BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A 60-year-old girl noticed her goals of turning into the oldest Miss Universe contestant in historical past soften away in a haze of sequins and selfies Saturday at Argentina’s annual magnificence pageant.

Alejandra Marisa Rodríguez, a hopital authorized adviser whose entry into the competitors had been cheered as a overcome ageism in a youth-obsessed world, fell wanting the Miss Argentina crown. However she did take residence the title of “greatest face,” considered one of a number of pageant classes together with greatest night robe, greatest swimsuit and most elegant.

Through the contest she thanked everybody who celebrated her success within the Miss Buenos Aires competitors final month. Her win there, after Miss Universe eradicated its long-standing age restrict, generated a frenzy of world media consideration that vaulted her from obscurity to native fame.

Immediately the soft-spoken lawyer from the town of La Plata, south of Buenos Aires, was doling out moisturizer tricks to ladies striving to realize her surreally clean face and promising the general public there was reality to the adage that age is only a quantity.

“On account of what occurred to me, I consider a brand new door has opened for many individuals who maybe didn’t have it simple,” Rodríguez informed The Related Press backstage after the occasion, nonetheless wearing her purple cocktail gown with slits revealing her legs. “It was journey and I had no expectations of this apart from taking up a brand new problem.”

For the swimsuit portion of the Miss Argentina contest, Rodríguez selected a modest one-piece go well with with a scarf draped over her shoulders, giving the group a shimmy as followers whooped and blew air horns.

However the judges most popular Magali Benejam, a 29-year-old actress and mannequin from Cordoba who donned a skimpy blue bikini and sky-high stilettos to win “greatest swimsuit” and in the end beat out the 27 different contestants to be topped Miss Argentina.

“I’m so excited and so grateful to be right here as a result of the competitors was not simple,” Benejam informed AP. She’s going to characterize Argentina in Mexico Metropolis for the worldwide competitors in November.

Even Benejam’s victory would have been unimaginable a yr in the past, because the pageant had lengthy capped the age of contestants at 28. This yr, for the primary time in its 73-year-history, the Miss Universe contest is welcoming any participant over age 18.

It’s simply the newest in a collection of modifications for a contest that has been a lightning rod for feminist criticism since “bra-burning” protests upended the 1968 Miss America contest.

For many years, the Miss Universe pageant overtly described itself as an extravaganza of single ladies of their late teenagers and twenties strutting round for judges to price their seems and personalities. As an increasing number of individuals discovered that worrying, organizers realized how far the competition trailed behind the tradition.

Over latest years, as #MeToo and social justice actions swept the globe, Miss Universe raced to influence skeptics it was extra about minds and spirits than our bodies.

It stripped away many controversial eligibility necessities, opening the sphere for married, pregnant, lesbian and transgender ladies, and it nixed all mentions of “magnificence” from its web site.

But, as the competition pressured empathy, confidence and authenticity as female beliefs, the mentions of “younger girl” remained in place, and with it, the ban on crow’s-feet.

Whereas many ladies praised Rodriguez’s determination to compete at age 60, others questioned whether or not she was setting an unreasonable normal for older ladies. Her award-winning face, statuesque determine and sculptured options made her mix in with the youthful cohort onstage.

“It’s contributing to a way that everybody ought to be capable to appear like this, all 60-year-old ladies ought to have the looks of youth and freshness, as in the event that they have been 25,” stated Lala Pasquinelli, an Argentine feminist activist. “In the event that they don’t, it’s as a result of they aren’t prepared to make the sacrifices.”