Does beauty mean no brains?
Just this Monday, Miss USA, Nila Sanchez was the subject of ridicule in social media when she failed to name the capital of her home state Nevada during a radio interview.
Does this necessarily make her dumb?
Apparently so according to the internet which had this to say for her gaffe: "Pathetic, all there is to it. What a moron".
If we all take a moment to consider our tendencies to autonomously brand all beauty queens as "air-heads" the moment they make the smallest fumble then we might realise the malign nature of journalism, interviews and the media of the twenty-first century.
Let me demonstrate.
Caroline Zielinski of The Age newspaper defended the beauty queen in her article 'Ugly truths: the nasty questions we ask of beauty queens', describing questions given to beauty queens are often "difficult" and "loaded".
She provides the example of a question asked of Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2007 who was asked to explain the results of "Recent polls [which] show that a fifth of Americans can't locate the US on a world map."
"Yes, this questions can be answered well - in a thesis by a scholar dedicated to examining the American school system, or a journalist who has worked in the field for years and researched the topic extensively.
Yet, as we watched Miss South Carolina Teen USA fumble her way through her allocated 30-seconds, but I'm not quite sure what we expected. Do people genuinely believe that a teenage girl - and I mean, any teenager, really - can provide an intelligent and articulate response to such a loaded question?"
She has also noted how these girls are "forced to answer difficult and loaded questions in 30 seconds. While wearing a diamond-studded bikini. During a BEAUTY CONTEST." Not to mention their sheer irrelevance to anything beauty pageant related. Why does she need to interpret poll results under a time pressure? Entertainment for idiots of cause. We were faced with a similar dilemma last year when Miss Utah in the Miss America 2013 beauty pageant was asked to explain the results of "A recent report [which] shows that in 40 percent of American families with children, women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn less than men. What does it say about society?"
Got an answer? No? Well you've got about 25 seconds left to answer, and remember: no fumbling.
The truth is, interviewers and the media are ridiculing these girls for the entertainment of judgemental idiots (who are presumably the twenty percent of people who can't locate US on the world map) so it leaves the remaining eighty percent of us to question the morals of modern media. Are these questions fair by moral standards? No.
But that doesn't seem to stop comments like these from surfacing on the world wide web:
"What a bird brain...she must be extremely embarassed to be such an airhead, since she is in the public eye. At least know the basics, about your own hometown! Women like that, give us a bad name.
As I always say, beauty comes and goes...dumb is forever!"
What a bird brain, you must be extremely 'embarrassed' for not being able to spell 'embarrassed' since you're comment is public. At least know the basics, about your first language! You've said it "dumb is forever".
This person is probably part of the 'twenty percent', and judging that they can't find the US on the world map, I wouldn't be calling a teenage girl an "airhead" for not knowing the capital city of Nevada.
But no, the comments don't stop there. Let's see what other hypercritical imbeciles from around the world have to say about Sanchez:
"well / at least she was born beautiful ~ who needs to be
