Male pageantry is big business across the globe (Picture: Liam Ulla/DavidRyoPhotographer/Paul Madeley)
When rainwater started seeping through his bathroom roof in 2013, Stuart Hatton needed £900 to pay for repairs. Spotting an advert for the Mr Gay UK competition with the promise of a £1,000 prize for the winner, he thought: ‘Why not’.
It was a question that turned out to be in his favour, after coming first out of more than 250 men at the event, which was held in a Leeds nightclub on another rainy day.
As an underwear model and dancer, Stuart was used to putting himself on show and he was delighted to win, but as he stood before the judges in his rainbow underpants, his bare feet bleeding from the broken glass on the nightclub floor, he thought – ‘I’m going to change this whole thing’.
‘It wasn’t the most glamorous moment of my life. It felt a bit like a meat-market,’ remembers Stuart, 38. ‘I didn’t want other people to feel like that – I wanted to change the whole thing.
‘When I won, I had this title and there was press interest and I wanted to do something with it; I had a voice and people wanted to hear what I had to say. It wasn’t just about standing there in the prettiest underpants; I realised I could use this voice for a place of good; I can talk about trans rights, non-binary rights and now, every year I have invitations to Parliament to discuss these things.’
The little-brother to competitions like Miss World and Miss Universe, male pageantry is similar in that competitors enter various rounds, including the likes of swimsuit and national dress rounds, congeniality competitions, talent contests and are expected to show that they have taken part in charity work and community projects.
Stuart Hatton got into modelling for quick cash – but ended up falling in love with the industry (Pictures: Supplied)
Arnold Schwarzenegger is by far the most famous male pageant competitor, with his 1967 success at the Mr Universe competition leading on to Hollywood stardom and a political career.
The Mr Gay UK competition ended in 2014, making Stuart its last ever winner and after his success, he went on to set up Mr Gay GB two years later and has just announced that the competition is now going global. With its progressive stance and inclusive outlook, could male pageantry even enough to calm the harmful waves of toxic masculinity that are flooding our online and public spaces?
It’s a scene that is certainly changing according to current Mr England Liam Ulla – who didn’t have to walk onstage in his speedos when he entered Mr Dorset in 2019 after being scouted at a business networking event.
For Liam, a 30-year-old model and business owner, the competition has allowed him to show that he need not be defined by the mistakes of the past and that they have in fact allowed him to grow.
Stuart realised he could also use his platform as a ‘voice for good’ to raise awareness of work within the LGBTQ+community (Pictures: Stuart Hatton)
After winning Mr Dorset he was eligible to compete in the Mr England competition, a crown that he won in 2021 and which he held for two years, and enabled him to enter the Mr World title in Thailand.
‘I was in a really bad place for a few years and my friend encouraged me to get involved, to get out and meet people – and I was glad I did because I’ve been surprised by what a good experience it’s been,’ he tells Metro.co.uk.
Liam was rated on his physical ability at the competition – he had to undertake a fitness test and used his kite-surfing skills to wow the judges. However, his charity efforts also played an important part; Liam runs not-for-profit eco foundation, Coacoara, which aims to remove single use plastics from homes and commercial spaces.
‘I believe competitions like this can provide a really good antidote to the poisonous environment many men are living in today,’ he explains. ‘We have people like Andrew Tate and toxic masculinity. A lot of guys see these YouTubers and are growing up watching people who have the wrong outlook on how they should treat women. It’s important that younger generations have better role models – that they see people who have made a good name and a good career for themselves.’
Liam says competitions ‘an provide a really good antidote to the poisonous environment’ faced by men (Picture: Liam Ulla)
As a professional kitesurfer, Liam is not currently taking part in pageants, but he retains the title of the the first mixed-race Mr England, which is a accolade that means a lot to him.
‘This is really important in the times of Black Lives Matter. The UK is a really multicultural and diverse country, and it’s really important to show that someone who is perhaps not from the best of backgrounds, or someone who isn’t white and privileged, can build himself up,’ he says. ‘I want people from different communities to know that if they want to start a charity, or run a business, they can do that.’
But it’s not all serious business. The competitions can also be a lot of fun according to Mr Manchester, Lewis Ellis, whose run round the pageantry circuit opened his eyes to the differing experiences of men from around the world.
Lewis entered the competition in 2020 because, he explains, tries to say ‘yes’ to everything. In turn, he found the whole process hilarious, being roped in by a friend. Plus, he adds, it was a chance to ‘enhance’ his presence in Manchester.
