take offense to it. But who wants to keep track? And is there ever really a consensus? Is desi ok?

Not that any of it makes much sense anyways. It's rather ironic that the same people who tell you that the only difference between people is the colour of their skin will not allow you to identify the different groups by their purportedly sole distinguishing characteristic.

If whites in your area use brown, that's great. I can see an argument being made for group labels to be independent of geography and states.

> Only Austin Powers, Man of Mystery, should judge this thing, for almost every click reveals a fembot.

>He'll get to the bottom of it.

Your Tosevite humour is better than ginger, Superior Sir!

Thank you, but I'm not a sir. I'm a ma'm. I know it's not clear from my handle, so I'll forgive you now.

"some kindly Christians do seek to include you, by inserting brown between red and yellow"

Thank you Henri, I feel better for that.