Rachel Christie Becomes First Black Miss England

Last night, at the Metropole Hilton Hotel in London, 20-year-old Rachel Christie made it into history books for winning the title of Miss England 2009 and thus becoming the first black woman ever to do so. At the same time, Christie, niece of the famous gold medalist Linford Christie, also became the first Miss England with high hopes of winning a medal in the 2012 Olympics, as The Telegraph can confirm.

Speaking of her win, Christie said she was surprised she was actually crowned Miss England, despite the fact that, before the pageant, bookies had her as the favorite. Being black and becoming the first black woman to hold the beauty title means a lot for Christie, since she hopes other girls her age will find in her example the motivation to pursue her dreams no matter the race. In this sense, her winning was a victory, the beauty queen explained after she was crowned Miss England.

“I don’t know why so few black girls enter. I think they think they won’t win because beauty queens always have blond hair and blue eyes. I think they need to advertise more to change that.” Rachel Christie said. Moreover, the beauty also revealed that, just because she had won the pageant, she did not mean to have her life limited only to it. In other words, Christie again restated her desire and efforts to win a gold medal at the Olympics in 2012.

“My ambition in life is to compete and win gold in the 2012 Olympics. I would also love to do well in Miss England, I want to be successful in whatever I choose to do in life.” Christie added. According to the protesters gathered outside the venue to boycott the event, the latter part is not a sign of progress. Quite on the contrary, taking part in a beauty contest is a clear sign – the clearest, they say – that she was succumbing to misogynist attitudes around her, those that tell women that beauty is on the outside and that they need some form of validation for their good looks.

Sandrine Leveque of the feminist campaign group Object, for instance, told The Telegraph that beauty pageants were actively encouraging sexism and should therefore be banned to prevent that from happening, drawing a parallel to what happened with racism. According to Leveque, beauty contests are sending out the wrong message to young girls and society as a whole, namely that it’s OK for them to be treated like objects. “This is not progress. Fundamentally beauty contests have no place in 2009.” Leveque concluded by saying.