By Phumla Mkize
Johannesburg – It is more than three months now since Shudufhadzo Musida was crowned Miss SA – and this week, as if to mark the first quarter of her reign, she was named Miss Nudes.
She earned this derogatory title after sharing pictures on social media wearing a swimsuit. It was not the first time she did this in her less than 100 days on the throne.
To be fair, the University of Pretoria social science graduate rocked bold print numbers long before she was declared the most beautiful woman in SA. In November, a few weeks after winning the pageant, she sizzled in a black cut-out one piece.
Last month, she showed off her chiselled body in a neon pink two-piece in one post and in another she rocked a yellow statement onesie, her ebony skin glistening in the sun.
On Monday, Musida from Limpopo shared two images wearing a nude-coloured two-piece swimsuit. She must have had flashbacks of the time she was bullied at school. Musida – who has been open about her struggles with bullying, weight issues and eating disorders which affected her mental health – was attacked, insulted, body shamed, sexualised and objectified on Twitter this week.
Read more: Miss SA sets Twitter alight with saucy snaps
And the attacks came from black men and women alike. Some even questioned her intelligence.
She was even called Miss Nudes.
It was such a pity that social media failed to link her posts with the issues that are close to her heart.
It was a missed opportunity to reflect on self-image, body shaming, bullying, gender-based violence and mental health in a constructive manner.
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There are also problems black women are not comfortable discussing openly such as finding good-fitting underwear and swimsuit for their body shape and colour, what with mass produced items that most can afford not catering to the average SA woman.
Add sexism, tribalism, sexual crime, and the objectification of curvy black women’s bodies, Musida will have a tough year ahead of her.
And all of this before she competes on the international stage for the Miss World title. Comments on Musida’s swimsuit pictures this week spoke volumes of the state of mind of black South Africans in this period.
The fact is it will take much more than a dark, curvy, black woman with a chiskop winning Miss SA to change black SA’s mindset about black women, especially darker, educated, body positive women from little-known villages of SA. It is apt to use the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words.
In this case, Musida’s picture is worth hundreds of millions of rand in awareness campaigns. She has managed to expose our society’s hypocrisy.
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