Thursday, June 09, 2011

This is Ridiculous...

There is an article over on Fox News about the Miss USA Contest and the fact that contest organizers are considering broadening the range of questions that are asked of the contestants. You will remember that Carrie Prejean, Miss California, was asked whether or not she approved of gay marriage. She said she didn't and the backlash (mostly from pretentious people like Perez Hilton) likely cost her the crown.

Well, now they are considering adding questions about whether or not evolution should be taught in class or whether it is okay to pose nude for pictures. There is, likely, a moral question involved in the second issue. But asking contestants in a beauty contest whether or not evolution should be taught in school is absurd. If they were asking the question of Miss School Board USA or Miss Educator USA, it might be different, but most of these ladies will go into the work world in jobs for which the answer to such a question, whatever it might be, is irrelevant.

Holly McKay writes:
According to Paula Shugart, President of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO), which also operates Miss USA, these “topics are very relevant and in the news.”
Relevant to who? One is tempted to suspect that the contest organizers know good and well that such a question has no bearing on your average contestant but also that the answer will very likely identify and, potentially, isolate conservative contestants like the gay marriage question did for Ms. Prejean. You might also recall that, after she stated that marriage is between a man and a woman, Mr. Hilton, a contest judge, called her “a dumb bitch.” Nice.

So, as for the question about evolution: Relevant? absolutely not. Political? Absolutely.
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7 comments:

  1. You're suggesting the pageant is loading the questions section with questions that will out conservatives (and make them look bad) so the panel can avoid giving them the title?

    Seems a bit far-fetched.

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  2. I would like to think that you are right. Maybe they do think it is a burning question of the time. But, it doesn't address world peace, or any other current major issue. Further, we have seen that to accept a conservative viewpoint about one, also non-major issue, is unacceptable to the contestant organizers. If there was any semblance of fairness about the whole endeavor, as soon as Hilton said what he did about Ms. Prejean, he should have been out the door.

    Maybe it is an innocent question, but think about what the firestorm will be like if one of the contestants answers “no.” They will be called ignorant, uneducated and stupid. While I have no support for that position, I reserve my animosity for those in education who propagate it through ignorance and narrow mindedness. Who cares whether or not Miss America accepts it? It is difficult for me to see why else they would be asking the question.

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  3. In retrospect, the definition of marriage is, actually, a fairly important issue today. I was incorrect about that. Maybe that is another problem with the whole thing: the question about evolution is unimportant to the average person. Why stir the pot?

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  4. On the question of gay marriage I actually come down on the side of legal recognition of it, though I don't think Christian churches should conduct gay weddings or recognize gay marriages as ordained in the eyes of God.

    By the way, did Hilton call her that on air, during the show? Or was it something he said to the press afterward, or on his blog?

    One last thought: Donald Trump owns the the Miss USA pageant, and he was flirting with a run for the presidency on the Republican ticket. I don't think his aim is to make conservatives look dumb. (Although he *was* making birther comments, so maybe he's a liberal sabateur under deep cover.)

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  5. Anonymous2:49 PM

    My biggest issue with this is that they ask the lady her opinion, and then they disagree with it, so she is treated rudely. If you didn't want to know what she thought, don't ask her.

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  6. Well, in all honesty, here answer was pretty inarticulate. If not for that I suspect there would have been a lot less name calling.

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  7. Hilton called her a "dumb bitch" on his blog, here and then, when she lost, he wrote “Dumb bitch reacts to being fired.” What a piece of work.

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