For the first time, an Indigenous man will represent Australia at this year's Mr Universe beauty pageant. Model, actor and comedian Jony Berry is no stranger to the runway: he already represented the country at the 2019 Mr World contest. “I never thought I’d be representing our country for a second time, or at all, ever! “I feel blessed, I feel honoured.
” Not to be confused with the body-building competition (featuring the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger), Mr Universe is not just about physical appearance; the competition is also about contestant's charm, talent, and social responsibility. "When it comes to pageantry it generally looks like masculine man of the world. Toxic masculinity,” the palawa man told NITV.
“So, I hope that for me to represent as an openly queer man will not only show that we’re all equal, but we’re also all together, we’re one community.” It's a message that's especially important to Berry, especially in light of a negative experience he had at the 2019 Mr World Contest in the Philippines. The organisers of the pageant told him to remove the Aboriginal Flag from his national costume due to copyright.
“So, they took the flag right off the back of my costume, but I already had it sewn into the lapel and on the bottom, so in a way I got to wear it. "But [I] didn’t get to wear that I was trying to represent our mob.” Source: Supplied Fast forward five years, and Berry is ready to leave that experience behind him.
He's preparing his.