Carine Felizardo

“This is ridiculous,” Leila Chequi, a Brazilian female reporter working for the Japanese television network Fuji, told AFP. “If they (the contestants) don't mind showing their bums to the whole world, why not?” she added. The popular contest is however lifting spirits in this huge metropolis wracked by a murder spree that has claimed more than 300 lives in the past month. The young ladies worked hard to prepare for the final, including taking surfing and jungle training courses to tighten their buns.
Inevitably, the pageant sparked some jealous online comments. Said Juliana Danyelle Stuart: “They are cute, but I think that I have a better booty than some of the contestants. Next year I will take part.” The symbolic significance of the bumbum in Brazilian culture cannot be underestimated, as shown by the wild popularity of bum dancing among the young. “I think that the tropical climate, the carnival and all this racial mixing gives the Brazilian woman a unique biotype on the planet,” pageant organiser Cacau Oliver, a well-known female beauty spotter, told AFP in October. “The Brazilian woman's derriere is a part of the body that the whole world admires and the contest just reaffirms this,”