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#1
09-20-2003, 11:58 PM
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My annual Miss America rant
I'm not a feminist but Miss America is from the 7th level of hell.
According to their website, they give away 40 million in scholarships per year. This isn't just for those that make it to the "big" pageant, but also for those who compete in their local and state pageants too. 40 million in scholarships! That's great, seriously. And let's look at the #1 thing they have to do to get that money: Is it good grades? No. Lots of women who would never get into a pageant get good grades. Is it poise? Personality? No. See above. To get the money, recipients must meet America's standards of beauty. Do they have nice firm boobs? Is their ass nice and round, but not too big? Do they fill out a bathing suit well? Two thousand and fucking three and the NUMBER ONE organization who gives women scholarship money requires them to prance around in a fucking swimsuit first! Why do women, and the men who love them, allow this to continue? There are women in the US who could mop the floor with the cookie cutter women who end up on TV competing in the big pageant. They are smarter, they give more to their communities, they are original thinkers who would give REAL answers to those stupidass interview questions, and they are better role models. Oh, but we'll never see the *real* top 50 female American heroes competing on TV. They can't, or won't, don a bathing suit or an evening gown and tapdance for the judges, or starve themselves, or exercise 3 hours a day. They are too busy writing books, thinking about a run for the Senate someday, raising their kids, or hoping to get through medical school and find a cure for cancer or AIDS. Their tits are "too small" and they can't do a thing with their hair. They don't deserve help with college because they're lacking where it really counts: looks. I am not saying that any woman who ends up competing for Miss America doesn't have anything going for them. These are bright women who have wonderful goals for their lives. I'm sure some of them do have sparkling personalities and really are nice people. I'm lamenting because not a damn one of those 50 women competing tonight would be given the time of day by the #1 scholarship program for women in the nation if they didn't look good in a bikini. We haven't come a long way, baby 
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#2
09-21-2003, 12:42 AM
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Oh puh-leeze!
Pageants and pageant culture is overwhelmingly by, for and all about the choices women make for themselves. The desire to display their beauty and attractiveness is practically wired into human beings, and if a mommy thinks she got the prettiest peach in the orchard you can be damn sure she wants everyone to know it. Women are highly competitive, and if this is what flips some women's switches what's really all that wrong with it? How is a pageant really all that different from an athletic competition like gymnastics that judges on form, grace and requires a healthy dose of favorable genetics to be able to implement these exercises competitively? How is being inherently flexible and having good balance and developing these skills as a gymnast all that different from being poised, pretty, and making yourself physically attractive (and assumedly developing conversational skills) as pageant contestant? BTW, having seen one or two Miss America Pageants, not all these contestants are incredibly beautiful. Many are just pretty or cute and often the winners are more Mary Ann "cute" than stunning classic "Ginger" beauties with perfect bodies. As a side note while 40 million sounds like a lot as one chunk, it's a microscopic drop in the bucket compared to the overall dollars in scholarships given to women who are attending college in record numbers and who are generally outperforming men across the board when it comes to attending college and receiving financial assistance. If some women want to strut their stuff for these dollars, let them.
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#3
09-21-2003, 12:42 AM
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I'm not a particular fan of Miss America. I think their template of perfection is too generic. It's like Lawrence Welk music, all technique and no passion. They want to to be liked by as many people as possible, not loved by a few; that's the way popular culture is.
But I would defend them on two points. First, if a woman entered who was drop-dead gorgeous, but dumb as a box of rocks, I don't think she'd get very far. If you put 40-million dollars on the table, and search the entire country, you can probably find 50 women who are pretty and smart. Secondly, is this somehow more absurd or unjust than some of the scholarships that guys get? A lot of scholarship money is unavailable to men just because they can't run, tackle, or throw a ball through a hoop.
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#6
09-21-2003, 01:40 AM
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Links to pictures, I want links to pictures!
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#7
09-21-2003, 01:46 AM
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#10
09-21-2003, 01:59 AM
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SnoopyFan has a very valid point. Thankfully there are plenty of other organizations that provide money without ANY aspect of looks coming into it. I'm not a fucking ornament. I like looking pretty sometimes, sure. But I don't think that I would be less deserving of recieving a scholarship because I gained 50 pounds and got a bad case of acne. And thinking that women should need to be pretty to recieve this cash is pretty damn fucked up. *Exaggeration for effect, but you damn well know what I mean.
