Jamaican beauty queen Kaci Fennell has hit back at dancehall selector Oneil ‘Foota Hype’ Thomas after he accused her of degrading herself with her ‘revealing’ choice of carnival outfit.
Fennel who posted a photograph yesterday before joining carnival celebrations drew the attention of the selector who seemed fuelled by recent criticism of dancehall in the media saying that he loves dancehall and adding that “better u [Fennell] did come a dance inna waa batty rider”.
The selector went further, saying “I don’t care if this is Miss Jamaica or Miss world this nuh look good u favour ediot carnival mek u degrade uself exposing uself.”
While not naming who she was addressing, Fennell lashed back saying that “not everything I do will be accepted by everyone and there is nothing wrong with that, the problem lies with this person believing he has the authority to comment or even dictate how a woman should carry herself.”
Fennell added that the selector was spreading “hate” arguing that “This type of man [Foota Hype] is a big part of the problem we are currently facing…Instead of celebrating us they tear us down, this type of man makes women second-guess themselves and that is absolutely unacceptable because our women are heaven sent and it saddens me that situations like this lower their self esteem. I wore this for me! I felt so beautiful and sexy.”
In her post Fennell encouraged “anyone out there that has been a victim of cyber bullying I just wanted to let you know that you are loved, you are wonderfully made, you are beautiful, you are a masterpiece…. Don’t you ever let another person ever make you feel otherwise. Continue to be yourself no matter what negativity may come your way.”
She ended her post saying ‘wait till him see what I wearing tomorrow”, adding that she loves dancehall and questioned when she had ever said that she didn’t.
Meanwhile, some social media users have come out in support of the beauty queen saying that there should be no place for bullying on the Internet and what the selector did was wrong, while others commented on what they described as the “double standards” that exist in our society.
“Wear more to a dancehall event at night and get bash, call all type of names, but Kaci wear this to a day event and get praise. Hypocrisy. She looks beautiful … but if you see a problem with one aspect of the culture and the other side get a free pass then we have a problem,” one social media user commented.