In the first edition of our October beauty covers, pageant girls Elaine Daly and Francisca Luhong James muse on beauty standards then and now, how inclusive the beauty scene has become, and the power of social media in elevating the idea of beauty.
There is a briskness with which Elaine Daly carries herself into the studio that Monday morning; exactly the kind of energy we need for a long day ahead. She slips through the doors and lets a smile sweep across the room, and in a blink she’s seated on the makeup chair getting her long bob pulled back. This same fashionable bob (perhaps only slightly shorter) was also the style she wore on stage in 2003, when she was crowned Miss Universe Malaysia. At the time this was something that was considered groundbreaking.
“I mean, it wasn’t done deliberately, you know,” she tells me with a casual wave. “It just so happened that I had short hair at the time, and I decided to enter the pageant. But yeah, it was different.”
Two decades ago — despite Malaysia being the multicultural nation that she is — the ‘feminine beauty ideal’ existed in everybody’s mind: pale, fair skin (a touch of ‘Caucasian’ or ‘Eurocentric’ if you will); long, luscious hair; an hourglass figure that’s near-impossible to achieve today through natural means. And while the ideal hasn’t completely disappeared, it has since taken a turn for the better.
“It’s shifted tremendously,” Elaine agrees. “It’s not so much the idea of the ‘quintessential girl’ that you see anymore, you know, with the ‘right’ makeup and the ‘right’ hair, and the ‘right’ shoes and the ‘right’ baju. It’s all very individualistic. It’s really according to each person’s style. And it’s completely subjective.”
Elaine had already been making a name for herself within the entertainment industry before she joined pageant life. She trained at The Actors Studio and began her acting career in 2001; it wasn’t until after that when she eventually went on to represent Malaysia in Miss Universe (then held in Panama).
“I joined the pageant pretty late,” she shares, “I was about 26 then, and the cut-off was 27. But after that, you know, it really helped me get better work — in terms of my modelling career, my hosting jobs, my acting work.” (In 2010, Elaine’s portrayal as her own grandaunt, Sybil Kathigasu, in the biopic miniseries Apa Dosaku?: The Sybil Kathigasu Story had earned her a Best TV Actress Award at the Anugerah Seri Angkasa.)
Despite her views on the ‘quintessential girl’ of the past, Elaine herself still stands as the quintessential beauty queen today. On top of her career in acting, Elaine served as National Director for Miss Universe Malaysia for eight years; and also recently took on the role of Regional Director for Miss Universe Singapore, Miss Universe Hong Kong, Miss Universe Macau and Miss Universe Indonesia. You can’t think of the regional pageantry scene without thinking of Elaine Daly. “It’s a lot on my plate, but I love it,” she says, beaming. “I enjoy it. I’m very passionate about it, so it doesn’t feel like work.”
Just as Elaine is getting the last of her touch-ups done, Francisca Luhong James — in all her five-foot-nine glory — saunters into the studio. Her stance is slouched; relaxed as she stands by the doors scanning the room for a face she might recognise. Then at once, with her eyes lit up, she greets her joint cover star by the mirror.
There are nearly two decades between the beauty queens, but a shared experience makes up for the age difference. Since Francisca broke barriers as the first Dayak woman to be crowned Miss Universe Malaysia in 2020 (also the eighth Sarawakian woman to achieve the title), she has fully established herself in the fashion industry, working with haute couture brands, and a modelling career to boot. She has also made appearances on TV, cutting a pretty figure next to her co-stars.
But Francisca is evidently still a Kuching girl at heart. Months of training for her season of Miss Universe Malaysia — and before that, Miss World Malaysia in 2018 and 2016 — have reshaped her accent, but every now and then her Sarawakian dialect peeks through, particularly when she gets excited.
“Most Borneans, they always feel like, ‘Do we have an equal chance?’” Francisca says, the fervour not just in her voice but in her wide eyes and the movement of her hands, too. “Because they live in Borneo. And to come to Kuala Lumpur, that takes a lot of time and energy, and a lot of money. They always think, ‘Is it worth it?’ Because there are a lot of talents in Kuala Lumpur also. So when I joined Miss Universe Malaysia, my aim was to win. Not just for me, but also because I want them to feel like, ‘If she can do it, we can do it.’”
Her eyelids are dusted with a shimmery rose gold, as are Elaine’s, using the Make Over Powerstay Eye Palette. And their lips? Matching shades of Make Over Powerstay Glazed Lock Lip Pigment in Pompous and DNA. On the set of our shoot, Francisca and Elaine glide around each other seamlessly; they know exactly how to fit together within the frame.
