'Ky Duyen should return the crown with self-respect'

Miss Ky Duyen is facing strong public opposition for smoking and getting drunk in a bar. Associate Professor, Doctor of Art Nguyen Thi Minh Thai sent an article presenting her views on this story.

Associate Professor, Doctor of Art Nguyen Thi Minh Thai is a famous critic in the field of culture and art. She is currently a lecturer of journalism at Hanoi National University, Deputy Head of the Department of Theatre Criticism Theory of the Vietnam Theatre Artists Association.

I feel sorry for Miss Ky Duyen

The story of smoking in a Hanoi cafe and the photo of a drunk girl believed to be Miss Ky Duyen are receiving strong reactions from public opinion.

When this incident was announced in the media, my first feeling was pity for Ky Duyen, when she continuously made cultural and behavioral mistakes, first with herself as a beauty queen, and then with the community.

The most regrettable thing is that she realized her behavioral error very late. So late that it cannot explain the whole system of behavioral errors of Ky Duyen.

Since she put the crown on her head, she seems to rarely reflect on her behavior, when she sleeps carelessly in a very awkward, revealing, and indecent sleeping position on the plane; when doing charity work, she only focuses on "showing off" herself, calmly standing tall while her mother bends down on the ground to fix her skirt.

Then she innocently walked empty-handed at the airport while her mother pushed the luggage cart right next to her, arrived late for the press conference, dressed without proper taste... These things happened as a sad truth about Ky Duyen's behavior.

Beauty contests are a necessary need and an inevitable trend of development because humanity always wants to honor beauty and people of any country need to be proud of their own unique beauty.

The beauty of a national or international beauty queen, in the truest sense, must fully converge two fundamental aesthetic requirements, must form a harmonious and balanced entity between physical beauty and inner soul.

Vietnam is not a country with a “factory” specializing in training beauty queens, and the current training of beauty queens is quite amateurish because every “factory” has problems. Many beauty queens appear on the stage of the contests “unable to eat, unable to speak”, have poor English, do not pay attention to the harmony of external beauty with internal qualities, and do not even pay attention to the foundation of cultural behavior.

Vietnamese people always appreciate and value the charm of women, as the old saying goes, “beauty is better than character.” But unfortunately, many Vietnamese beauty queens do not understand this, and have distorted thoughts and actions.

Don't justify it as personal rights.

I have never seen a beauty queen smoking in public, sleeping on a plane in an offensive position, and more importantly, calmly letting her mother push her things or bending down to fix her dress like Miss Ky Duyen.

Don't defend and justify that it is a personal right because this is a beauty queen and she needs to follow the beauty queen's ethical standards, be healthy in spirit and kind in culture. In the narrow space of her family, Ky Duyen has the right to do whatever she wants, but in front of a crowd, she must realize that she is a beauty queen.

Ky Duyen’s actions can be said to have seriously affected the beauty queen title. She failed to maintain the spirit and aura of the crown in both content and form.

Ky Duyen was accused of having plastic surgery after her coronation, and was repeatedly criticized for her inappropriate actions in public. The beauty queen crown does not allow its owner to do that. Therefore, Ky Duyen should return the crown with humility and self-respect.

Look at yourself before calling a lawyer

Ky Duyen has the right to hire a lawyer to protect her honor and handle personal matters before the law. She has the right to sue anyone she wants, I don’t really care about that because the court will be responsible for deciding who is right and who is wrong. Like the case of Chu Dang Khoa and his wife in the love scandal with Ho Ngoc Ha, please take each other to court instead of turning the media into “servants” of the showbiz world.

But first of all, we must remember the saying “first blame yourself, then blame others”. If we know how to manage our image, no one can defame or criticize us. On the contrary, if we are not self-aware and responsible for ourselves and the titles we have achieved, then the noble crown, although still on our heads, will no longer exist in the hearts of the public.

I also want to emphasize that you should not think that because you are beautiful, you have the right and that being a beauty queen means you can do whatever you want. Every country, in addition to the law, also has unwritten rules based on cultural foundations and social characteristics.

