would be like if someone an ethincally Asian UK citizen won miss UK and then got accused of pushing an Eastern standard of beauty in an ethnically Anglo-Celtic-etc nation.

I mean that is happening all the time. Especially if the winner is black. So the controversy isn't new. It's still racist and stupid.

Beauty pageants are so fucking cringe and should be deleted in their entirety.

Yeah, they are cringe, but these are adults, not children. It's the same as a bodybuilder competition, as far as I'm concerned. Not for me, but as long as people aren't getting hurt, it's just entertainment. Just keep the kids out of it.

But if we let this happen, what's stopping an anime character winning the competition? Or a cat? Or robot? Where do we draw the line?!?

On second thoughts, a cat would be pretty awesome. They'll at least dominate the catwalk part of the competition.

Pretending Japan isn't still incredibly xenophobic is quite the hill to die on.

I wonder what percentage of the people writing in English about it are kids and creepy guys who use their alt account to post about being an Anime character stuck in a white person's body.

The netuyo are probably whinging about it, but I stay away from those corners of the internet. Osaka Naomi and others have faced issues as well. Mostly, from what I remember, it's been sports competitions where this comes up

Nah, the weird terminally online hard right-wingers, the netouyo, are big mad about it. And they can stay mad.