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#12
09-21-2003, 02:09 AM
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But this isn't really charity, is it?
The alternative, in this case, to giving out scholarships to women who conform to a narrow-minded standard of beautytm isn't giving out money to smart women, or people, or anyone. It's giving out no scholarships at all.
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#13
09-21-2003, 02:10 AM
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Eh. They're not taking my money. Beauty is no more nor less an arbitrary and unfair a reason to give someone a scholarship than athletic ability, race, gender, or religion. The important thing is, they're helping people go to college, become better educated, and become more productive and valuable members of society. Who cares why they're giving them the money?
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#14
09-21-2003, 02:11 AM
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#15
09-21-2003, 02:13 AM
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Wow, I was misunderstood, accused, defended and reconciled and I didn't get back here fast enough to enjoy it. Rats.
Ooh, on preview I see I'm being quoted again. Tanaqui, I never said the premise of the thing wasn't fundamentally screwed up, I just thought SnoopyFan's analysis of why it was screwed up was a little lacking. Quote:
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#16
09-21-2003, 02:15 AM
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#17
09-21-2003, 06:10 AM
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SnoopyFan
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Why shouldn't pretty people enjoy rewards and affirmation for their beauty? Not everyone can be smart (or cheat without being caught) and get good grades. Not everyone can maintain poise, for example in situations where they panic or feel discomfort. Not everyone has a pleasant personality. Do you rant about High IQ bowls? Popularity contests? Congeniality awards? Talent awards? Why do you begrudge this single quality — beauty — as a means for a person to receive recognition and as a basis upon which he or she can compete?
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#18
09-21-2003, 06:33 AM
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#19
09-21-2003, 08:23 AM
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Every September, there is a delightful fall fair in the village of Hymers. One of the highlights is the cattle competition, in which the community's finest looking cattle (of either gender, no less), are paraded before the spectators and judges. And they are mightry fine looking cattle at that.
If some people (male or female) wish to enter themselves in the human form of a livestock competition, that is their choice.
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#20
09-21-2003, 09:26 AM
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Dude, you don't HAVE to be good-looking to get a scholarship. I got offered a fair number of pretty sweet scholarships (including a full ride), and I am DEFINATELY not Miss America quality attractive, and I would look HORRIBLE prancing around in a bathing suit.
In my opinion, it's about as logical as scholarships given to people who're left handed, or people whose forefathers came from a particular country. It's their money, and they can do what they want with it. Aside from that, I've *known* a couple of pageant competitors, including a former Miss Illinois (I think; that or Miss Teen Illinois) who used to babysit me and who lived next door to my grandparents. Those girls are pretty damned smart; if they sound a little rushed or insipid or whatever in the interview....they're on national television and they're competing for large amounts of money. Lots of really smart people'd be a quivering mess under those circumstances, but those women answer, and usually answer fairly well. In my book, they've earned their money.
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#21
09-21-2003, 09:27 AM
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No matter how hard I would have worked, there is no way I would have gotten an athletic scholorship for anything. I am skinny and have horrible coordination. It's not like anyone can get one if they work hard enough.
I think that that Miss America is asinine too. Still, there are scholorships only avaiable to athletic people, there are sholorships only available to Black people, there are sholorships only available to people decended from veterans of certain wars. Why not sholorships only available to pretty and talented women? They work very hard to win that contest and millions of people enjoy it. It seems reasonable to me. Haj
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#22
09-21-2003, 10:11 AM
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I'm fairly certain (after having watched the blurb at the end of the pageant last night) that the number one criterion is not "prancing around in a swimsuit." That particular event was only worth 10% of the total competition.
And is it happens, VH1 was airing a show about the pageant and a number of former pageant judges said that the purpose of the swimsuit event was to look for physical fitness. The idea, so they said, was to see if the woman is physically fit. Beauty, again supposedly, has nothing to do with that event. Here's the breakdown of the judging:
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#26
09-21-2003, 10:46 AM
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In state Miss America competitions (like Miss NJ, Miss VA), the breakdown is 40% interview, then talent, and swimsuit and evening gown. So what counts the most is the woman's mind and devotion to her platform.