In Vietnam, if an individual is wrong with himself or his family, then certainly, with society, that individual cannot do good things, and even less can he represent beauty.

Ky Duyen is a beautiful woman in appearance, that beauty is very Vietnamese in form but I do not see the spirit of beauty in her. Since her coronation until now, Ky Duyen has never been able to balance her appearance with her behavior. Therefore, she is always criticized and humiliated by the crowd.

Miss Ky Duyen was crowned in 2014.

Criticism but need to analyze with reason and emotion

Everyone has the right to sympathize with Ky Duyen, but they need to sympathize in the spirit of Vietnamese culture. No one should justify that she is too young and inexperienced in dealing with people because her youth is one of the important factors for Ky Duyen to be crowned.

And what the public needs from her is maturity in her youth, not sympathy over and over again, but the beauty queen still hasn't improved much, and even become uglier in terms of image.

Public opinion can kill the image of a beauty queen if she considers indiscretion as her nature. Of course, in the case of Miss Ky Duyen, public opinion has also begun to follow suit, mercilessly throwing stones without analyzing reason, emotion, which actions can be sympathized with and which actions need to be condemned.

The public is also at fault for not being coherent in expressing their opinions and being influenced by the mob mentality. But once again, I must affirm that no judge can judge the public, the public can express their opinions about the person considered a “public figure”.

And the media continues to be an important subject in this matter. The media cannot "follow the lead" but needs to analyze right and wrong based on the nature of the problem and the cultural foundation of the nation's behavior.

Of course, Western culture cannot be used to interfere in this matter. The way of behaving tactfully, speaking delicately, being polite, being virtuous and well-mannered are the characteristics of Vietnamese women's character and dignity. And Miss Vietnam must comply with Vietnamese standards.

Another entity, the Miss Vietnam organizing committee, also needs to be aware of the valuable lesson learned from the Ky Duyen incident. Before, during and after the beauty pageant, there must always be rules, regulations and guidelines for the beauty queen’s conduct in front of the community.

The organizing committee must be responsible for monitoring, criticizing, reminding, and correcting in a timely manner. When beauty queens go to do charity work in remote areas, they should not dress extravagantly or wear strong perfume.

The organizing committee must still be the responsible entity so that the beauty queen's image is not tarnished in the public eye. To be more precise, a beauty queen "must show off her beauty and cover up her ugliness." If the ugliness can also be "properly" shown off, then don't be a beauty queen anymore.

Achieving love is not too difficult but keeping love is very difficult. The same goes for the title of Miss, keeping the title forever is much more difficult than wearing a crown full of pearls, diamonds, precious stones…

Not to the point of having to strip Ky Duyen of her crown

The head of the Miss Vietnam organizing committee, Mr. Le Xuan Son, said he had worked with Ky Duyen and confirmed the information from Miss Vietnam. However, the organizing committee will not comment on the recent scandals surrounding Ky Duyen.

When asked whether Miss Ky Duyen would be stripped of her crown, Mr. Le Xuan Son refused to answer. He said that before making a final decision, the Miss Vietnam organizing committee needed to convene a meeting with many leaders and relevant agencies. When the meeting had results, Mr. Le Xuan Son would officially inform the media.

Meanwhile, Mr. Duong Xuan Nam - former editor-in-chief of Tien Phong newspaper, father of the Miss Vietnam contest - expressed: "When Ky Duyen was crowned, I was no longer the head judge so I do not know the specifics of the incident. If it is only based on the images posted on social networks, it is not enough to strip her of her crown."

Mr. Nam added that before he took on the role of head of the Organizing Committee, the national finalists had to sign a commitment with 10 strict regulations after being crowned. In particular, the beauty queen had to maintain her reputation, ethics, speech, and report any work she did with the title of Miss to the Organizing Committee.

"According to regulations, even for advertising contracts, beauty queens must notify the Organizing Committee for consultation, to avoid making offensive advertisements" - Mr. Duong Xuan Nam said.

According to Zing.vn