Universal acclaim? Jakapong’s pageant purchase dismays rights campaigners

Thai businesswoman Jakapong “Anne” Jakrajutatip recently purchased the Miss Universe Organization once owned by fellow reality TV star Donald Trump, something described in prehistoric quarters (US broadcaster NBC) as a “phenomenal milestone.” The deal cost an estimated US$20 million (750 million baht), but who is Jakapong, and what does she want?

With million followers on Instagram, the 43 year old has appeared in Thai versions of Project Runway and Shark Tank. She’s also known for supporting trans awareness and setting up the Life Inspired for Transsexual Foundation (LIFT).

Jakapong quit school in Thailand to study in Australia where she graduated from Bond University with a degree in international relations. She then returned to Bangkok to help manage her family’s video business while setting up her own company, JKN Global Media.

Jakapong now owns other digital news channels and promotes health and beauty products through 15 companies she controls in content distribution, beverages, food supplements, beauty and consumer products, news licensing and ad sponsorship. She is well-known for bringing Indian TV soaps to Thai TV.

In 2019, she became the first Thai and first transgender woman to win the Asia Media Woman of the Year award.

The Thai mogul has now taken a giant leap in her entrepreneurship by fully acquiring the Miss Universe Organization. She expects to generate income mainly from merchandising and licensing fees, broadcasting fees and ticket sales. The annual beauty pageant, which started 71 years ago, was co-owned by Donald Trump between 1996-2002. It is broadcast in 165 countries worldwide and has welcomed contestants from over 70 countries.

Jakapong has said little about what she plans for the contest, except to make money out of it.

Despite their evolution and attempts to be inclusive, beauty pageants remain an anathema to men, women and trans everywhere. To say those beauty pageants are designed to serve the male gaze would be to state the obvious. The need to adhere to a certain body or facial type isn’t just a way of measuring and comparing women’s beauty (problematic enough in itself) – beauty pageants are a no-holds-barred display of sexualised versions of women for the male gaze, under the guise of “celebrating women’s beauty.” Why should “women’s beauty” be celebrated at all?

“No matter what is changed, the principle remains the same. Women are offering themselves up to be rubber-stamped with the approval that they are beautiful.”

In 2015, they made headlines when host Steve Harvey named the wrong winner, during a live telecast. In response to this, Jessica Valenti wrote in The Guardian…

“That Harvey couldn’t distinguish one pretty woman from another is almost poetic, because, in pageants like Miss Universe, Miss America, and Miss USA, women aren’t individuals anyway. They’re literal symbols – unnamed besides the state or country they’re here to represent. It’s the ultimate display of women as interchangeable, vying for the right to be the shiniest object in the room.”

Wealthy enough to be able to circumvent Thailand’s strict anti-surrogacy law, Jakapong has two kids. She has spoken about the difficulties of obeying Thai laws but is rich enough to not need to. She flew to Greece and paid about US$800,000 (3.2 million baht) for her two kids.

With her massive business empire, Jakapong is one of Southeast Asia’s wealthiest trans women. Her Instagram posts show an extravagant high-emission lifestyle of Aston Martin cars and private jets. According to Forbes in 2020, has an estimated net worth of US$210 million (800 million baht), a little more than Caitlyn Jenner.