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#27
09-21-2003, 10:47 AM
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Jeez, I always thought that the subscribers to this board were, almost by definition, pretty bright. OF COURSE Miss America is sexist, offensive nonsense. Sure, beautiful people (and let's not kid ourselves that the contest is "judged" on anything apart from physical beauty - when a great big fat woman with a sparkling personality, or someone with a facial disfigurement, wins it, then I'll reconsider) have the right to use what they have to get on in life; but to award scholarships on any grounds apart from ability in that particular subject area is just wrong. And yes, it's stupid to let unacademic basketball players train as lawyers also. These arguments were had in the seventies when Eric Morley, the trollish little shitehawk, was forced to take his "Miss World" meatmarket to the third world. The whole charade is demeaning to those who compete and even moreso to those who watch and enjoy it, and the fact that academic scholarships are being awarded according to the results simply perpetuates the idea that Americans are deeply, deeply shallow.
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#29
09-21-2003, 11:06 AM
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While my personal favorite, Miss Virginia Nancy Redd, didn't win she did finish in the top 10, has already graduated from Harvard and won $250,000 on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" (of which she donated 10% to her church). I'll hasten to guess that she's not sweating the OP's scorn.
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#30
09-21-2003, 11:10 AM
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#31
09-21-2003, 11:19 AM
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Actually, if you take about five seconds to bump around the internet with google, you will see that the Miss America contest and its state subsidiaries award scholarships based on a variety of criteria..
On top of the pageant scholarships, they offer scholarships for academic achievement, and community service among other things. So, as it turns out, the OP is incorrect.
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#32
09-21-2003, 11:20 AM
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Dang, but.....dang.
I'm not a big fan of these kinds of contests, at all*. But, having seen the link, I am obliged to concede that the well-rounded criteria have probably been followed. Why? Simple. I could see better-looking women in a casual stroll around the UCF campus, the mall, or around the I Drive area of Orlando. So the only other option, besides bad taste on the judge's part, is well-rounded criteria. *even sports contests!
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#33
09-21-2003, 11:21 AM
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#34
09-21-2003, 12:25 PM
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Of course since the judging is based on everything other than how one looks in a swim suit, and since athletic ability and physical fitness has nothing to do with how one looks in a swimsuit, then the pagent will of course discontinue the swimsuit and other clothes rack portions of the competition.
Nah, not a chance. People tune in to watch babes strut their stuff. Bright babes, talented babes, yes, but first and foremost, the pagent is a meat market.
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#35
09-21-2003, 01:27 PM
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I used to go off on how superficial Miss America pagents were, then I realized I was just bitter because there's no way in hell I'd ever get in one. The women who compete in these pagents are not idiots. Have you seen some of their accomplishments? I was dumfounded when I looked further into it. Harvard degrees, medical degrees, law students, these women have earned every bit of the recognition they have recieved. So they're pretty and that gives them an edge in a competiton that they wouldn't otherwise have. Like many other posters have already said, that's no different then scholarships given on the basis of race, religion or althletic ability.
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#36
09-21-2003, 01:36 PM
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I used to go off on Miss America too, then I realized I was just bitter because I didn't have a chance in hell of qualifying. When I actually started paying attention to these women's qualifications, I was dumbfounded. These women are not mindless beauties. As others have pointed out, many of them have very impressive degrees and backgrounds. They work damn hard and deserve whatever recognition they recieve. So, they're pretty. That gives them an edge for a particular scholarship that they wouldn't have if they weren't conventionally pretty. So what? As many posters have already pointed out, it's no different than an athlete having a certain edge for an athletic scholarship, or someone of a certain race or religion having a edge for a particular scholarship.
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#37
09-21-2003, 01:59 PM
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#38
09-22-2003, 01:03 AM
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I always thought Miss America started out as a unabashed beauty contest in the 1920's (where sexy women would bare their ankles!). Was it much later that the whole "scholarship" angle was added to give the contest an air of relevance to modern thinking, to to make it more politically correct.
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#39
09-22-2003, 03:21 AM
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I would think that physical attractiveness would count for much more on the state level than in the pageant itself.
