Multiple reactions abound to the youtube video showing Miss South Carolina, contestant for the Miss Teen USA pageant, fumbling over an answer to the question she received in the pageant's nod to intelligence. Some saw a scared teenager who couldn't find her words and these people rushed to protect her, as one would one's own child. Some saw the failure of the U.S. education system. Some saw stupidity, and compared her to our fumbling president. Some just felt sorry for the poor girl and depicted her as simply dealing with a brain white-out. Why so much attention? Perhaps it speaks to a very public recognition that beauty pageants are a thing of yesteryear, losing ratings, and quite out of sync with what we really want to know about and hear from young women today. Or perhaps because her answer was so terrifically bad in that recognizable way that makes for countless beauty pageant jokes and spoofs, that we recognized it wasn't the girl but the packaging of the girl that fell apart. In that moment the pretty blonde hair, the over-made up face, the gown, the "poise", the figure, became part of the joke. (It's odd that those who defend her intelligence point to a cogent interview she gave the next day after her packagers had, of course, helped her with the answer to the question! Odd only because these folks seem to forget that there is a behind-the-scenes packaging element to these pageants, the after-pageant interviews, and, well, to TV in general.) For those who saw a morality tale of what emerges when girls spend too much time practicing walking in high heels and choosing the right push-up bra for the gown, they have some support: A swimsuit study that randomly assigned college students to a group: half of the women got into a swimsuit in a dressing room, and half got into a sweater. Same for the men. Then they gave them a bunch of surveys to fill out and a math test hidden within. Turns out that the women in the swimsuit group did worse on the math test than any of the other groups. The authors concluded that chronic attention to physical appearance leaves fewer cognitive resources available for other endeavors. And fewer cognitive resources is a good explanation for South Carolina's speech. What else is a beauty competition about but chronic and excessive concentration on physical appearance. Even the talent competition revolves around beauty, so much so that we hear tell girls take up the xylophone or marimba at an early age because it's such a good pageant instrument! Why? Does it give a girl more room to flounce around than a tuba? Speaking of talent, there was another kind of pageant this summer, called "So You Think You Can Dance", an American Idol of the dance world, featuring teens and young adults whose bravado "yes they do think they can dance" paid off. They were amazingly talented. Sure they were packaged for the viewing public--lots of "hot" moves and racy outfits adorning a diverse group who, off the dance floor, were polished up to look wholesome and earnest, the purported "arrogance" knocked out of some. But the talent was there. And those kids looked absolutely beautiful dancing. Will beauty pageants survive? Probably not for very long with so many better reality show competitions on TV -- except for the pure campiness of it, a chance for us all to critique, laugh at, reflect on, and deride the spectacle, and sometimes, the witting or unwitty participant.
Please sign my petition protesting Bratz dolls.In a world where there are so many pedophiles and girls having babys at 14,I feel like I have to at least try and do something,women have come way to far to have our children look up to this.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/moms-against-bratz
Posted by: Cheryl Branscum | September 22, 2007 at 12:22 PM
I couldn't help but comment after stumbling on your blog :o)
Yeah, I fall into the "give her a break" camp (LOL I AM pageant Mom teehee) because it IS so hard to do those stupid questions!! Public speaking is THE number one fear of Most folks, not just over-primped pageant girls standiing in four inch slingbacks on National telelvion! (p.s. been there done that and have the t-shirt) No one ever seems to comment on the girls who don't screw it up though, it seems that only one tends to ruin it for all. As a former "beauty queen" myself and now the mom of a pageant girl, I have to disagree with the generalization that being attractive and smart are mutually exclusive. What I DO think is wrong is the neglect of education for the sake of superficial improvements.
Oh, and I've seen many, many, an individual mess up even the most innocuous question regularly at my Toastmasters club meetings! (Just as poorly if not worse - including business executives all the way to housewives :o)
Oh, and btw, even I HATE Bratz... and my daughter? singularly unimpressed she is :o)
Posted by: Pageant Mom | September 24, 2007 at 07:42 PM
The pre-occupation involved in a high maintenance look really does affect females intellectual performance because they are self-conscious and preoccupied with their looks. We don't need scientists to do a swimsuit test to tell us this ! We all know how early girls are now encouraged to lose their natural sponteneity and innocence so their self-obsession and risk of developing anxiety, narcissistic personality disorders increases.
A less high maintenance look is not so inhibiting especially if the girl gets into the swing of it so that she can 'do her face' in 5 mins before going to work and is probably a good idea in order to get a job in the first place. As long as she is clear about the fact that she is only playing the role that's expected of her and doesn't believe her self-worth is dependent on her appearance.
Posted by: lisa | January 24, 2009 at 09:37 AM
Wait--didn't you want a girl who was smart and pretty? Start looking at shows with these kind of girls.
Posted by: Jennifer | May 27, 2009 at 02:45 PM