The concept of inclusive beauty — then and now
It’s difficult to pinpoint the whole nation’s stance when it comes to the ‘beauty ideal’ today; one thing for certain, though, is that culture and identity play a huge role. But in a melting pot like Malaysia — what exactly is that supposed to mean?
“I never really saw myself as, you know, the typical… people’s ‘stereotype’ of beauty,” Francisca opens up, “or even, like, beautiful.” What? That’s crazy, I shoot back at once. Francisca has that unique, undefinable sort of beauty that might make you do a double take so you can actually pay attention. And clearly I’m not the only one who thinks that. Francisca was just fresh out of high school when she was scouted by makeup artist Gebriel Padan.
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“I was doing part-time work for my aunt at her handicraft shop, and at the same time I was also waitressing at this Vietnamese restaurant,” she begins. “I was waiting for my exam results and I was trying to earn extra money ‘cause I thought I was gonna go to university. So, what happened was, this makeup artist asked my aunt, ‘Who is that girl?’ And my aunt told him, ‘Oh, that’s my niece.’ Then he was like, ‘She’s so tall! How come you never told me you had a very tall niece? She has a very unique look.’ And then he asked me, right in front of my aunt, ‘Have you ever thought of modelling?’ I looked at my aunt; my aunt looked at me. Then the both of us just started laughing. Like, we just laughed.”
Francisca was an extremely shy girl growing up, never one to strike a pose in front of the camera. But she was still eager to earn the extra money and, after learning what might be in it for her if she learns how to model and walk and be on set for a shoot, she dived right in. “See, if that didn’t happen, I would never be where I am today,” she says, grinning.
At 19, she entered the Miss Cultural Harvest Festival in her hometown and finished third. This then gave her the confidence for Miss World Malaysia and later, Miss Universe Malaysia. “That was my own decision,” she tells me proudly. “I thought, ‘Okay, I’m working [in Kuala Lumpur], I have my own place, and I drive around now. I think I’m ready. I think I wanna join it.’ But it was my decision, it was not because other people were asking me to. And I told myself, ‘I’m gonna give it 101%. And even if I don’t win, I’ll know I have given it 101% because it was my decision. And I have experienced enough.’”
For Elaine, being mixed-race (or “rojak Malaysian”, as she’d once dubbed herself) is and has always been her identity. Her mother is a Straits-born Chinese hailing from Klebang, Malacca and her father is Eurasian — and her home is Malaysia. And despite running the Miss Universe organisations in four different countries, surely nothing beats the feeling of being in Malaysia among the familiar faces, and the colours of home.
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Identifying the ‘beauty ideal’ and breaking free from it
I personally like to think that beauty pre-social media and beauty post-social media are two vastly different concepts. Once upon a time, beauty pageants existed in a kind of bubble: for the contestants, in the room in front of a panel of judges; for the rest of us, on a TV screen every few months. The months leading up to the big day are things never seen (and thus never spoken of), and the moment of pride watching Malaysia share the stage outweighs much criticism.
But with social media, people have access to the beauty contestants ahead of time — and they also form their judgement much earlier than… well, the judges themselves. “You’re right,” Elaine says. “It’s become a lot more daunting. It is a lot scarier actually. So we’ve gotta just keep the girls very grounded nowadays. You know, they can’t have their social media accounts look very ‘self-centred’ so to speak. It’s gotta be about the people, it’s gotta be about the community. Back then we just had a panel of judges and that’s it. Now, we’ve got netizens giving us advice on what to do and what not to do and everything. So, they just have to be extra cautious, I think.”
Social media has also warped the idea of beauty altogether, especially in the age of Instagram and TikTok, where beauty is sometimes amplified while also kept subtle at the same time. There seems to be a new beauty trend every other week, and often it becomes difficult to keep up with what’s actually considered ‘beautiful’ or not.
“I think everyone’s become a lot more aware of what they want,” Elaine muses, “and the kind of standards that they set for themselves. It can be a little bit daunting, yes — because sometimes, you know, we see such beautiful people on Instagram or TikTok and then try and emulate that. But I think, like I said, we need to keep grounded enough that we don’t yearn for that or have ‘FOMO’ just because we don’t look like that, you know?”
Plus, it’s not so black-and-white these days, and we shouldn’t just villainise beauty filters in this narrative. The ‘beauty ideal’ has become less relevant as time goes on. People have broken through the bubble; things like fillers and filters have become a lot less controversial than it was twenty years ago. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with beauty filters and all that,” she adds. “Yeah lah, you know, at the end of the day people are not so ‘confident’ that they have to use filters. But — I mean, there are days where I don’t feel confident and need to use a filter and it’s like, whatever goes, you know?”
