Miss Tiffany's Universe 2017, Aug 25, 2017 Tiffany Show Theatre, Pattaya

[rxpharm]

Due to the official mourning period, the MTU contest this year has been scheduled for Aug 25, 2017 - this is several months later than usual.

You can follow the official news on their homepage: Miss Tiffany Universe, and their Facebook page of the same name.

Here is a Youtube video of the selection of the final 30 - out of probably 100 or so aspiring beauty queens.

[George Pill]

Remember. They're not hookers. Just pretty girls who wanna have fun. The marrying kinds.

[rxpharm]

George Pill - there might be a few p4p ladies in the contest - but certainly not many, and likely not full time as the contestants are screened - they are much stricter than 10-15 years ago, when quite a few p4p lbs used to enter.

Here are the publicity photos of the final 30, as well as a couple more videos - one in swimsuits. Some quite amazing figures - reflecting starting hormones at a very young age and also the wonders of Thai plastic surgeons. Before anyone asks - not all of them are post-op, there are pre-op lbs in the contest every year, but their operative status is not advertised.

Nong Yoshi is in the contest this year - shes number 28. When she was screened for the final 30, the panel gave her a difficult time - due to her stature (she's probably the shortest lb in the contest), and she apparently doesn't have the "beauty queen look", whatever that means.

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My lb friends have told me that Nong Rock, number 29 is the favorite. She has won many beauty contests in the past, and had a feature role in a recent Chinese movie.

Some videos:

The contestants:

In their swimsuits:

Nong Yoshi has clearly blossomed fully with her swimsuit shot.

[George Pill]

GORGEOUS!!! Thailand has the most beautiful ladyboys in the world. Shame I won't be there as I will come in mid-November to mid-January 2018. Want to see what the Christmas and New Year's is like.

[rxpharm]

Here is a June 26, 2017 Bangkok Post article that gives more information about the Miss Tiffany Universe 2017 contest and background to it.

The real pageant queens of Pattaya

Miss Tiffany's Universe will give viewers a glimpse
of reality beyond the spectacle this year

• Published: 25/06/2017 at 04:00 AM
• Newspaper section: Brunch

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up close and personal: 'Miss Tiffany: Living the Dream' will show the pageant contestants preparing in the weeks before the Aug 25 finale.

When people think of Pattaya, one of the first things that comes to mind is the abundance of night life and entertainment venues that the city suffers no shortage of. Sea, sand and sun are the leading draws for many tourists who go to Pattaya, but the beautiful transgender population is another attraction that has made this place famous.

Tiffany's Show is Thailand's first cabaret spectacle to star transgender women. It originated as a cross-dressing show performed for friends of the Phanthusak family on New Year's Eve in 1974, but has since grown into a world-class act attended by people from all corners of the world. It was voted number four in a list of the world's Top Ten Best Shows.

As Pattaya has developed over the years, Tiffany's Show is no longer the only famous cabaret show the city has on offer. But no matter how many imitators have stepped onto the scene, Tiffany's Show remains the ultimate must-see spectacle in the city.

STRIKING A NEW POSE

Forty years after the show was founded, Alisa Phanthusak, the managing director of Tiffany's Show Pattaya Co, Ltd, took over the family business in 1998. Initially, she primarily saw the business as a profit-driven venture. But over time, she developed a different mindset ? she wanted to use Tiffany Show's as not only an entertainment act but an activist platform.

"We've been working with transgender people for over two decades and I think it's time for society to understand who they really are -- not just beautiful performers, but also real people," Alisa said.
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crown rules: Alisa Phanthusak, the managing director of Miss Tiffany's Show Pattaya, has run the show since 1998. Photos: supplied



Alisa saw the potential of Tiffany's Show as a platform to transform people's stereotypical ideas of transgender people, but she wanted to do it with a broader reach than what a stage act can achieve.

She took her idea to several TV stations, asking if any were willing to broadcast Thailand's first transgender beauty pageant. Back then, in the 1990s, the concept was so novel that nobody quite knew what to do with her proposal.

