Miss Bumbum


Miss Bumbum is an annual beauty pageant held in Brazil to reward the owner of the best buttocks in the country.
Created by journalist and entrepreneur Cacau Oliver, the competition has 27 contestants, each of whom represents one of the country's 27 states. The winner receives 50,000 Brazilian reais in endorsement deals, and instantly becomes a celebrity in Brazil. Brazilian television network RedeTV! broadcasts the event. The reigning title holder is Ellen Santana.
Miss Bumbum made its first foray into the US market by licensing an official 2017 calendar for distribution in the US. The calendar was published in December 2016, featuring the 2016 winner Erika Canela on the cover.

Winners

In October 2013, according to the International Business Times, models Mari Sousa, 25, and Eliana Amaral, 24, were accused of paying the equivalent of thousands of dollars in bribes to the judges of the contest.
In 2018 two trans women became contestants for Miss Bumbum, the first such women to do so. Several of the other contestants objected to the inclusion of trans women in the contest. The 2018 contest was also marred by a losing contestant, Aline Uva, accusing her opposition of having surgically augmented buttocks and causing a ruckus onstage.

Similar contests

Miss Bumbum Brazil has led to spin-off competitions in Miami, Japan, and for the FIFA World Cup in
soccer. Miss Reef, held in various South American countries, and Got Ass, held in North America, are similar competitions engaged in judging which women have the best buttocks.

Cultural context

In Brazilian slang, bumbum is a term used for a woman's buttocks, which are considered an important element of physical beauty in Brazilian culture. An appreciation of well-shaped and sizeable female buttocks is common and widespread in Brazil and the traditional Brazilian preference is for women to have large round buttocks, the Brazilian ideal being much wider, thicker and shapelier than may often be associated with the European ideal. In 2014, more than 50,000 buttock implant procedures were performed in Brazil, compared to 19,000 in the United States. The popularity of the Miss Bumbum contest in Brazil in 2014 led to online voting for the winner exceeding 2 million votes.