Video clips showing four Indonesian beauty pageant contestants in their swimsuits on a beach in Bali has netizens all stirred up, who are calling the shoot “vulgar.”
Posted earlier this month to Instagram across a few of the contestants’ accounts, the video features Puteri Indonesia 2017 finalists Dea Rizkita, Karina Nadila, and Kevin Lilliana, along with the contest’s ultimate winner, Bunga Jelitha Ibrani. The video “goes behind the scenes,” showing four of the contest’s finalists posing in swimwear, on location in Bali, mainly wearing one pieces, not even bikinis.
Puteri Indonesia, also known as Miss Universe Indonesia, is one of the country’s biggest pageants and sends the winner to the illustrious Miss Universe contest, where Ibrani will head next year to represent Indonesia.
While footage from the finalists’ shoot did get some positive comments, earning the ladies praise for their “good bodies” and wishing them “success,” many of the responses were characterized by conservative netizens chiding the women for revealing too much and not representing Indonesia well.
“Oh my god, what is this? Putri Indonesia, but westernized style,” wrote one commenter.
“You make like this, but you claim to be Muslim,” critiqued another.
“Just input: even better if you cover your private parts miss, as Miss Indonesia, you’re pride of the nation.”
“Where’s the Indonesian? This is Miss West, West.”
The organization behind the contest, Yayasan Puteri Indoneisa (YPI) has now addressed the press, after being trolled so much about it, with some local media organizations even gratuitously blurring some sideboob and bikini bottoms in photos taken from the shoot, making them look much more scandalous than they actually are.
“There are always pros and cons, but everything was done based on the location, right?” said PT. Mustika Ratu Tbk. and YPI spokesman Mega Angkasa on Monday.
The spokesman apparently further explained that since the shoot was done at the beach, it was only natural that the women wear “sexy” swimsuits.
He added that the same photo shoot was previously down by former contest champions Elvira Devinamira and Anindya Kusuma Putri.
Indonesian netizens sure can be unforgiving when it comes to what women are wearing. High school debate competitors were a recent target such criticism, with trolls coming out of the woodwork to give their two cents about the students’ cleavage.
