Thursday, September 06, 2007

American role models

Before starting any serious questions, i just want to know what people think of this girl being Miss Teen USA since she is supposed to be a role model to young women.
Of course, the only reason she really is such an influence is because of the media exposure, but what does this say about our country?

14 comments:

Kenshin_Himura said...

I, personally, am against the Miss whatever contests...
They are ALWAYS beautiful women, which really doesn't represent our society.
So, how do they choose further?
They have competitions like "included swimsuit, evening gown, and interview. " (Quoted from article)
Anyway, all they emphasize is physical beauty, which I believe is a trait that should not be emphasized so thoroughly...

Personally, another blatantly obvious reason for my distaste is how some of the (pardon the stereotype) contestants seem to lack in the knowledge department.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Is this just a problem?
I think so.
This contest emphasizes beauty, not often intelligence, which I personally believe is key to a sucessful society...

Lauren said...

Well i agree with his statement. She was the perfect example of the majority of the population. I watched the clip and thought i could answer the question better than she did in my sleep (no offense) but seriously... I think it is really sad that our society and culture puts so much importance on outter looks that we forget other important things such as intelligance and personality.

Dani said...

I know that this is a really obvious place to put the blame, but look at the media. Of course, that generalization is a little unfair sometimes but honestly, all I really hear about "celebrities" is their latest DUI, drug possession or bout of anorexia.

Is this what Miss USA represents? I know a lot of us girls got something in the mail about Miss Teen Colorado at least sometime during our high school years, and it assured the reader that physical appearance was not in consideration. I beg to differ.

Mr. Pseudonym said...

The part I disagree with more is the lack of an equivalent contest for males. The fact of the matter is: regardless of who runs for these things they are one of the few legitimately sexist areas of our society. There was, not to long ago, a legal dispute between the BSA and a girl who wanted to join. I feel that I should be able to participate in these competitions if I so choose. That is just not the case. If I sent in an app for it I would be denied, not do to lack of talent, or by appearance, but solely by the fact I am a male.

riverJordan said...

I totally disagree that the media is to blame in this "mishap" at the tenn USA pagent. Yes, we have trash rags and shows such as Star, ET, etc., but just as in every aspect of life, there are alternatives availible in the media. Instead of MTV, turn to CNN, or instead of American Idol, watch the Nightly News. It's up to the individual to discern what they will accept from the media.

katrina337 said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQKNvPn3V-8&NR=1
Hm...apparently she can answer the question correctly...bets it was scripted?

Slip up? I could answer the question better in my sleep as well.

And those pamphlets about Miss Teen Colorado do explain thoroughly how physical appearance doesn't matter. But...we all know that isn't true. They judge you based on everything, physical appearance being the leading bit of that.

And I totally vote for both males and females being in these pageant things.

And I don't believe it's entirely the media's fault, but in the conformist society we live in, the media is the first place people turn. If the media portrayed better things, maybe society would be better.

And half the stuff on the nightly news is crap.

katrina337 said...

Haha, look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQc6oBCuDXk&NR=1
It's entertaining.

For matters of more relevance/importance; check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imNDF8gr-nY&mode=related&search=

I think it's interesting.

riverJordan said...

Which Nightly News is that? Not to be on the attack or anything, but the "crap" stories that you may be referring to are placed their with the intention of being unimportant. A news outlet could easily do a broadcast about every war and terrorist attack in the world, and the 50 rapes in Pittsburgh...but who would want to watch that? We need these "crap stories" as something of a break from all the evil in the world, and the producers of the programs know that in the long run they are not pertinent, but between a car bomb in the Gaza Strip and Osama's new threat video, we can use a little bit of Bucky the squirrel waterskiing.

~Jordan

Dani said...

There seems to be a strong defense for the media involvement, but I haven't seen many stories promoting strong teenagers, especially strong female teenagers. The "dumb blonde" seems to be a funny/frequently used stereotype in everything from movies to TV shows to the internet and pageants.
I mean, they show strong women if you count Hillary Clinton, but then its usually the clip of her having her "conservative conspiracy" rant. The strongest woman I cant think of being constantly mentioned is Oprah, and I do believe she deserves it. But answer this honestly, would you ever seen someone like her on one of those pageants?
I seriously doubt it considering she would probably doing something much more worthwhile with her time.

susanna.w said...

I actually feel really bad for her - Thinking on the spot is really hard. Part of it was of course stalling for time which is why she put in so manny unnecessary words. Miss Teen USA is a program that I don't think is very role-model-ish: the requirements for it basically encompass beauty. We don't know anything about the depth of such women. Our media and country place a lot of importance on beauty which is the cause for so many diets and health campaigns so placing beautiful women on TV accurately represents that part. But there isn't much about any other part of our country on those shows which is very limiting. From watching China's Miss China 2006, the women are also very beautiful because beauty is almost as large there as it is here. But at the same time, they are usually either very intellectually capable or very talented in music/dance.

ethan_is_ninja said...

Well one thing is that the media's purpose is to spread news throughout the US and without it, we wouldn't even know there was a Miss Teen USA.

katrina337 said...

Would there even still be a Miss Teen USA? What's teh point if it's not publicized? But I totally agree with what Dani said, and Oprah kinda does deserve it, even if I don't agree with everything she does/says.

and the crap on the nightly news I was talking about wasn't the unimportant stuff, it was the stuff that only covers half of the truth, leaving the entire nation ignorant to the other half, so that people can make unjust assumptions. And honestly, the 'news' is supposed to bring me just that, news. I want to know something that really happened, not something highly unimportant. there's the rest of television for that. so the unimportant stuff's crap too, but that wasn't what I was referring to.

Dani said...

I completely agree with Katrina, I believe that CNN needs to show news, thats what its there for. I'm sorry but I don't consider "Bucky the Squirrel" to be news. I think thats why we also have shows like Americas Funniest Home Videos and whatnot.

Hypothetically, if there were no media, then there would be no reason for any kind of miss usa, teen usa or miss universe (although, there is a mr. universe, so wolf, don't lose hope, you'll get your pageant someday).

I cant find sympathy for the girl, I know she was speaking on the spot, and it was a fairly difficult question. I've been there, sometimes you just completely freeze up and choke. But just what came out of her mouth...wow. Since she's obviously been in at least one pageant before this, logically, wouldn't you think they would have some proficiency in public speaking?

katrina337 said...

I have complete apathy towards her as well- if you ever watch those weird shows where they show you the prep for the pageant (there are some on MTV and whatnot), those people go through tons of preparation for it, and they're trained specifically on public speaking and the type of questions being asked and how to do respond and everything. It's not completely random. And we've all been on the spot before, but I think we've all muttered something more intelligible than that.