Miss Universe Buenos Aires 2024 Alejandra Rodriguez competes during the final of the Miss Universe Argentina beauty contest on May 25, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 60-year-old Argentine beauty queen\u2019s run for Miss Universe may have come to an end, but she says her remarkable journey is the \u201cfirst step of a change\u201d in society\u2019s perceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alejandra Rodriguez made headlines across the world in April when she was crowned Miss Buenos Aires, becoming the first sexagenarian to win a contest organized by the Miss Universe franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While she was unable to repeat that triumph on Saturday to become Miss Argentina and earn the right to represent her country in the Miss Universe pageant, she did win the \u201cbest face\u201d category and celebrated her breakthrough as marking the beginnings of a shift in how beauty is perceived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is the first step of a change that is coming,\u201d Rodriguez, an attorney and journalist by profession said after the contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI hope this (my participating) marks a before and after. I think exterior beauty is always the main focus, I don\u2019t think that it\u2019s wrong to select a beautiful woman, but maybe the concept of beauty needs to expand,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rodriguez\u2019s participation was only made possible after the Miss Universe organization changed its rules related to age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until 2023, contestants had to be between the ages of 18 and 28 as of January 1 of the year in which they competed. As of 2024, there is no upper age limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a change that is positive, I think it is little by little, like all changes,\u201d she said, adding she was thankful to have \u201cthe opportunity to be the first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ending the age limit was just one of a series of rule changes the pageant introduced in 2023 in an effort to modernize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the first time in its more than 70-year history, the franchise also greenlit the participation of women who are married or divorced, and who have given birth or are pregnant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was also a 40-year-old woman who participated, another who is 37. It\u2019s like the limits are already expanding,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cThere were women who are mothers, things that were unthinkable before in Miss Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rodriguez said that even though she fell short of the honor of representing her country, stereotypes related to beauty, age, shape and weight were slowly changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winner on Saturday was Magal\u00ed Benejam, who at 29 would have been ruled too old to compete under the previous rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Miss Universe Buenos Aires 2024 Alejandra Rodriguez competes during the final of the Miss Universe Argentina beauty contest on May 25, 2024. A 60-year-old Argentine beauty queen\u2019s run for Miss Universe may have come to an end, but she says her remarkable journey is the \u201cfirst step of a change\u201d in society\u2019s perceptions. Alejandra Rodriguez […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/gettyimages-2154175086-copy.webp?fit=1160%2C653&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12972"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12975,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12972\/revisions\/12975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}