Pundits are having a field day dogpiling on poor Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina Teen. Asked in competition, “One fifth of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map; why do you think that is?” her response was rambling and literally incoherent, with non-sequitor observations about Iraq and South Africa. She has since said she froze. Genuine freezing might have been preferable; saying nothing would have been better than what she did say.
I refuse to make fun of her. Personally–and I’m completely serious here–I’m wondering if she didn’t have a sort of mini-stroke brought on by the stress of the moment. It makes sense to me. People who have had strokes sometimes find themselves unable to say the words they’re thinking; instead random words are tossed out. Circumstances such as those that she found herself in would be enough to burst a blood vessel in anyone’s head. They probably did dry runs with her about assorted world topics and her synapses just started spitting out fragments of those replies.
Second, I don’t think that a country that has tolerated seven years of a president so characterized by malaprops that entire 365-day calendars are devoted to them–a president whose town-hall meeting questions are carefully vetted before they’re spoken–gets to laugh too hard at a scared teenager who had a tough question sprung on her. Caitlin Upton has to do her own damage control; she doesn’t have a press secretary to face reporters the next day after a session of babbling incoherence and say, “Okay, what she MEANT to say was…”
And it WAS a tough question, because in thirty seconds she had to try and come up with an answer that was fundamentally upbeat and positive because, hey, that’s what beauty pagents are all about. If someone asked me that question and I had to come up with an off-the-cuff response, it would be this…
“One fifth? I’m surprised it’s that low. On the quiz show “Power of Ten” it was recently revealed that twenty-five percent of surveyed Americans believed that the inventor of the diesel engine was Vin Diesel. The fact is that obesity is not the number one health problem in this country, it’s stupidity. A lot of Americans are stupid. Bone dry stupid. Stupid as a box of rocks. They were born stupid, they were stupid in school, and they became stupid grown-ups. And there’s enough of them out there to have a considerable impact on this country, because morons are running for high office and morons are voting for them and putting them in there. Americans are oblivious to the rest of the world, and if that were not the case, then maybe our leaders might have listened when the rest of the world said, ‘Stay the hëll out of Iraq, you morons.’ Many Americans have a fundamental arrogance that stems from a basic lack of intellectual curiosity. They don’t read. They don’t learn. They don’t think. They tune out with television or computer games or Ipods and obsess about what Lindsay or Britney or whatever other troubled pop tart is up to rather than caring about things that really matter.
Our educational system needs to be overhauled beyond the test-centric mandates of No Child Left Behind. If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and he will feed himself for ever. Students need to be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think. More money needs to be spent on programs for kids who are already gifted so that those gifts can be fully realized and brought to fruition. We need to remember that the arts enrich a civilization; that science and scientific thinking is not the enemy; that it is more important to care for poor people over here than blow up poor people in other countries.
The fact that one fifth of Americans can’t find the country on the map pales beside the likelihood that one fifth of Americans probably couldn’t find their own áššëš with both hands and a flashlight. And that stupidity is going to continue to be a hallmark of our country until we work together to remedy the situation from the top down.”
Not an easy thing to sound upbeat about in thirty seconds, is it.
My condolences to Ms. Upton. Now…she needs to strive to be part of the solution, rather than be dismissed as part of the problem.
PAD
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“I’d feel bad for the girl, except that she is an absolutely shining example of how messed up the U.S, and to a smaller degree Canadian, educational system is.”
I’m baffled by this. She froze on stage…clearly, something every fifth grader should be able to avoid based on public education.
Her failure to respond to a question during a pagent has no bearing whatsoever on her level and quality of education. Maybe if you were referring to Jessica Simpson’s many, many remarks that display a lack of experience and education, you’d have a point. Then again, Simpson isn’t really a product of the US educational system.
You know i have doubts that that many people can’t find the states on a world map…
of course then again i just found out yesterday my roommate didn’t know Alaska was a part of the U.S.(ugh)
why the hëll do we expect beauty pageant contestants to be smart?
do we criticize spelling bee contestants on there fashion choices?
The sad fact is that shes obviously very southern which will just play even more into stereotypes.
i also think that question is incredibly hard for anyone to be able to spin into a positive way on the spot so i feel sorry for her a wee bit.
When I was moving back to PA from Albuquerque, NM, a friend was helping me pack, and his girlfriend watched. She said that she bet I couldn’t wait to hit the beaches when I got to here. I asked what she meant, and she replied, “Isn’t Pennsylvania next to Florida?”
curefreak: “why the hëll do we expect beauty pageant contestants to be smart?”
A better question to ask would be why we set expectations based on any superficial characteristics. Expecting beauty pageant contestants to be stupid is no less irrational than expecting them to be smart.
“A better question to ask would be why we set expectations based on any superficial characteristics. Expecting beauty pageant contestants to be stupid is no less irrational than expecting them to be smart.”
Well most people don’t expect Beauty contestants to be smart anyways and its always a plus to have one that is intelligent,
but lets face facts here it’s a beauty contest not a talent contest or a brains and cuteness contest.
