Sri Lanka’s not so crowning moment!
Dethroned: Mrs World Caroline Jurie removing the crown from Pushpika de Silva. Pic by Indika Handuwala
It was the trending topic on Twitter for the Asian region, making headlines on Yahoo, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, the Guardian, E News, Daily Mail and other major news sites worldwide, even generating its own Wikipedia page. This week, there was no escaping the fact that the Mrs World Sri Lanka pageant had catapulted Sri Lanka into the global spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
The details of the fracas in the closing moments of the long drawn out Mrs World Sri Lanka pageant finale at the Nelum Pokuna captured on a video clip that has now had over four million views on YouTube are well known. How the reigning Mrs World, Sri Lanka’s Caroline Jurie, minutes after placing the elaborate crown on the new Mrs World Sri Lanka winner, contestant No. 20 - Pushpika de Silva, suddenly turned judge, jury and executioner.
The shocking moment was when grabbing a microphone from a compere, she announced, “As for Mrs. World Inc, there is a rule that you have to be married and not divorced so I am taking my first step saying that the crown goes to the First Runner-Up.” As the audience watched aghast, she stormed up to Pushpika to pull the crown off her, former model Chula Padmendra alongside to assist her as she proceeded to crown the First Runner-Up.
With the video clip of the incident going viral across all social media platforms, netizens were quick to jump into the fray. While some tweeted and shared the video with laughing emojis finding hilarity in the entire situation, others debated both Caroline and Pushpika’s actions over comments under every major news channel’s post that shared the video. In the days after, Facebook and Instagram saw an outpouring of memes, edited videos and justifications, quite a number likening the incident to a scene from Sandra Bullock’s film ‘Miss Congeniality’ asking if maybe the crown was a bomb and Caroline was trying to save Pushpika by snatching it off her head.
Debates raged over the validity of beauty pageants in today’s world -whether they were ‘archaic’. “Men are not applying for pageants so really it’s upto women to stop participating and it seems like they want to take part…” Twitter user Navpreet Dhadwal said.
It was juicy fodder for talk show hosts around the world. Popular Australian video commentator and comic Ethan Marrell (aka Ozzy Man) known for his YouTube channel ‘Ozzy Man Reviews’ released a much awaited commentary on the viral video. “Who’s the Sheila who looks like a rich wanker from the Hunger Games?” he asked, a reference to Chula Padmendra’s entry onstage and fist in the air, as one commenter (Mohaimenul Islam) on the video put it ‘about to announce the liberation of Sri Lanka’.
The last time Ozzy Man reviewed something on Sri Lanka was during the infamous 2018 Parliament brawl.
Heated debate on the eligibility factor persisted. A Twitter user argued that Caroline was in the right as the whole point of the pageant being about ‘Mrs World’ is that one needs to abide by the rules of being married while others pointed out that Pushpika was not divorced yet and was falsely ousted on grounds of being a divorcee.
How did Caroline Jurie find out Pushpika was divorced just at that moment? Wasn’t this the fault of the organisers for not making the rules clearer? Doesn’t this all seem like a free publicity stunt for social media users to do their promotional work for the upcoming international pageant, were some of the questions posed.
Sexism, abusive language–it was all there as many took advantage of the anonymity afforded online to vent their ire. There were calls too for Caroline Jurie to be stripped of her Mrs World crown. The police were called in as if this farce was of national importance.
For many Sri Lankans living abroad, there was first incredulity, then sadness and a sense of shame as the ‘pageant brawl’ made it to their local news channels.
The main organisers and the local franchise holder have hurried for cover in the meantime switching off their phones and their computers.
How will this cat fight soap opera end….any guesses anyone?