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The Miss Universe Australia pageant is under global scrutiny after doctors warned a finalist was severely malnourished.

This is 19-year-old Stephanie Naumoska. At 5 feet, 9 inches tall... she weighs about 52 kilograms, or 105 pounds.

Here’s SKY News with the perspective of a dietician and Stephanie’s own response:

“The concern is that there’s some good examples of malnutrition. So there’s some muscle wasting in particular in the upper body.” (Sky News)
“I think it’s horrible, they don’t know me and what I eat every morning, lunch and dinner. They probably think I don’t eat anything, but I do.” -Stephanie Naumoska (Sky News)

Softpedia News suggests the competition is hypocritical:

“The whole point behind the Miss Universe competition is that it is an event that promotes ‘healthy, proportioned bodies,’ but that is definitely not the image Naumoska presented... Stephanie is sending the wrong kind of message, as if telling girls that being so thin is to be desired.” (Softpedia News)

New Zealand’s TVNZ reports pageant organizers are defending Stephanie, saying her thin frame is the result of her Macedonian heritage and the stress of pageantry:

“But I think when people are naturally thin, all the stress of the pageant, the stress of running around. If you lose 2-3 kilos, you can appear thin, and also the bikinis and angles of the shots.” (/wipe) “Like Asians, and you’ve got South Americans with their curvy bums. There’s different genetic makeup.”  (TVNZ)

An editorial in the Canberra Times suggests women are held to a different standard, saying the controversy at the Miss Universe pageant is a reflection of an “ugly universal truth:”

“Like it or not, beauty smoothes the way, opens doors. But until we start to challenge notions of beauty... beauty pageants and all they imply are here to stay.” (Canberra Times)

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