Tight bikini and a bright smile: That's no longer enough to become Miss Germany. You also have to have a message. 19-year-old Saskia von Bargen wants to raise awareness for the issue of transgender people.
Saskia von Bargen, finalist in the Miss Germany 2023 election
Nationwide, around 15,000 women applied for the title of the next Miss Germany, the organizers of the competition announced. The ten finalists were announced on Tuesday – and one of them made headlines straight away: a trans woman who lives with her parents and three younger sisters in the village of Friedrichsfehn in Lower Saxony.
On old photos of children, Saskia von Bargen sees a boy – who preferred to wear clothes and play with other girls. But at the tender age of five, Saskia von Bargen declared that she was a girl. “My parents realized early on that it wasn't just a phase,” she says. She has nothing but praise for her mother and father, who have supported her from the start. At school, however, it wasn't that easy to be accepted. To avoid being bullied, she wore boys' clothes.
The ten finalists in the Miss Germany election 2023
At the age of eleven, von Bargen then began taking hormone blockers to avoid puberty. Two years later she got female hormones. That was also the moment when she came out at school. Her life became easier, she felt increasingly accepted. When she came of age, she underwent sex reassignment surgery. She also chose a name: Saskia.
The competition is being polished
“Miss Germany” elections have been held for almost 100 years. To win the beauty pageant, you used to have to look good and be able to dance down the catwalk in swimwear like a model. But the company that organizes the annual national competition took a radical turn in 2019.
Since then, the candidates no longer have to present themselves on the catwalk in a bikini. Height and weight are also no longer queried. The outside doesn't matter any more, according to Jil Andert from Miss Germany Studios. Rather, the women have to show a strong personality and “should be a source of inspiration,” said Andert of the German Press Agency dpa.
In 2022, the activist, entrepreneur and actress Domitila Barros became the (currently still in office) Miss Germany elected – as the first Woman of Color. Barros grew up in a Brazilian favela, where he taught street children to read and write. Today she is committed to sustainability, environmental protection and social justice.
The reigning Miss Germany Domitila Barros was the first Woman of Color to win the competition
The sociologist Nina Degele from the University of Freiburg is unimpressed by the realignment of the competition – she simply thinks the format is Miss Germany obsolete. It needs to be “replaced with something completely different,” she thinks.
The Transgender Ambassador
The Miss Germany election is the “perfect platform” to tell her story, says Saskia von Bargen. She applied for the competition to promote awareness of transgender issues. She, the retail trainee working in a fashion house, wants to educate people about what it's like to be a trans woman.
She is open about what went wrong with her first operation. In total, she had to undergo 12 surgical procedures. She doesn't regret anything. Von Bargen sees herself as an ambassador for the cause. If she wins, she gets 25,000 euros – which she can then use for her mission
Not the first trans woman in the final
Von Bargen is not the first trans woman to make it to a Miss Germany election has brought so far. Last year Gadou from Hanover (also in Lower Saxony) made it to the final. But von Bargen wants to win. The final round will take place on Saturday at Europa-Park in Rust, south-west Germany. Other finalists include an energy consultant who wants to promote women in a male-dominated industry and a midwife who wants to open her own birth center.
The Miss Germany competition, which took place for the first time in 1927 and was later banned by the Nazis, is not identical to the election of “Miss Universe Germany”. There an official candidate for the Miss Universe choice.
When a boy is a girl
sl/eg (dpa)
Adaptation from English: Suzanne Cords