"They [TV stations] were really scared that having transgender women from Pattaya on TV would make them look bad," said Alisa. "They were concerned that there would be nudity and inappropriate images displayed live and on stage. And to be fair, transgender people in Pattaya really do give off that image. But I used my reputation as a strong businesswoman to guarantee that nothing inappropriate would happen on stage."

Alisa finally found one TV station willing to realise her idea. ITV already had a reputation for being a channel that wouldn't shy away from more progressive content like the first and only pageant for transgender people to be broadcast on mainstream TV.

Since then, Miss Tiffany's Universe has given transgender women the chance to shine on-stage.

One of the most famous pageant winners, Treechada "Poyd" Petcharat, is one such example of the pageant's power to give transgender people not only visibility but respect and recognition.

GONE GLOBAL

After Alisa's decision to go big and broadcast Miss Tiffany's Universe, she begun brainstorming ways to keep growing the show's influence. In 2004, she launched and hosted Miss Queen International, the first international transgender beauty pageant.

Initially, Alisa struggled to reach out to the international transgender community, but slowly, she built up a list of contacts, and discovered several variations of her idea already existed.

"There were already many pageants for transgender people around the world but all of them were small scale productions," Alisa said. "They normally organised the events in small conference rooms in hotels. I took my girls to the US to compete and we won every year.

"Since we were quite successful with Miss Tiffany Universe, I thought it was time to take the idea of a beauty pageant for transgender people more seriously. I wanted to make the pageant as big as Miss Universe."

Working single-handedly, Alisa sent out a slew of e-mail invitations and rounded up enough contestants to make the first Miss Queen International contest. For the first few years, all travel expenses were paid for by Tiffany Show's, but since the show has grown in popularity, people now pay to sign up and compete.

THE REAL DEAL

After two decades of running her now world famous beauty pageant, Alisa wanted to mark the special occasion. This year, Miss Tiffany's Universe will be broadcast like it is every year, but it will be longer than the usual programming.

"I always wanted to do a reality show for the pageant," she explained. "I go to all the important events with the contestants in the week before the final results are revealed and I knew it would be fun to document it. So I decided to create some behind-the-scenes videos to post on YouTube. There are over two million people who subscribe to our channel.

"I knew this idea would be great since reality TV shows are always fun. I proposed the idea to GMM channel and they liked it. So this year, Miss Tiffany Universe will be a one-month long programme where people can get to know the contestants beforehand through the reality show."
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Photo: Pornprom Satrabhaya



Alisa named the TV show Miss Tiffany: Living the Dream. It will be broadcast every Wednesday in August at 9.35pm on GMM channel. During the four-week long programme, people will get familiar with the 30 finalists in the time leading up to the final results on Aug 25, which will be broadcast live from the Tiffany Theatre in Pattaya.

The contestants will be trained by the legendary Poyd, who has won both the Miss Tiffany's Universe and Miss International Queen titles in 2004, and the renowned supermodel Cindy Bishop, who was Miss Thailand World 1996 and is now the host for Asia's Next Top Model.

Poyd and Cindy will serve as mentors, or "beauty mums" as they are called, to the finalists. They will train them on how to dress, behave and socialise the way that a beauty queen is meant to.

"I want to show the girls that they can dream big," said Alisa. "Many of them broke down in tears during the pageant process as they've been treated completely equally here at Miss Tiffany's. I just want people to see the human side of them now."

This year, Miss International Queen will take place as usual, but it won't be broadcast on TV. Instead, it is set to be broadcast live on the Tiffany's Show Facebook page, where millions of followers can watch their favourite contestants from different countries compete for the crown.

DIVERSITY OF BEAUTY

Having worked with transgender women all her life, Alisa understands the importance of maintaining a diverse definition of beauty -- not only in terms of gender, but also race, disability and other markers of difference.

"There are many girls who have come up to me and told me that they have not been given certain opportunities in life only because they are katoey," she says. "I want this type of discrimination to stop. Can't we all just be treated as human beings? I tell the girls to stop being hard on themselves and know that we should all have equal opportunities as human beings."

