<p>schmaltz , that is a whole nother topic. 
*
I kinda like beauty pageants, but don’t understand the time and money spent on:</p>
<p>cigarettes and cigars…*</p>
<p>I was just talking about the billion dollar pageant industry, when young women would compete 40 years ago it was much lower key and you could believe they were doing it for scholarships for college.
Now, not so much.
</p>
<p>I didn’t even know this was happening until I saw the thread, but I am very pleased to see a beauty contest winner who is not only Lebanese, but LOOKS Lebanese – who appears to have left her Middle Eastern facial features intact and is beautiful with a big nose. I can guarantee you that many, many knowledgeable people have told her she wouldn’t win without a nose job.</p>
<p>If we’re going to judge women in their underwear – and we are – it’s important to me that multiple flavors of beauty be appreciated.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Northstarmom, I agree. But is it any less disgusting than a bunch of women standing in a line, breathlessly waiting for some guy to choose them amongst the others to give a rose on national TV? A guy about whom they know nothing, but for whom they will compete? Hoping for a marriage proposal? True love? Why does HE get to choose? I really don’t get it.</p>
<p>I know there is also a bachelorette show, and I find it just as degrading. I must be in the minority, though, as these shows are wildly popular.</p>
<p>I get Miss America and Miss USA mixed up, but my impression is that the former is a classier pageant and has a talent component still. Right?</p>
<p>As for this Miss USA pageant, I was pretty saddened to see all of the lingerie shots. Looked more a Maxim magazine than trying to pick a role model for American women. I get that that kind of stuff has its place, not to mention its likely boosting of the TV ratings, but it crosses the line for me. Women have worked hard to get some regard for being more than sex objects, but IMO this pageant only fostered the old stereotypes. I hope it doesn’t catch on.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m not a big fan of beauty pageants (altho’ I was as a child when they seemed wholesome to me), but I think you are being intolerant here. Jeopardy contestants are people with naturally high IQs who have polished their knowledge to compete on TV for money. Beauty pageant contestants are people with natural beauty who have polished their appearance to compete on TV for money. Why is one acceptable and another not? I say, if beauty is your thing, go for it.</p>
<p>All I can say about the second photo is Holy Shiite!!
[Miss</a> USA 2010: Rima Fakih from Michigan becomes first Muslim woman to win | Mail Online](<a href=“Miss USA 2010: Rima Fakih from Michigan becomes first Muslim woman to win | Daily Mail Online”>Miss USA 2010: Rima Fakih from Michigan becomes first Muslim woman to win | Daily Mail Online)</p>
<p>"Fakih’s official shot shows her sitting up, looking at the camera with a come-hither look. She’s wearing a low-cut bra, girdle, garters, fishnet stockings and stiletto heels. Donald Trump, co-owner of the pageant, approved of the lingerie shoot.</p>
<p>Read more: [Miss</a> USA pole-dancing photos surface - Beauty Pageants](<a href=“http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37208575/ns/today-today_fashion_and_beauty/#ixzz0oIUZ9Yvv]Miss”>http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37208575/ns/today-today_fashion_and_beauty/#ixzz0oIUZ9Yvv)</p>
<p>I’m not really sure why the winner’s pole dancing is seen as so scandalous. Nude and racey photos are practically par for the course for beauty queens. Remember Miss America Vanessa Williams and her Penthouse poses? If you scroll down to the bottom of the article linked in #47^, there is an overview of some of those scandals. For some reason I cannot link it here.</p>
<p>My point is that I don’t view the pageant as something admirable or something to aspire to. What the competition requires and what the competitors have done to get there aren’t things that I think should be considered representative of the best in American womanhood.</p>
<p>Fine with me if people want to compete in it, but I don’t admire people for winning or participating in it.</p>
<p>Trump can’t claim the moral high ground with the racy lingerie photos he had the girls pose for. Don’t see pole dancing as that much worse. She didn’t strip, only danced. I do hope the Donald doesn’t try to oust her for this when his organization already is trading on their sex appeal while dressed in not much.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree with you on a personal level. However, I have observed that American/world culture has evolved to a point where there is not just one defined standard to which everyone should aspire to. Obviously, the majority of Americans will never be able to achieve the level of brilliance and accomplishment that used to be the gold standard. So they have developed other aspirations that match their abilities. I think that is okay. I don’t have to participate or watch it.</p>
<p>The problem that I have with beauty contests is that things like Miss USA are promoted as if this is the best that women can aspire to. I’d feel better about such contests if there were equivalent ones for males that got as much publicity and admiration, but the fact that there’s no similar Mr. America or Mr. USA contests is a message that beauty, sex appeal are very important only for women.</p>
<p>If superficial, trivial things are going to be trumpeted as American ideals, then give men the same chance to compete in similar contests and to be admired, publicized, etc. for winning.</p>
<p>WHen women have the same chance to represent the USA as president and men have the same chance to represent the USA as beauty (handsome?) contest winners, I won’t kvetch about these beauty contests.</p>
<p>Dear Miss USA,</p>
<p>I want my name back.</p>
<p>Yours Truly,
America</p>
<p>I will say that I dont have the same problem with muscle contests- which is maybe ironic.
in fact I thought the portrayal of bodybuilding in films like [Stay Hungry](<a href=“The Immortal Arnold Schwarzenegger: Insights From Those Who Have Known Him Best!”>http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/arnold_friends_insights.htm</a> ), was fascinating & when I was in massage school I sought out people who were rock climbers/otherwise very fit, because their muscular definition made it much easier to learn the anatomy. :)</p>
<p>But bodybuilding strikes me as something that people do because * they are themselves as adults* interested in it- and basically they are competing for acknowledgement among their peers - not females that have been influenced since they were young to exploit their appearance to get validation from men.</p>
<p>( not to mention that bodybuilding has evolved- it is much more about health- muscles that are " ripped" are not as sought after as muscles that you can actually use- who cares how big your lats are, if you can’t move your arms?- </p>
<p>The beauty pageants are going backwards, if that is even possible- string bikinis instead of one piece & suggestive photos- rather than more modest ones)</p>
<p>LOL @ post #53</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Almost as funny as his/her prior post:</p>
<p>Post 36:
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Emeraldkitty brought up body-building contests for men, which I consider equally as perverse as beauty pageants for women. I don’t think the glorification of a well-oiled, steroid-enhanced, muscle-bound man is healthy for young American men, either. But again, if that is what some men are into, I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with it.</p>
<p>"Emeraldkitty brought up body-building contests for men, which I consider equally as perverse as beauty pageants for women. "</p>
<p>The body building contests exist – for men and women – but the contests and the winners don’t get the publicity and respect that Miss America and similar pageants and contestants get. I don’t think the men are expected to photographed looking sexy in designer underwear either.</p>
<p>Schmaltz, don’t you go dissin’ my Elton John.</p>
<p>Back to your discussion.</p>
<p>““Competitions 25 years ago really only required a party dress and a satin hair bow,” says Eleanor VonDuyke, a former Denver-based pageant director who was in the business for 20 years. But that has all changed.”</p>
<p>Hmm, 25 years ago, that was what 1985? I remember back in the late 70s, when I was in high school, reading about the $500 pageant gowns and taping up contestants so body parts would stay pert. Even back then it wasn’t a party dress and satin bow type of thing.</p>