Each contestant had to compete in the pageant for her home state* (and, most likely, in local pageants as well). When it comes to choosing the lady who will represent Nebraska or South Carolina in the MAP, the judges probably have to choose from a much bigger pool than fifty women. After narrowing it down to a few finalists, who are all intelligent, accomplished, and have good stage presence, the dealbreaker is probably, "Who will look best on TV?" That's when they start analyzing everything from color of hair to length of leg. Whereas, in the MAP, all the contestants come up to the mark, looks-wise, so the judges' decisions are based much more on who will be the best spokesperson for the pageant's main sponsor. *This might not be too rabid in, say, Michigan or Alaska, where you only have a few women who really want to be Miss America, as opposed to the ones who just got a kick out of competing for Miss Whale Blubber. But the Georgia and Texas state pageants must be epic.
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#40
09-22-2003, 06:06 AM
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"Why shouldn't pretty people enjoy rewards and affirmation for their beauty? Not everyone can be smart (or cheat without being caught) and get good grades"
Because, stupid, no-one should be going to college if they aren't smart and can't get good grades. THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!!! And no, you shouldn't get to college beacuse you're pretty, or because you're a good athlete, or because Daddy can afford to pay for it. You should go because you're the best and brightest at your chosen subject. End of story. And, Snoopyfan, you are a feminist, even if you don't like the lable. And there's nothing wrong with that.
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#41
09-22-2003, 06:21 AM
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Is having a medical degree at 23 so unusual? In my (Australian) state, if a kid enters uni out of high school and completes his or her Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery degree without failing or taking time, then they should graduate before their 24th birthday. How does this work overseas?
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#42
09-22-2003, 07:08 AM
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In the US, if we enter college right after high school, we're 18. It takes 4 years to get a bachelor's degree and then I think another 4 years in medical school, plus a couple more years doing internships and residencies.
If all goes well, I'll be a doctor by the time I'm 28. I must say, I'm pretty impressed with that 23 year old from the pageant.
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#43
09-22-2003, 07:17 AM
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Lezlers, I know other countries have beauty pageants. I'm not sure that other countries award scholarships according to the results though, "sweetheart". I realise that I sounded rather anti-American. Not intentional - sorry. Are those extremely creepy kiddie beauty shows still popular in the US? Now those ARE weird.
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#44
09-22-2003, 08:47 AM
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I thik beauty pageants are silly. However, the Miss America pageant redistributes a lot of money from big corporations to young students, and that's a good thing.
If these women can get expensive scholarships out of shaking their booties, what's wrong with that? Nobody seems to have a problem with young men and women getting scholarships for their physical prowess in playing basketball or football or swimming really fast. Using your physical beauty for advantage isn't any worse than using your sterngth, or your math skills, or your speaking voice, or your interpersonal skills. It's a gift nature gave you, so use it.
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#45
09-22-2003, 09:07 AM
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Perhaps part of the reason such pageants are annoying is that unattractive women receive a lot of scorn in our society. It's not just that female beauty is held as a high virtue; the lack of it is seen as a serious flaw.
Perhaps a male equivalent would be the "Mr. Moneybags" contest, wherein the man who'd managed to accumulate the greatest wealth was offered something of commensurate value...say...Miss America!
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#46
09-22-2003, 09:29 AM
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*applause*
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#47
09-22-2003, 09:32 AM
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You're not responsible for any decisions regarding college admissions, are you?
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#48
09-22-2003, 09:42 AM
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Does she actually have an MD, or is it some other 'medical degree' such as an Associastes degree in Medical Assisting?
The term 'medical degree' does not indicate that she actually completed a Medical Doctorate program. Searching for "medical degree" I'm finding everything from online 'medical degree programs' to 18 month courses, to 5 year courses. So, is she an M.D. or something else?
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#49
09-22-2003, 09:47 AM
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Sorry but in Britain you have to prove you're intelligent before you get to go to university. There are exceptions, some unis will admit students who don't get the necessary grades if they had an exceptional interview; or as in my subject, Theatre Studies, in which exam results varied because admission was based more on our acting ability than intellectual capacity. Also, we don't regard C students with the contempt you apparently do in America - C and above are regarded as "good" grades. I detest the way our education system is coming to resemble yours so closely, but at least we have yet to pay anyone's way based on their ability to look good in a swimsuit!!!
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#50
09-22-2003, 09:49 AM
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Uh-huh. And the "Mr Moneybags" contest, where the "success object" gets to win the "sex object"? Umm... life already works like that, unless I'm very much mistaken. 
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