The newly crowned Miss Turkey has responded to “negative comments” about her appearance after cruel online trolls called her “manly”.
İdil Bilgen, 24, was named the winner of the 2024 pageant on Wednesday to represent her country in the international Miss World competition.
Many flocked online to celebrate Ms Bilgen, a successful trilingual medical graduate, and one famous singer “admired” her success, her story and her uniqueness.
But a number of cruel trolls attacked the pageant queen for her appearance and suggested she won only because of the status of her father, a Turkish diplomat.
Ms Bilgen disabled comments on her social media channels and responded to the criticism during a television appearance.
24-year-old İdil Bilgen was named the winner of the 2024 pageant on Wednesday.
She will represent Turkey in the Miss World pageant.
But the 24-year-old model received criticism from online trolls after her win.
“At a time when our country is experiencing tragedies such as violence against women and children, I attribute the negative comments made to the fact that people have nothing better to do,” she said.
“They are people who express their opinion without really knowing anything. I am not interested in their comments.”
At the time of writing, Ms Bilgen’s Instagram posts are still protected from malicious comments.
But some 11,000 people liked her latest post in apparent solidarity with the 24-year-old.
The new Miss Turkey had received a series of unpleasant comments suggesting that she was not fit to represent her country as a beauty queen in the days leading up to the pageant.
A troll posted a photo of her alongside a male character posing as a woman in the 1984 film Şabaniye, subtitled ‘Miss Turkey 2024’.
The cruel post received 62,000 likes and was viewed almost three and a half million times.
Another user chimed in: “I prefer Şabaniye.”
Keyboard warriors pointlessly compared the 1.80m tall model to male and transgender actors.
Others suggested that he had somehow won because of his father’s role as Turkey’s ambassador to kyiv.
Demet Akalın, a Turkish pop singer, posted on Twitter/X: ‘Maybe I’ll give the crown back or if there was something like a public vote…
“Honey, you may want to win, but this is a beauty pageant, not a show of favoritism.”
Bülent Ersoy, transgender singer and actress, saying:Is this a beauty? She has masculine features.
But some came to Ms Bilgen’s defence, praising her for helping to break down outdated and unrealistic beauty standards through her role on the main stage.
‘Miss Turkey 2024 adapts to the world by breaking social perceptions of beauty,’ says one user wrote.
‘The last few generations have hated themselves and gone from one beautician to another, going against perceptions of beauty like big hips, thin waist, 90-60-90, small nose, full lips.’
‘Challenging those who try to impose their own perception of beauty and make our girls feel worthless if they do not fit into society’s perception of beauty, congratulations to our beauty Miss Turkey 2024, Dr. Idil Bilgen.
‘Those who don’t like it can take their superficial opinions and write them tearfully in their diaries.’
Turkish dance pop singer Aleyna Tilki said: ‘Although I don’t generally support beauty pageants, I really admire women who are successful, have a story and are unique.’
The competition was founded in 1929 and has recently returned after being interrupted by Covid.
“I really wanted to be first when I entered the competition, but I didn’t know if it would happen or not,” Miss Bilgin said of winning on Wednesday.
Some came to the defence of Ms Bilgin, a trilingual medical school graduate.
Ms. Bilgen’s Instagram posts are still protected from malicious comments
Miss Bilgen beat out 20 other finalists who had fought for the title for several weeks before a “jury”.
The winner was named as a graduate of Koç University Faculty of Medicine last Wednesday.
She said at the time: ‘I really wanted to be first when I entered the competition, but I didn’t know if it would happen or not.
“I wanted to try my luck. I’m very excited to be able to represent my country now.”
The model sadly lost her mother in 2018.
(tags to translate)dailymail
