She has all the makings of a beauty queen — a thin frame, flowing hair, pearly-white teeth and bubbly personality to boot.

But that she was born male had Vancouver's Jenna Talackova, 23, ousted from one of the country’s top beauty competitions and set off a debate over whether a beauty pageant has the right to decide what is female.

“This is a major case in beauty contest history,” said Patrizia Gentile, a Carleton University professor who wrote her PhD thesis on Canadian beauty pageants. “They’re reluctant to take chances, but if they want to be relevant, they have to.”

Talackova was disqualified from the Miss Universe Canada contest last week after it was discovered she was born male, according to pageant assistant Isabel Perez.

Among the qualifications Miss Universe Canada contestants, they must be:

• Canadian citizens

• between the ages of 18 and 27

• neither pregnant nor married

• “natural born” females (also a requirement of every other Miss Universe pageant).

In a profile posted on Univision, Talackova wrote of a childhood in Vancouver spent making maps and embarking on outdoor adventures with friends and family. She was also a lover of dance, cooking and shopping, she said.

Her foray into international beauty pageants began in 2010 when she represented Canada at Miss International Queen, a transsexual beauty pageant held in Thailand. She was named a finalist.

In a 2010 Miss International Queen interview, the woman spoke of her struggle to identify as a male, the sex she was assigned at birth. She knew by age 4 that she was a girl, she said. She began hormone therapy treatments at 14 and underwent sexual reassignment surgery when she was 19 years old.

“I regard myself as a woman, with a history,” she said.

A statement from Miss Universe Canada, helmed by business tycoon Donald Trump, said Talackova was disqualified because “she did not meet the requirements to compete despite having stated otherwise on her entry form.” Perez said Miss Universe staff found information on Facebook that proved Talackova “lied” on her application form by stating that she was a “natural born” female.

But Michael Gilbert, a York University philosophy professor, questioned the use of asking contestants how they where “naturally born.”

“From an extremely early age, Jenna resisted the birth sex she was given,” Gilbert said. “She identified as a girl. It seems to be that she was born that way. It was natural.”

For Gentile, who has tracked the history of pageants, Jenna’s recent disqualification marks a watershed moment in beauty contest history. The industry has had to adapt to cultural standards over the last decades, she said, noting how pageants slowly had to change their rules to accept once-marginalized contestants — black, Jewish and disabled women — into the competition.

Gentile added that Jenna’s case — the case of challenging what has been decided is “naturally female” — would prove a tough one for beauty pageants.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“They’re about the spectacle of femininity. It’s supposed to be, in a sense this exaggeration of femininity,” she said. “Jenna’s actually poking a major hole in that, drawing back the curtain where they don’t want the curtain to be drawn.”

But Gentile said beauty contests must follow the course of history and adapt to what has been determined as culturally relevant — including the idea that sex and gender are not black and white concepts.

“It’s another moment when they have to shift to make themselves relevant,” Gentile said.

York’s Gilbert slammed the pageant’s push to “fit everyone in a pigeon hole.”

“This bi-gendered view of the world is extremely negative and is responsible for many negative things,” he said.

But Perez said Miss Universe Canada’s decision was final. The contest’s media release announcing Talackova’s disqualification said the production respected her goals and determination and wished her the best.

Talackova took to Twitter on March 20 to break the news that she had been disqualified. “Disqualified for being born? Really? I don’t think so,” she tweeted. “I’m not going to just let them disqualify me over discrimination.”

Her profile was promptly removed from the Miss Universe Canada website and news of her disqualification spread like wildfire through the media and blogosphere, as many expressed outrage over the decision. A petition calling for a reversal garnered more than 22,400 supporters as of Monday evening.

Reached in Vancouver on Monday, Talackova said she planned to consult with her lawyer before speaking further about her next course of action. Meantime, questions over whether Miss Universe Canada had the right to remove her from the competition will continue to swirl.

According to Vancouver-based lawyer barbara findlay, who specializes in equality rights and transgender issues, it is illegal to discriminate against a woman based on her gender identity.

“Whatever rules Donald Trump may have for his contest must yield to the laws of Canada,” findlay said.

Read more about: