MAUREEN CALLAHAN: A trans contestant wins Miss Netherlands – and one look at the faces of the runners-up reveals what women REALLY think… but don’t dare say

Add beauty pageants to the list of women’s spaces that are no longer, well, women’s spaces.

The new Miss Netherlands, crowned on Saturday, is a transgender model named Rikkie Valerie Kollé.

Kollé’s next stop: the Miss Universe pageant, now owned by transgender Thai business mogul Anne Jakrajutatip.

And we biological women are expected to cheer, to be exhilarated by this latest theft.

Take a look at the faces of the runners-up.

More than a few look as if they’re in shock. Rightly so. Women in beauty pageants have every expectation of losing — to another woman. But to a biological male? Who has invaded yet another event that, in its very founding and mission statement, is specific to women?

This is not to disparage Kollé herself. She changed her name at age 11, from Rik to Rikkie, and said she suffered constant bullying, often coming home from school in tears.

Shortly before she was crowned Miss Netherlands, Kollé said no matter the outcome, she had already won.

‘As a little boy I conquered all things that came through my path and look at me now,’ she said. ‘Standing here, as a strong, empowering and confident trans woman. Love is love. Be who you want to be and never forget – always celebrate your pride.’

Add beauty pageants to the list of women’s spaces that are no longer, well, women’s spaces. The new Miss Netherlands, crowned on Saturday, is a transgender model named Rikkie Valerie Kollé.

This is not to disparage Kollé herself. She changed her name at age 11, from Rik to Rikkie, and said she suffered constant bullying, often coming home from school in tears.

Kollé is clearly sincere. To argue against her win isn’t to argue against her — it’s to raise the very real concern about the eradication of competitions and spaces meant for biological women.

Something to consider: Plenty of women, myself included, aren’t fans of beauty pageants. I find them degrading at best, dangerous at worst. They valorize conventional female beauty above smarts, talent, ambition — you know, the important things, the lasting things.

As Judge Judy famously said, ‘Beauty fades. Dumb is forever.’

Anyway, it’s safe to say that more women than not will be outraged by a biological man crowned beauty queen — an end goal, no matter what you think of it, that takes time, money, sacrifice and discipline.

A goal that comes with a ticking time clock. There’s an all-too-brief window before aging out.

Take a look at the comments on Kollé’s Instagram. As of Monday, the majority were none too happy.

‘We’ve had enough of this bulls**t,’ wrote one.

Another: ‘Well done. A man just stole the first place of a woman and gets applause for it. Full circle, we just killed 200 years of work for women who fought for equality.’

On Monday, the Independent Women’s Voice organization issued a statement decrying the new Miss Netherlands.

‘This is nothing to celebrate,’ they said. ‘This is a slap in the face to every single woman who competed against this biological male in a competition designed SPECIFICALLY for women.’

To speak up is, we well know, to be smeared as a TERF – a so-called ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’– or a bigot.

It’s just another misogynistic bullying tactic.

The Miss Netherlands win caps yet another week in which women have been told that our very biological systems are not unique to us.

Kollé is clearly sincere. To argue against her win isn’t to argue against her — it’s to raise the very real concern about the eradication of competitions and spaces meant for biological women.

Truly: Enough. The Miss Netherlands win caps yet another week in which women have been told that our very biological systems are not unique to us.

It’s enough simpering and cowering to a very small slice of the population determined to shame biological women out of sport, sororities, spaces such as shelters and female-only prisons. Who are hellbent on erasing and co-opting womanhood.

Childbirth? Not just for women anymore.

Breastfeeding? How dare we.

Biology? A mere construct, sweethearts.

In case we weren’t aware, it’s not just women who menstruate. The proper term is ‘menstruator’ — per the female founder of a tampon company who talked to an obsequious Gayle King last week about ‘this age of transphobia’ and being ‘a proudly gender-inclusive brand.’

What a joke. Let’s talk when biological males express the deep desire to go through menopause.

Even more, in just the past week: Healthcare professionals are now urged to use the terms ‘front holes’ or ‘bonus holes’ instead of ‘vaginas.’

May I ask: Where are we on the alternative, non-gender specific terms for penises? Testicles?

What shall we now call prostate cancer, or testicular cancer?

Why aren’t we as hell-bent on denying male anatomy or diseases that, due to biology, only affect men?

Here’s another one: Breastfeeding is now ‘chestfeeding.’

According to an announcement from the Centers for Disease Control last week, biological men can and should be encouraged to ‘chestfeed’ infants and babies — even though the hormones needed to induce such unnatural discharge may, according to the FDA, ‘pass into breast milk in small amounts and can sometimes give babies an irregular heartbeat.’

Here we are. Not even the needs and safety of infants come before the wants of trans activists.

According to an announcement from the Centers for Disease Control last week, biological men can and should be encouraged to ‘chestfeed’ infants and babies — even though the hormones needed to induce such unnatural discharge may, according to the FDA, ‘pass into breast milk in small amounts and can sometimes give babies an irregular heartbeat.’

We don’t see women demanding to compete against men athletically. (Above) Nikki Hiltz, a 28-year-old biological female who identifies as transgender and non-binary

That’s what women being bullied into silence gets us: a ridiculous, harmful orthodoxy that broaches no dissent. And the entire medical community, who should frankly be putting the brakes on this, goes along! Orders come now from one cohort only.

And none of this, none of it, goes the other way.

We don’t see women demanding to compete against men athletically. We don’t see women demanding to enter elite male bodybuilding competitions or to get in the cage against male MMA fighters or to play in the NFL.

It would be suicide. But men invading women’s spaces — totally natural, long time coming. Or so we are told.

Take runner Nikki Hiltz, a 28-year-old biological female who identifies as transgender and non-binary.

Hiltz has had no medical interventions and is still an intact female. On Saturday, Hiltz came in first at the 2023 USATF Championships in Oregon, their third 1500m win this year.

Those are wins Hiltz would never rack up against biological men. For all the talk of trans pride after Hiltz won, why not discuss the decision to race against other biological females rather than as a trans man?

With each passing day, women are seeing the severity of what’s happening here, this systematic attempt to gaslight us into semi-beings whose needs don’t matter, whose protections don’t hold, and whose singular ability to give birth and sustain life is minimized. The mother-child bond, unique throughout nature and honored since the dawn of humanity, mocked.

So if you think Miss Netherlands is just a beauty pageant — think again.

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