Nashauna Drummond, Staff Reporter
( L - R ) WENDY FITZWILLIAM, COOPER AND WRIGHT
THE ANNOUNCEMENT by Miss Universe 1998 Wendy Fitzwilliam, (UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador), that she is to become an unwed mother has sent shock waves through the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The Miami Herald reported, "The father of the unborn child is reportedly David Panton, vice- president of Mellon Ventures in Atlanta, a Rhodes Scholar and Oxford University graduate. Panton is divorced from 1993 Miss World, Lisa Hanna."
Fitzwilliam made her announcement at the Corpus Christi College, a private all-girls institution. Many Trinidadian are upset that she choose an inappropriate medium to make her announcement and that as a role model she was speaking to young impressionable teenage girls.
THE CROWN
Fitzwilliam gained fame in 1998 when she became the second Trinidadian to win the Miss Universe title the first being Janelle Penny Commissioning in 1977. While some Trinidadians are upset that she's an unwed mother, others are upset because of the forum in which she made her announcement.
TRINIDADIAN
The reactions of some Trinidadians in Jamaica are not as harsh as those back home. Lovern Hayes-Brown notes, "People have put her on a pedestal and they don't expect she would do normal regular things. She's Catholic, knows what the beliefs are and attended an all-girls Catholic school St. Joseph's Convent. She went to an all-girls Catholic school to speak about empowering young women and that's where she made her announcement. To them (Catholics), it was like a slap in the face as Catholicism denounces sex before marriage.
"They expect she would do all things good and wholesome and they are disappointed in the decision being made. She's an adult - things happen. Nobody would care if she was just regular Wendy Fitzwilliam and not Wendy Fitzwilliam Miss Universe 1998."
NORRIS TAYLOR
"My view rests on the whole concept of role models. Twenty years ago beauty queens would never be considered role models. The position of role model is being forced on some people and when things happen the ones they are supposed to lead become divided.
In my view she never qualified as a role model. A role model is more than winning a competition its; exemplary behaviour on and off stage, it's achievements and it takes time. I think she's a good person but not a role model. That has to be earned.
BEAUTY CONTEST FRATERNITY
Other beauty queens and personalities in the beauty contest fraternity think this is all much ado about nothing.
* Kingsley Cooper-CEO Pulse International.
"Its 2006 women have the right to choose, and she's no longer the reigning Miss Universe."
* Raquel Wright Miss Jamaica Universe 2005.
"There are certain rules that you have to abide by while you are reigning. Having a child and not being married are Wendy's personal decisions. She has chosen to be an unmarried mother so she shouldn't lose any merit. Yes she is a role model but when people do something to challenge social norms everything good that they have ever done is forgotten.
What a great representative she was for the Caribbean and her country. That's her choice. Who are we to say or dictate that she should be married?".
As to where she announced it, she might have been having personal conflicts about remaining true to herself or being in denial."
* Angelie Martin Miss Jamaica Universe 1994
"That's definitely a personal decision. However, where she made the announcement was a little out of place. People expect the good so they don't applaud when you do it. They see only the bad as the good is expected."
Following Fitzwilliam's victory in 1998 the competition was held in Trinidad in 1999. Miss Botswana then 19-year-old Mpule Kwelagobe won the crown by answering, 'definitely not' in response to the question: What if Miss Universe became pregnant during her reign - in violation of the rules? Her response: "Personally, I think it should not in any way interrupt her duties," she declared to wild applause from the Trinidadian audience. "She should celebrate her femininity."
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