Okay, first: we’re not the winningest country. That would be the United States with eight wins since the pageant started in 1952. We actually come across as fourth with Ms. Catriona Gray giving our country its fourth title. You can see the list here.
As you can see, second and third places are Latin American countries: Venezuela (2nd, with just one win below the US), and Puerto Rico (with just one win above us).
Now, beauty pageants aren’t my thing - I rarely watch them, and I personally think there are better ways to gauge the worth of women - and I have no access to information about how the judges made their decisions. This would be a nice thing for data scientists to do, though, looking for patterns in the way judges voted.
But, anyway, you did ask why so many winners come from the Philippines.
I’m doing this off-the-cuff and with what little knowledge I have (I’m not even Googling, to be fair) of the pageant and the winners, but it seems that Filipina Miss Universes have that winning combination of looks, intellect, and confidence. And, wit, too.
The Miss Universe pageant is about crowning the most beautiful human female. The “Universe” part of the title says it all, and you can consider this the “senior” pageant among the rest (e.g. Ms. World, Ms. Earth, etc.).
So it stands to reason that every single contestant is the most beautiful woman of their respective countries. So when they meet for Ms. Universe, you have to be able to bring more than just simple physical beauty to the table to stand out.
Filipina contestants have always acquitted themselves well in the pageant. We as a people expect our ladies to at least make it to the Top 20 (out of hundreds), and we almost always do. Most times, Ms. Philippines is a contender all the way to Top 5, and there are a good number of “First Princess” wins, too, and at least two “Should-have-beens” in Shamsay Supsup and Miriam Quiambao.
So what does the Filipina have over the other, equally stunning women from all over the world? Why are we the fourth winningest country in this pageant?
Because the Filipina is not only gorgeous.
She is brilliant.
She is witty.
She is elegant.
She is funny.
She is talented (that slow-mo turn!).
I may be biased here, but the Filipina just has quite the lead in being an all-around beauty.
And when everyone else is already very beautiful, the other beautiful traits of the Filipina shine through.