‘For me, it was dead cringe – just not my vibe. But, I’ve always been the sort of person that likes to pull the thread when an opportunity presents itself. If there will be a benefit, or I am going to learn something, I will get involved. Because of that mentality, I found that so many wild and wonderful things have happened in my life.’
Lewis said he found competitions ‘dead cringe’ to begin with (Picture: DavidRyoPhotographer)
33-year-old Lewis, whose can-do attitude also landed him a stint on The Apprentice and Channel 4’s The Great Sex Experiment, admits it felt like he’d lied on his CV when he was entered into Mister Global 2021.
‘Most of the other contestants were quite skinny and really ripped. There I was, an extra large and I couldn’t even get into the shorts they had given me to wear. It was funny though,’ he says.
When someone from the competition then asked him to go on an all-expenses paid trip to Thailand for four weeks to represent the UK against competitors from around the world, the business owner from Manchester jumped at the chance.
However, Liam soon learned that pageantry is a far bigger deal abroad than at home, and when he arrived he was astounded to be treated like royalty.
‘In Asia, male pageantry is massive,’ he explains. ‘It’s their reality TV – like Big Brother on steroids. It’s insane. There are fans, tour buses, whole villages come out to meet you. There were roads closed, police escorts, military vehicles guiding the tour bus. It was probably the weirdest and strangest thing to ever get involved in.
‘I felt like a kid from a local football team going to play for United on Derby Day. I was chubby. I wasn’t in shape and I was competing against guys who were proper models. I didn’t take it too seriously though and I made friends with everyone there’
Lewis – far right – has travelled across Asia to compete (Picture: Lewis Ellis)
This explains why he won the ‘Mr Congeniality’ round, he believes – which is voted for by the other competitors.
‘They probably didn’t see me as a threat,’ Lewis adds.
It was also an eye-opening for him, with his competitors taking it so seriously they’d enlisted coaches and wore extravagant and carefully made national costumes, while others had make-up artists and spent hours practicing their walks.
‘For me, what started being really cheesy, actually ended up as a really amazing experience,’ remembers Lewis.
‘I was living with people from places like Colombia who hadn’t gone to school and guys from Vietnam, Japan, China. I can’t think of a time when I’ve spent so much time with someone outside of my own culture, learning with them and spending every day with them. So it was a really wholesome learning experience.’
So far, Lewis has yet to receive any negative feedback following his time on the circuit, aside from the odd comment on social media. ‘Everyone has been really positive about me being involved and everyone at the competition was really supportive,’ he insists.
Pageantry can have an important educational role on our own shores too, according to the current Mr Gay Great Britain. Like Lewis, 42-year-old Paul Carruthers confesses he ‘isn’t a pageant person’.
However, when he entered the competition this year as the oldest competitor, he was overjoyed to have won so he could champion the causes he believes in; working with charity, being an adoptive same-sex parent and working with trans youth.
Paul says competitions act as a big ‘F-you’ to toxic masculinity (Picture: Paul Madely)
Paul (who doesn’t have a six-pack but does work out and gets the odd spray tan), felt brave enough to strip for the show. For one event, he ripped off his trousers to reveal union jack budgie smugglers and a huge sign pointing downwards at his head stating: ‘The Gay Agenda’.
Paul explains: ‘It’s because there is this anti LGBT-propaganda which talks about, “the gay agenda”. So we’re always jokingly asking when we get a copy of the gay agenda? Does it come in the post? It’s a play on that.’
For Paul, the competition represents diversity, which is an expanding trope across pageantry he says. He was pleased to be competing against people of different ages, races and sizes, and for Paul, competitions like his have come a long way since the days when Donald Trump owned the Miss Universe franchise. Today, it represents a big ‘F-you to toxic masculinity’, he says.
‘In recent years, pageantry seems to have changed and there’s an emphasis on what you’re going to do as the winner and what impact you’ll have,’ he explains. ‘In this year’s Miss Great Britain – the nation’s longest running beauty pageant – there was the first out lesbian who was by her own description plus size, so it really is changing stereotypes and pushing boundaries.
‘Personally, I would never have entered a competition that was very much about the aesthetic. But for me, it’s about having a platform and since I’ve won, it’s done what I wanted to do; it’s opened up doors.’
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‘Competitions like this can provide a really good antidote to the poisonous environment many men are living in today.’
