Missed America
by Rich Handley
Here's my take on the outrage people are
expressing about an Indian-American woman winning the Miss America crown:
Putting aside the face-palming bigotry of calling a person a
Muslim due solely to her skin color... putting aside that she is, in fact, not
a Muslim… putting aside that India is not an Arab country, so calling her an
Arab indicates an appallingly poor education and a complete lack of
geographical knowledge... putting aside that even if she WERE a Muslim and even
if India WERE an Arab nation, it still wouldn't matter in the slightest since
there's nothing wrong with being a Muslim or an Arab... putting aside that
calling her a terrorist is ludicrous since she's doing nothing that would
incite terror unless one finds elegance, poise and hairspray terrifying…
putting aside that all complaints about her being a foreigner are idiotic since
she is, in fact, American... putting aside the irony that so many of those
complaining about her not being American display no grasp of basic English
language skills whatsoever, whereas she seems rather eloquent by comparison...
putting aside that pretty much EVERYONE in the United States, with very, very
few exceptions, is a descendant of foreigners... and putting aside that this is
2013, not the 1930s, and we should be well beyond this level of idiocy by
now... it's a freakin' beauty contest.
That's all it is: a beauty contest. It's not something that
matters enough for anyone to attain this level of melodramatic outrage. It's a
measure of dazzling gorgeousness. She's dazzlingly gorgeous. And it's about
American women. She's a woman. And she's an American. In short, it's about hot
American women, and she's in that classification. Hence, she qualifies for the
title of Miss America.
For the record, I don't watch the Miss America pageant and
never have, because that kind of superficial fluff (with no offense at all
intended to anyone who enjoys it—vive la différence) just isn't my cup of tea.
But if I were one to watch the pageant, I'd like to think I'd be able to
comport myself in a non-bigoted manner while objectifying women based solely on
how their breasts look in a bikini and a low-cut gown.
Labels: Miss America, Nina Davuluri, people are freakin' stupid, politics
2 Comments:
I read your response on the Buzzfeed site and wanted to read it again, but couldn't find it. Too many responses to wade through.
I'm glad you put it up here on your blog.
Thanks, yewnique (great screen name, by the way). That's much appreciated. :)
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