I dont get why we expect beauty pageant winners to solver world hunger or promote world peace..
it seems to me they want to have it both ways : swimsuit contests (mostly for the guys) but questions to show that they posses some semblance of grey matter…
most people are lucky to have one or the other so why do we expect these women to be so abnormally perfect?
why cant they just be pretty? whats wrong with that? is it because people are self-conscious of the vacuousness of it all?
most of the women on there usually give stock “feel good” answers anyways.
i think we are beginning to see a sea change in how these things work with that miss america pageant winner who got caught partying too much.
tho i’m not sure in what way they are going to change, i think a lot of these shows are dated and boring and old fashioned and the ratings have shown it where the miss america pageant for the first time wasn’t shown on regular tv but was shown on tnn.
they are either going to have to change with the times or end up being completely irrelevant and fall by the wayside.
Curefreak,
And all of what you say about the intellect of others might come off a little better if you yourself applied proper punctuation, capitalization and spell check to your posts.
Just a friendly suggestion submitted for your consideration.
~8?)`
curefreak: “why cant they just be pretty? whats wrong with that?”
Because reality is under no obligation to limit itself to fitting within your preconceived notions.
Because most people only know to conform to a role, even at the neglect of their own intuition and feelings, and they have no tolerance of non-conformity.
It seems to me that we have here several inter related problems (not in any specific order):
1) We have a prejudice of beauty associated with stupidity, which is narrow minded annd petty.
2) We have a society in which beauty and sexiness are extremely valued, to the point that they are considered measures of people’s value.
3) This has also lead to beauty and sexiness becoming commodities. Is this a bad thing in and of itself? I don’t know.
4) So what we have is a society obsessed with beauty which puts down people for not being beautiful while also promoting a prejudice tying stupidity and beauty together, thus encouraging women to behave stupid if they want to be beaautiful/sexy, i.e. successful.
5) Then we have competitions of beauty — I don’t know why but I find this more troubling than the existence of the general ‘beauty’ industry. But these competitions are all about beauty, but in order to pretend that they are not only about beauty they have questions, which ironically became the most familiar example of the sillyness of beauty competitions (world peace etc.) Although in this case the question was serious, which was why it would have been difficult to answer it even without the pressure of the rest of the competition. It is also reasonable to assume that the young woman in question was better prepared for the kind of answers that are appropriate for beauty pageants and only for them.
6) Not only that, but the demand for beauty is so great that they can’t wait until young women become adults, so we have increasy younger beauty pageants.
“”curefreak: “why cant they just be pretty? whats wrong with that?”
Because reality is under no obligation to limit itself to fitting within your preconceived notions.”
I think curefreak’s point was why do the women in those competition have to be anything but pretty in the context of the competition, not in general.
Then we have competitions of beauty — I don’t know why but I find this more troubling than the existence of the general ‘beauty’ industry. But these competitions are all about beauty, but in order to pretend that they are not only about beauty they have questions, which ironically became the most familiar example of the sillyness of beauty competitions (world peace etc.)
I have to disagree with the notion, expressed by several people here, that the non-beauty portions of the pageants are just for show and the winner will simply be the best looking one. I almost wish that WERE the case–my niece would have easily been in the top 5.
My experience with the Miss New York pageant was quite different. The winner of the last one I went to (this was several years ago) was by no means the most beautiful (she had a real person’s nose, for one thing, which led to some of the supporters of the runnerups making rather low class comments in the pageant blogs) but she had incredible charisma that really came out in her talent portion–she had the audience in the palm of her hand. Some of the contestants–and remember, they had to win just to get there–were altogether unremarkable in the looks department–one could easily have found more attractive women during any 10 minutes of lunch hour in Manhattan. They were all, however (with a very few notable exceptions) lovely and decent young ladies.
The runnerup was far better looking by any measure than the winner but the announcement of the actual winner brought the crowd to its feet.
My only complaint was that the talent portion is almost impossible to judge. What’s better–a well delivered aria or dancing en pointe? How do you determine these things?
I think charisma is a factor of attractiveness.
Maybe the questions and talent shows are used to measure a person’s charisma more than their skill or wisdom. since such characteristics are more apparent through interaction than in the usual pacing around of pageants and or fashion shows (you can also see it in the difference between a photo shoot and fashion shows).
But still, I can help but feel that the skill/knowledge/wisdom aspect here is more a facade, to make it seem that their is more to the competition than attractiveness. Similarly photoshoots might try to create the impression that a model is doing something — particiupating in a party and so forth, in order for charisma to emerge. But the party or whatever is just a facade.
Like any other privilege, being considered beautiful shelters flabbiness in thinking and feeling. It’s wrong to think that all subjects indulge in this privilege, but people aren’t robots who can decide to refuse the easy path — and even if they could that doesn’t make such a decision the best one.
If it’s like Odyssey of the Mind, the contestants set their own creative benchmarks, and the judges don’t take their own initiative rewarding them. In the 1988 OM, the Chinese team launched a rubberband-powered plane that astounded everyone by circling the auditorium. But because it failed to pass through a set of goalposts, the judges had to create a special award for them to keep them from leaving emptyhanded.
