Anyone watching? When I was a kid it was a big deal. It was fun guessing the top finalists.
I like Ms. Haiti. Ms. Thailand said she brought 17 suitcases with her.
I love seeing the international costumes.
Loved the winner of best costume. Looked very heavy but it was very creative.
I like Miss Universe almost as much as I like 4H Club livestock competitions.
There is no comparison. These women are beautiful, confident, and intelligent. They seem very well accomplished and well spoken having knowledge of what is going on in the world we live in.
That hasn’t been my experience:
http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/20/miss-venezuela-made-absolutely-no-sense-but-when-youre-attractive-nothing-else-matters-video/
When asked what law she would like to create, Miss Venezuela answered, "I think that any lays there are in Constitution or in life, are already made. I think that we should have, uh, a straight way to go in our similar, or, eh, in our lives as is this.”
And she took third place!
These are beauty contests first and foremost, and the q&a portion is just for plausible deniability.
There’s also this shining moment, of course:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/us/politics/alicia-machado-donald-trump.html
When you look for negativity it is easy to find it. Try to focus on something positive.
Some more brilliant non-answers:
You’re not the boss of me 
(one of those responses was from Miss France–the eventual winner (!))
True, but when you make comments like that you only make yourself look bad.
Luckily I don’t mind looking bad, since I’m not being judged on my looks on worldwide TV!
I agree it is a beauty competition first, but it is hard to be standing there in front of millions of people answering questions. Not everyone thinks quickly on their feet, it doesn’t mean they aren’t intelligent. I do agree at times, responses seem downright ridiculous, but it is what it is. I do think out of 85 contestants, you have some whip smart gals.
DH picked Miss France as soon as he saw her. I thought she and Miss Mexico were the most beautiful. I liked Haiti, too.
I cant stand that host.
Actually, I like 4-H club livestock competitions. B-)
Whip smart or not, beauty competitions are not the way to show it.
That’s not where they are trying to show it. Many are already working in professions and many have college degrees. It’s a beauty competition, it’s fun and they know that.
Taken from the Ms Universe website,
“Our organization believes that confidence is the most important quality for a person to possess.
Research has shown the #1 obstacle for women to overcome in reaching their potential in any endeavor is a lack of self-confidence.”
“The Miss Universe Organization empowers women to develop the confidence they need to achieve their personal best. A confident woman has the power to make real change, starting in her local community with the potential to reach a global audience. We encourage every woman to get out of her comfort zone, be herself, and continue to define what it means to be Confidently Beautiful.”
Here is an excerpt about Ms. Haiti from the website. She is currently working on a Master’s degree and looking to find a cure for blindness. I found her answers to be well thought out and meaningful.
https://www.missuniverse.com/contestant/825402
The winner Ms. France is pursuing a degree in Dental Surgery. Ms. Kenya has written a book.
All the women are beautiful but I feel they way the exude their confidence, the way they speak, their mission, and their knowledge is just as important to get them into the finals of the competition. They can be beautiful but if they can not communicate their ideas and thoughts in the interview rounds they are not going to move forward in the competition.
Here’s hoping that the contestants don’t gain a “massive amount of weight”.
Beauty competitions are only fun for the spectators. It’s a brutally competitive industry that focuses on some really spurious elements of humanity. Judging people for what they look like-aren’t we civilized enough not to do that anymore? We don’t do it for males, why is it ok for women to compete based on that metric?
I love the costumes, but let’s have a costume creation show and reward the creatives who actually designed and made those beautiful clothes, not the girls who wore them.
And before you say oh sour grapes-I worked in that industry. They treat women like a commodity, and you are complicit in encouraging that behavior by watching those shows.
We can do better.
I’m not sure judging women in this manner is a valid route to building self-confidence.
“Actually, I like 4-H club livestock competitions.”
I’ve actually attended quite a few of those. Love county fairs. :x
These are adults doing something that we may or may not approve of… but they are not engaging in any unlawful activities and are not being forced into doing it. What is the big problem? Are we going to slut shame them because they chose to be in a beauty pageant?
If you do not approve of these competitions, don’t tune your TV to that channel, like I do. 
The fewer folks are watching, the sooner the “tradition” will die.