Wednesday, April 22, 2009

When Beauty Pageants Affect State Legislation

Dem Bones reader, Vince, an Alabama native, sent me this gem today. In response to Miss California's loss, due to her answer on same-sex marriage, in the Miss America's Pageant, one Alabama State legislator introduced a resolution praising Miss California for her stance against gay marriage:
A resolution has been introduced in the Alabama House that praises Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean for speaking out against gay marriage during Sunday night's televised pageant.
[...]
[Republican Rep. Jay] Love said Prejean showed she was willing to stick to her convictions even if it meant losing the pageant.
I know that pop-culture events do garner legislative resolutions, like national championships and such, but it is still funny to me that a beauty pageant can affect actual state legislation.

We can have a serious debate about the issue of gay marriages, but Prejean's answer was just dreadful. Despite my disagreements, I feel she bumbled her way through the answer with phrases like "we can choose opposite marriage" and "in my country;" everyone was American in that room, and, despite the issue of choice and semantics of "opposite marriage," in 45 states same-sex marriage is not possible. In her moment to shine, she shrunk. I don't believe, and I would like not to believe, despite my disagreements, that her beliefs contributed to her loss, but the presentation of her answer sure enough did.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just goes to show that anything can be presented before a legislative body and it will be considered. I agree with you Drew, her mumble mouth was her undoing.

matt said...

i remember that south carolina girl that verbally barfed her answer a couple years ago used the phrase "in my country". i think they are just programmed to say things like that. gotta give her props though for actually saying what she believed, disagree or not. most of those girls give answers like politicians.

Katie said...

Excuse me. To quote the cultural documentary "Miss Congeniality":

It's not a beauty pageant. It's a scholarship program.

...a scholarship program with bikinis and a sparkly prize. I'm sure there's validity in these things somewhere, but I fail to see it.

Matt F. said...

Matt-
She did give an answer just like a politician. It was just like a Republican politician. I would posit that you would not be praising her if she had mumbled her way like a moron through a defense of gay marriage.

matt said...

did she say what she believed - yes

do most of those girls - no

do most politicians dance around tough issues - yes

that's all i was saying.

Unknown said...

To fully comprehend the absurdity of this proposal, you must understand what's going on in Alabama politics right now. Congress is in session, but nothing is getting done, which, unfortunately, is par for the course. Long story short: One congressman has a personal vendetta against every other congressman, and so he is taking out his frustrations by filibustering relentlessly. Thus, no one gets anything passed. Here are some links that explain the situation more fully:

http://www.freethehops.org/blog/2009/04/bad-news/

http://www.prattvilleprogress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090404/PROGRESS03/904030355/1043/PROGRESS01

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20090220/NEWS/902190239/1007?Title=Poole-filibusters-state-Senate-a-second-time

http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090417/ARTICLES/904175022/1011/NEWS?Title=West-Alabama-senators-filibuster

Put all this on top of the fact that half (or more) of Birmingham's city officials are in jail (or are on their way there)--not to mention that their shenanigans may ultimately plunge the city into bankruptcy (google "Larry Langford" and "Birmingham sewer debt" for kicks sometime)--and the full picture of Alabama politics comes into view. It's really an impressive clusterf***, as clusterf***s go. And in the midst of this epic clusterf***, someone comes forward with the idea that we should invest our time and energy into officially praising some beauty pageant contestant in California for her opposition to gay rights. Yes, that is clearly a prudent use of our time and energy. Awesome.