I think charisma is a factor of attractiveness.
That’s a good point. But I think that we are underestimating the skills and talent it takes to pull that off. Attractiveness can be a lot more than simple beauty. Class, charm, intelligence, all these things and more will take you pretty far.
Now whether or not the pageants do a good job of determining that is open for debate. But there’s no doubt that just being the best looking will not be enough (some of the talent on display at the New York pageant was very very impressive and the majority of question and answer results were thoughtful and well spoken. Go the pageant with nothing more than a pretty face and you’ll go home the prettiest loser. At least in New York.)
It was not my intention to put down the participants of beauty pageants. There are larger questions about what such competitions tell us about our society, but I don’t think these questions should cause us to look down and the women themselves.
“But I think that we are underestimating the skills and talent it takes to pull that off. Attractiveness can be a lot more than simple beauty. Class, charm, intelligence, all these things and more will take you pretty far.”
Some people look down at models as opposed to athletes, musicians or scientists for example, because supposedly models only have simple beauty while the others worked for their success. However, it seems to me that any of these accomplishments are a combination of natural talents and hard work.
The thing is, there is no simple, obvious or one size fits all answers to any of the question/points that either of you (Bill and Micha) are making. Beauty pageant contestants are like anybody else you come across in life in that you have to take them and judge them individually.
I’ve known and met more then a few contestants and winners from lots of pageants (ranging from local shows to Miss America) and I’ve pretty much come away with the opinion that you can’t really have an honest opinion without knowing some of them. I went to school with a girl who competed in the Miss Hawaiian Tropic contests for a while. Smart as hëll, great personality and one hëll of a looker. While doing one contest, she roomed with another girl that made Jessica Simpson look like a dog with a PHD. Killer looks, but I’ve got rocks in my yard with more brains then she had.
We get lots of the Beauty pageant girls show up around the Capitol from time to time for various functions or events as well as actresses. Some of them are smart as a whip and pretty nice people. Some of them are just pretty. Some of them want to do something with their lives while others just want to ride on their good looks. I’ve even met a few Playmates. Several were really cool girls with good heads on their shoulders. Several others, after being around them and hearing them talk for a few hours, I wouldn’t want to be stranded on a deserted island with no matter how hot they looked.
As to what such competitions tell us about our society… Nothing that we don’t already know. With some exceptions, human societies have always put the “ideal” on a pedestal of some sort. The best warriors, athletes, politicians, thinkers, inventors, spiritual leaders and beauties have all had their followers. Our POV on that ideal changes from generation to generation, but it’s always been there. We like to point to the “ideal” whatever and hold it up as something to aspire to. We even like to hold up the ideal when it’s an impossible ideal.
Thing is, like with the pageant contestants themselves, you’ve got to look at people as individuals and not as a society. Almost everybody liked Jessica Simpson’s looks to the point of stupidity. Didn’t stop her from becoming a joke once she opened her mouth in public. Vanessa Williams started out as a joke. Nobody later held her looks against her in appreciating her talent or her brain.
Most men I know didn’t marry Playboy Playmate look-a-likes because, as attractive as our wives all are, most men really do want to have a mind to interact with at the end of the day. If a girl is hot as hëll but has the intellect of a cumquat, she’s not who most men want to spend a lifetime with. Doesn’t stop us from looking at Miss October from time to time. Society likes to look at the new, the shiny and the “ideal” in life. Society as a whole seems to think that the new, the shiny and the “ideal” is what’s best in life. Fortunately, most individuals break out of that group think when actually acting to acquire/fulfill needs or in choosing a spouse. Those that don’t become evolutionary dead ends, trailer trash or Hugh Hefner.
Wait… well… I… Ok, I guess that being Hugh Hefner wouldn’t actually be all that bad…
Sorry for jumping back to an older thread, but for a while I was unable to load any part of this past about the 30th of August. (Anyone else experience that? It was only this thread, but happened from multiple machines.)
When I was moving back to PA from Albuquerque, NM, a friend was helping me pack, and his girlfriend watched. She said that she bet I couldn’t wait to hit the beaches when I got to here. I asked what she meant, and she replied, “Isn’t Pennsylvania next to Florida?”
On a similar note, in the mid-80s my dad was dating someone who was a WHOOOOOOLE lot younger than he was (i.e. only two years older than I was). She swore blind that Vermont was “in upstate New York.”
She was living IN New York at the time.
Ms. Upton gets at least a little slack from me, because she is both more attractive and more bright than said girl ever was.
TWL
for a while I was unable to load any part of this past about the 30th of August. (Anyone else experience that? It was only this thread, but happened from multiple machines.)
Had the same problem. I was able to find various ways around it but it was there. So it’s not just you.
Actaully, Tim and Bill, it was just you two. The plan worked, everyone!!
Well your plan jammed me up as well yah Ba%$$#%d!!!!!!
Tim, I’ve had the same problem on a number of recent threads. My browser will only display up to a certain post, and then cut it off there, even though I know that there are other posts, and won’t display the “Post a comment” field.