Miss Turkey winner criticized for her appearance, called 'masculine'

A beauty contest has ended in Turkey, and the winner was 24-year-old Idil Bilgen. After her victory, she faced a wave of hate. This is reported by the British tabloid Daily Mail.

Idil Bilgen will represent Turkey at the Miss World contest. She has a medical degree and speaks three languages. But this has not spared her from comments criticizing her appearance and suggestions that she was able to win thanks to the high status of her father, a Turkish diplomat.

The main criticism was that Idil was called "masculine", including comparisons to the hero of the 1984 Turkish comedy "Şabaniye", in which he pretended to be a woman.

Popular Turkish pop singer Demet Akalina wrote on social media X (formerly Twitter): "Maybe she will return the crown or if there was some kind of public vote... Darling, you may want to win, but this is a beauty contest, not favoritism."

Due to the wave of hate, she disabled comments on her social networks, and responded to the criticism during an appearance on local television: "At a time when our country is experiencing such tragedies as violence against women and children, I explain the negative comments addressed to me by the fact that people have nothing better to do. These are people who express their opinions without really knowing anything. I don't care about their comments."

Some commentators came to Idil's defense and suggested that her victory could help destroy outdated and unrealistic beauty standards: "Miss Turkey 2024 is adapting to the world by destroying social perceptions of beauty", "The last few generations have been hating themselves and going from one plastic surgeon to another, fighting against such perceptions of beauty as big hips, thin waist, 90-60-90, small nose, full lips", "As a protest against those who try to impose their perception of beauty and make our girls feel worthless if they do not fit society's perception of beauty, congratulations to our beautiful Miss Turkey 2024 Dr. Idil Bilgen. Those who do not like this can take their superficial opinions and write them down in a diary with tears in their eyes."

Turkish pop singer Aleyna Tilki also joined these comments, saying: "Although I don't usually support beauty pageants, I do admire women who have achieved success, have their own story and are unique."

It should be noted that Idil Bilgen won over 20 other finalists who competed for the title of "Miss Turkey" for several weeks.