What matters is the mindset, Elaine presses, and having people around you that boost your confidence and make you feel good. This is a sentiment that Francisca also shares, especially as a Sarawakian girl whose “unique” features got her scouted despite believing she wasn’t ‘beautiful’.
“For traditional pageants, they like someone who is more curvy, then you look really good in costumes, right?” Francisca says, recounting her experience competing in Miss Cultural Harvest Festival back in Kuching. “But then of course, when I moved here, the beauty standard that they had at the time was like, ‘It would be a bonus if you have a bit of that, you know, Caucasian look or that kind of Panasian type of look.’ But it has changed over time. And I think — I dare say that when I won Miss Universe Malaysia, and during my time of Miss Universe itself, going to the US, it changed in a good way. That’s when inclusivity happened. They actually celebrate diversity, you know, like, it doesn’t matter what your skin colour is or what you look like. They appreciate your natural beauty.”
The year Francisca represented Malaysia on the international stage, South African beauty Zozi Tunzi was crowned Miss Universe, the third time for her country. She also became the first black South African to hold the title.
“And on top of that, what is your essence?” Francisca goes on. “They want to see what’s inside you, what you can talk about. What is your understanding about love? It’s beyond just the physical, it’s more of the aura that comes out. Like when you speak, or even when you just show up, they’d be like, ‘Oh, wow, she’s beautiful in her very own way.’ Zozi is not like the ‘stereotypical’ Miss Universe you’ve seen before, you know? She stands out. She’s the definition of a strong independent woman. She has very beautiful skin, and she’s empowered. She has that essence when she speaks, when she laughs, when she… just shows up. So, yeah, you can actually see the difference between then and now.”
In the same vein, social media has ‘elevated’ beauty in a way — if anything, it has certainly brought more exposure to all kinds of women. But on the pervasion of technology and social media in the pageantry scene, Francisca echoes Elaine’s thoughts on treading with caution: “You cannot hide anymore. Now, it’s like, you update everything. Every single day. So, people can know what type of person you are, your character. There’s good and bad in it, because there are some things that are not meant to be shared. Maybe you feel like you just need to open up, but not everyone understands your ‘motive’ so people can take it the wrong way. So, you still need to be careful and maybe just share with, you know, those who are close to you.”
The power of being vocal and speaking your mind
But one thing that social media has improved in the pageantry scene is giving the girls a voice; a space to speak up. And this, in turn, has given girls — everywhere, and from anywhere — the confidence to take on opportunities they feel might have been impossible before.”
“I used to always ask the girls [back home], ‘Why don’t you try doing theatre or music, or something in entertainment? You have the looks, the talent… you can do it. So why don’t you just go for it?’” Francisca recounts. “And they would say, ‘Is it gonna be worth it? Are they gonna hear my ideas?’ But lately I’ve seen that change. Like, I’m not saying that I’m the reason, but I do feel that part of it is also like, they think, ‘Oh, you know, after seeing her win Miss Universe Malaysia, I think we do have a chance.’”
It also certainly helps that Francisca has since established herself on social media post-pageant lite, creating content on top of her modelling — no doubt those back home have seen that change, too. She tells me that it’s a complete turn from who she was growing up: “I wasn’t the most well-known student in school, so when I joined the pageant and won, my teachers were all like, ‘How did Francisca get into this?’ Because I was a very shy and timid girl. But I got lucky, I was scouted and I went for it. So I feel like, for the girls — if they wanna do it, then they should do it.”
Within the bubble of pageantry — behind the doors where things aren’t seen — changes are happening, too. Elaine notes a significant difference about talking about your problems versus the taboo of it twenty years ago.
“I think girls nowadays, they’re a lot braver,” she emphasises, the conviction clear in her voice. “You know, they’re not ashamed to voice out. Last time in Malaysia, of course there was a lot of… stigma, right? When speaking out about mental health and all that. And I’m a huge advocate for it, you know, ‘cause I see a lot of young girls and they come to me and they’re like, ‘I’ve had anxiety issues, and depression.’ And who hasn’t? Everyone at some point in time would have had something like that. But these are, like, major, where they have to seek therapists, and there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. And I wanna let the girls know that.”
Elaine, along with Francisca are a champions for women empowerment. “I want to tell them that they have to be very strong mentally. Being a mother myself, you know, I make sure that the girls have a good support system. Young girls, teenage girls, women, you know, to make sure that they go towards the right path, that their focus [is on] what they want to do, whether it’s to join a beauty pageant or anything else. A beauty pageant is a great pedestal. It opens up a lot of doors, but at the end of the day it’s about building confidence. And having that confidence, to step into the unknown and want to do better, in whatever that you achieve to do.”