The recently crowned Miss Turkey has responded to ‘negative comments’ about her appearance after cruel online trolls called her ‘manly’.
24-year-old İdil Bilgen was named the winner of the 2024 Miss World pageant on Wednesday. She will represent her country at the international Miss World pageant.
Many showed up online to honor Bilgen, a successful medical graduate with a trilingual background, with a famous singer “admiring” her success, story and uniqueness.
But a number of cruel trolls attacked the beauty queen for her appearance, claiming she only won because of the status of her father, a Turkish diplomat.
Ms Bilgen turned off comments on her social media channels and responded to the criticism during a television appearance.
İdil Bilgen, 24, was declared the winner of the 2024 election on Wednesday
She will represent Turkey at the Miss World pageant
But the 24-year-old model was criticised by online trolls after her win
“At a time when our country is dealing with tragedies such as violence against women and children, I attribute the negative comments to the fact that people have nothing better to do,” she said.
“They are people who express their opinions without really knowing anything about them. I don’t care about 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 solidarity with the 24-year-old.
The new Miss Turkey had received a lot of nasty comments, suggesting that she was not fit to represent her country as a beauty pageant queen.
A troll posted a photo of her next to a male character posing as a woman in the 1984 film Şabaniye, with the caption “Miss Turkey 2024.”
The cruel post was liked 62,000 times and viewed almost three and a half million times.
Another user commented: ‘I prefer Şabaniye.’
Keyboard heroes nonsensically compared the 6-foot-1 model to male and transgender actors.
Others claimed she won because of her father’s role as Turkey’s ambassador to Kiev.
Demet Akalın, a Turkish pop singer, posted on Twitter/X: ‘Maybe she will give the crown back or if there was something like a public vote…
“Honey, you may want to win, but this is a beauty contest, not favoritism.”
Bülent Ersoy, a transgender singer and actress, said: ‘Is this beauty? She has masculine features.’
Yet people also came to Bilgen’s defense, praising her for putting an end to outdated and unrealistic beauty ideals through her role on the highest stage.
‘Miss Turkey 2024 adapts to the world by breaking the social perception of beauty’, says a user wrote.
‘The last generations hate themselves and go from one beautician to another, despite beauty concepts such as wide hips, a thin waist, 90-60-90, a small nose and full lips.’
‘Despite those who try to impose their own concept of beauty and make our girls feel worthless if they do not conform to society’s concept of beauty, we congratulate our Miss Turkey 2024 beauty, Doctor Idil Bilgen.
‘Those who don’t like it can write their superficial opinions in their diary with tears in their eyes.’
Aleyna Tilki, a Turkish dance pop singer, said: ‘Although I am not a fan of beauty pageants in general, I admire women who are successful, have a story and are unique.’
The parade was founded in 1929 and recently returned after a hiatus due to Covid
“I really wanted to be first when I entered the competition, but I didn’t know if that would happen or not,” Ms Bilgin said after her victory on Wednesday
Some showed up to defend Ms. Bilgin, a medical school graduate and trilingual
Miss Bilgen’s Instagram posts are still protected from malicious comments
Mrs Bilgen defeated 20 other finalists who had competed for the title in front of a ‘jury’ for weeks.
The winner was announced last Wednesday as a graduate of the Faculty of Medicine of Koç University.
She said at the time: ‘I really wanted to be the first to enter the competition, but I didn’t know if I would succeed.
“I wanted to try my luck. I’m very excited to represent my country now.”
The model unfortunately lost her mother in 2018.