Poyd is a prime example of somebody who has overcome the limits placed on transgender people's success in society. She has enjoyed a prolific career as a model, appearing on several magazine covers. She's also starred in several TV shows and movies, and become a big movie star in China. She can now land leading lady roles with ease, showing that transgender people can be more than just comic relief as is often the case in pop culture.

"The only reason I created the beauty pageant in the first place was to raise awareness that transgender people are just like any of us," Alisa said. "I want this show to help people understand transgender people better. I also want to improve the self-esteem of transgender people. People are all equal regardless of their gender or disability.

"The only thing that make us all different is our talents. We should embrace these and own them proudly. My best advice for those who are different is to believe in yourself and try to make a difference. At the end of the day, we are all special."
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queens in training: Former Miss Thailand Cindy Bishop serves as a pageant mentor.

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Miss Tiffany reality

About the author

Writer: Chaiyot Yongcharoenchai
Position: Reporter

[rxpharm]

Just a bit more than 3 weeks away now!

All the contestants have made an introductory video for the Miss Internet Popular Vote. It's quite amazing how many have more feminine voices than contestants from the early days - no falsetto's, probably due to starting hormones before or early on in puberty.

Have a look and even if you don't speak Thai, you can get an idea of what their characters are like.

This link leads to a a playlist of all 30 contestants: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...1aGZ07Ef_tujfV

[rxpharm]

This year they are doing something different - video updates of how the contestants are doing during the preparations for the finals - there will be regular updates until the final night on Aug. 25. Here is the first video:

The final will be done live streaming from the Miss Tiffany Universe Youtube channel instead of the regular TV broadcast this year.

[guysnightlife]

keep the pics and videos coming!

[rxpharm]

Here's the second behind the scenes video - this one has English subtitles.

[Tropicalz]

Stupid newbie question perhaps; Is it possible to go on a date with one of these contestants? I am thinking they are not girls that work in bars. Are they mostly untouchable and taken?

[Rockheart]

Stupid newbie question perhaps; Is it possible to go on a date with one of these contestants? I am thinking they are not girls that work in bars. Are they mostly untouchable and taken?

Some bar girls are involved in these competitions and others that don't work in bars or sometimes do.
Winners of Miss Tiffany in the past have been full on sex workers that have transitioned to contest work, at least part time.
There is not a real stigma in Thailand where you can be outed as a ladyboy sex worker, as nobody is shocked.

Many of them are also settled with boyfriends especially the post op and professional contest girls.
Having a rich boyfriend can allow them to do this full time easier as it is not cheap if you want to compete all the time.
Of course they can always work in the actual Tiffany show or other similar shows about Thailand.

When you go to these shows they always have a sort of meet and greet after where you talk to the performers.
At that time you can usually tell which ones are receptive to gentleman callers and you could slip them your number on a piece of paper.
Often best to give them a small tip with your number inside, which is not conspicuous.

Anything is possible with ladyboys in Thailand.

[rxpharm]

The contestants are chaperoned - so going on a date with one of the contestants would be quite a challenge. A further update to Crag's comments - the contestants are having closer screening now a days to reduce the chance of a "working" pay for play lb being accepted into the contest as Miss Tiffany Universe has been gaining prestige over the years.

As them being "taken", I would not necessarily say most of them have boyfriends - some are sponsored by companies, (in the past some night clubs used to sponsor - but that has stopped), and some by wealthy lbs who serve as "mother's/mentors" and want the recognition of having a Miss Tiffany Universe winner as a protege.

[Tropicalz]

Great tips gentlemen much obliged. I am sure I am will be meeting lots of other beautiful ladyboys in bars stores on the streets enough to distract me. You can't have every ladyboy right? I am being greedy I guess

[rxpharm]

Here's Episode 3 with English subtitles. Episode 1 has been reposted with English Subtitles as well, so i will update the link.

Something I did not realize until I saw the subtitles is there has been an elimination of 1-2 contestants each episode to make it the same as a "Reality" show. This is quite different from the past when the 30 contestants would all be in contention until the final night.

[Rockheart]

Interesting.
I guess people really like elimination ceremonies.
Maybe their show was getting to long.