Miss America going to lead a "model" life

One word to start: H.Y.P.O.C.R.I.T.I.C.A.L

Oh wait, and also: CONFLICTING MESSAGES...

That's how I feel about the whole morality vibe that's now surrounding things like the Miss USA scandal and the new Miss America.

Let me explain:

So last night some girl from Oklahoma was crowned Miss America.  yay. hooray. whatever.  Today's news reports INSTANTLY focus on how she's going to be a great role model and have a chaperon looking after her to make sure she doesn't slip up (and go in for all that underage drinking and partying a la Tara Conner, the nearly dethroned Miss USA).....

But here's the part that irks me:  Our pop culture is ALL ABOUT celebrating crazy, good time party girls (until they go a leetle too far.  Hello Tara Reid!  Then they are totally ridiculed.)  But before they reach that point, we're all like:

"Wooo hoo!  Girls just want to have fun.  And it's all about Girl Power today... partying as much as you want!  Awww yeah!  Girls Gone Wild is awwwwwesome, dude.  So what if Joe Francis paid underage girlies to expose their boobies.  No biggie.  They did it cause they want to. Lighten up!  And girls, let's go to some pole dancing classes at the gym to get in touch with our inner strippers.  It's the new, hip, thing--and totally acceptable.  Every starlet in Hollywood is doing it.  And next year for Halloween, I'm going to be a scantily clad nurse/catholic school girl/Playboy Bunny etc... and all I'll have to do is pick up my costume at the local Rite Aid/CVS/Longs Drugs/Safeway etc...And what's wrong with tweens showing a little midriff.  It's cute!  Just like t-shirts that say things like "Why Would I Want to Go To School When I've Got These?!" (nudge nudge, wink wink.  Tee hee.  That's about boobs too.  But it doesn't SAY boob, so it's sassy and funny.) "  etc AD NAUSEUM.....

And then we're going to turn around and be all like "TARA CONNER (or any beauty pageant winner), you have done a bad bad thing.  You are under age and have gone drinking, and dancing and in fact looked like all the other young women that dominate the media today.  You have disgraced the title of Miss USA and you must repent and realize that you are supposed to be a role model to young women and not sully or tarnish the name of this illustrious institution that continues to put women on display to be judged for their "talents" and appearance, to be consumed and dissected and looked at, all while saying it's for the good of everyone because there is scholarship money involved."

And make the new Miss America promise to be all moral-like and have a chaperon.  Puhlease.   It's pathetic and hypocritical.

YEAH, I want Miss America to be a good role model (wellll, actually, I want female doctors, lawyers,politicians, mothers, social workers and artists to get as much attention and media buzz as Miss America so girls have those options easily accessible when it comes to searching for role models... but, yeah, I still want Miss A to pull her weight when it comes to setting a tone)... But do I think we have the right to get all puritanical and moral on her ass when our pop culture is awash in messages directed at young women that promote entirely oppositional messages?

Nope.  It's a band aid on the symptom instead of a cure for the cause...

Comments

[Sunnyday]

Hi Audrey,

You said it all, especially in that italicized paragraph about the girls-just-wanna-have-fun, girls-gone-wild thing. I wish America would just step back and look at what it has "driven" its girls and women to become. Celebrate freedom, womanhood and femininity, and this is what it has led to?? Please.

Btw, you may want to check out my blog for a couple of posts on weight-loss that I posted a few days ago =)

It's at http://notjustforsuperheroes.blogspot.com

So so great!

[Audrey]

And MAN this is adding fuel to my fire.

So today Tara Conner went on the Today show...and did this sort of tell-all confession thing ("I've actually tried cocaine!" "I need to get all this off my chest and repent!" More like she needs to break the story and deal with it before it leaks....)

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=670366b0-357f-4d38-a6ab-bda32e6bfe40

But this whole tactic of crucifying... or baiting a celeb to crucify herself...so that we (the morality police all of a sudden) can still accept her as a good role model. I mean COME ON. Like Lindsay and Paris and Nicole and whoever are just sipping soda water when they go out? Sh-yeah. And yet, lots of parents still probably let their daughters go to Lindsay's movies, or buy Paris' perfume ("Heiress"). It's just so darn inconsistent.

[Super_Feminist_of_the_Future :)]

wow Miss America that's exiting woohoo