My High Horse -- In Defense of Miss Utah
I am not going to launch into a lengthy diatribe on the evils of beauty pageants. I could. I have lots of ammunition.
But I won't.
I won't rant and rave about the fact that here we are, the year 2013, and we are still judging women on how they walk in an evening gown and how they look in a bathing suit. I mean, ACTUALLY. GIVING. THEM. A. NUMBER. SCORE. FOR. THIS. SO. CALLED. TALENT.
I could. But I won't.
And I won't bore you with the details of my arguments against judging someone merely by their outward appearance.
I could. But I won't.
I will not go into the details of how most of these women desperate for a college scholarship (thus the reason they say they do these things) spend thousands of dollars on gowns (or search for sponsors of said gowns), not to mention the number of dollars spent hiring a consultant to help them win the competition.
I don't know. Since I see no athletic ability going on here (unless you want to argue prancing around on a stage in 4 inch heels while attempting to make sure nothing falls out of the bathing suit you are modeling for a live, squealing audience is athletic), so the case for a "coach" seems limp at best.
Why not just save all that money for college to begin with?
No, I could. But I won't.
What I will do is say that I am so beyond weary of the over-play Miss Utah's train-wreck of an answer to a train-wreck of a question has received.
The question:
"A recent report shows that in 40 percent of American families with children, women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn less than men. What does this say about society?"
My answer?
Ummm..... that it's unfair?
Do you honestly blame Miss Utah for tripping over her tongue on this one? I mean, I would have! How is there a good, intelligent-sounding answer to that question? Really. I defy you to come up with anything other than It's. Unfair.
Because, ummm, it is.
Then, if tripping over her tongue on a stupid question wasn't bad enough, she is now the butt of every comedians' jokes from coast to coast, not to mention, having to be part and parcel to the repeated review of the colossal flub on national news channels around the nation. Heaven forbid if it went around the world! If it went around the world, then perhaps we've come to a somewhat logical answer to that question in the first place.
Without knowing a thing about this girl, who by the way, is probably only in her early 20s (a time in your life when you are probably at your least confident, besides the middle school years), she is being judged by the lack of substance in the question given to her in the first place. To top it off, she's being invited on to news shows to defend and explain herself.
Really?!
Where is the person that wrote the question in the first place? I am pretty sure I'd LOVE to hear how he or she would defend THEMSELVES, because that is where the real offense lies.
And the judges? They somehow hold the ability to appropriately deem the answer acceptable or not? Really? Because the vast majority of them are celebrities. That makes them qualified to judge intelligence how, exactly?
Judging intelligence, which, unless you are doing MENSA tests, which would NEVER be sexy enough to land next to the bathing suit competition, is such a subjective endeavor to begin with ... well, it seems that pageant officials and the legislatures responsible for education "reform" have a lot of the same philosophies.
If it had been me, I believe I would have formulated the following answer to that asinine question:
"It says about society that we place too much emphasis on stupid stuff like celebrity and beauty and wealth and fame and not enough emphasis on the character of the person or the ethics of hard work and intelligence. I would say that it says about society that we value too many of the wrong things and not enough of the important things and that therefore we'll never have world peace."
But then again, no one would have ever wanted to see me prance around in a bathing suit due to the fact that my bathing suit would have to be much, much bigger than that of a band-aid.
But I won't.
I won't rant and rave about the fact that here we are, the year 2013, and we are still judging women on how they walk in an evening gown and how they look in a bathing suit. I mean, ACTUALLY. GIVING. THEM. A. NUMBER. SCORE. FOR. THIS. SO. CALLED. TALENT.
I could. But I won't.
And I won't bore you with the details of my arguments against judging someone merely by their outward appearance.
I could. But I won't.
I will not go into the details of how most of these women desperate for a college scholarship (thus the reason they say they do these things) spend thousands of dollars on gowns (or search for sponsors of said gowns), not to mention the number of dollars spent hiring a consultant to help them win the competition.
I don't know. Since I see no athletic ability going on here (unless you want to argue prancing around on a stage in 4 inch heels while attempting to make sure nothing falls out of the bathing suit you are modeling for a live, squealing audience is athletic), so the case for a "coach" seems limp at best.
Why not just save all that money for college to begin with?
No, I could. But I won't.
What I will do is say that I am so beyond weary of the over-play Miss Utah's train-wreck of an answer to a train-wreck of a question has received.
The question:
"A recent report shows that in 40 percent of American families with children, women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn less than men. What does this say about society?"
My answer?
Ummm..... that it's unfair?
Do you honestly blame Miss Utah for tripping over her tongue on this one? I mean, I would have! How is there a good, intelligent-sounding answer to that question? Really. I defy you to come up with anything other than It's. Unfair.
Because, ummm, it is.
Then, if tripping over her tongue on a stupid question wasn't bad enough, she is now the butt of every comedians' jokes from coast to coast, not to mention, having to be part and parcel to the repeated review of the colossal flub on national news channels around the nation. Heaven forbid if it went around the world! If it went around the world, then perhaps we've come to a somewhat logical answer to that question in the first place.
Without knowing a thing about this girl, who by the way, is probably only in her early 20s (a time in your life when you are probably at your least confident, besides the middle school years), she is being judged by the lack of substance in the question given to her in the first place. To top it off, she's being invited on to news shows to defend and explain herself.
Really?!
Where is the person that wrote the question in the first place? I am pretty sure I'd LOVE to hear how he or she would defend THEMSELVES, because that is where the real offense lies.
And the judges? They somehow hold the ability to appropriately deem the answer acceptable or not? Really? Because the vast majority of them are celebrities. That makes them qualified to judge intelligence how, exactly?
Judging intelligence, which, unless you are doing MENSA tests, which would NEVER be sexy enough to land next to the bathing suit competition, is such a subjective endeavor to begin with ... well, it seems that pageant officials and the legislatures responsible for education "reform" have a lot of the same philosophies.
If it had been me, I believe I would have formulated the following answer to that asinine question:
"It says about society that we place too much emphasis on stupid stuff like celebrity and beauty and wealth and fame and not enough emphasis on the character of the person or the ethics of hard work and intelligence. I would say that it says about society that we value too many of the wrong things and not enough of the important things and that therefore we'll never have world peace."
But then again, no one would have ever wanted to see me prance around in a bathing suit due to the fact that my bathing suit would have to be much, much bigger than that of a band-aid.
Comments