Pageant Spageant

I’ve never been a big fan of (beauty pageants). I find these shows to be boring, and somewhat shallow and meaningless. Once I get my bit of eye-candy, I’m no longer interested. Frankly speaking, the best girls hardly ever enter. Also, I’ve rarely found (and particularly in local competitions) that the contestants exude any real impressive intelligence. They fumble through their answers consistently, and would do a lot better if they would just smile and shut up.

Some of them can’t even smile.

Here endeth my rant... Wow it feels good to let that out. Anyway, I also find pageant rules ridiculous. A contestant in shows like Miss World or Miss Universe can’t be married and can’t have children… only single women are worthy of a crown. But fine, everybody’s allowed to make their own rules for their own competition. Can’t rant too much about that. The problem is, however, that for the winner these kinds of rules exist for their entire reign, and perhaps beyond. I suppose the girls know what they’re getting themselves into

I do believe, however, that the powers that be need to be practical. You pull together a bunch of young, attractive girls for a competition. It would be fool-hardy of them to assume that many of these ladies aren’t having sex. And if it is that they are not being fool-hardy, then they’re just being downright stupid.

Case in point- Miss J ’06 Sara Lawrence now suffers from ‘public embarrassment’ as she is forced to give up her crown due to pregnancy. Once again, I get their rules and I understand that the crown had to be relinquished. But where does Miss World promoter Mickey Haughton-James get off saying, “her actions could potentially harm the tradition that is the Miss Jamaica World Pageant and its past and future winners”? Is she a suicide bomber or something? According to James, Sara “has made an error of judgment and is now facing up to the consequences.” Now let’s for the time being assume this ‘error’, noting that for poor Sara, the error is probably not the intercourse but the resulting pregnancy. Why on earth does this affect future contestants? What does this have to do with anyone else?

His comments to me smack of condescension and seem to come from someone who feels a sense of ownership over the poor young girl. She’s found herself in an unfortunate situation, but not one that requires that level of scolding. Bigger role models have done far worse things. The matter does not require the level of attention and scrutiny that it has received. The point was made on radio this morning that when a new Miss Jamaica World is crowned she gets a mid-size picture on the inside of the papers somewhere. Now that one is pregnant, she gets a front page spread.

It’s all unnecessary verbiage. Wish the girl well and move along.