Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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Miss USA and Our Hypocrisy on Sex
On Sunday night, Rima Fakih became the first immigrant, first Arab-American, and first woman of the Muslim faith to be crowned Miss USA. If that, alone, were not impressive enough, she also boasts two undergrad degrees in economics and business management from the University of Michigan and plans to attend law school after her year-long reign.
I've never been a fan of beauty pageants for reasons best left in a future blog, but this should be a proud moment for our country. Such a title is only given to those women we wish to be the face of our country, and one would think this would get a few news cycles of positive coverage given just how unprecedented it is for an Arab-American, Muslim immigrant to be selected as our country's representative.
The euphoria is to be short-lived, however, as photos were released in the last 24 hours of our newly-crowned Miss USA doing a pole stripdance. That may sound provocative, but after you look at the pictures, it's difficult to ascertain how the media feels justified in stirring up a scandal. You can find them here.
Yeah, she's dancing on a pole, but were the pole absent, one would be hard-pressed to explain how these photos are indecent or unbecoming of someone who wishes to represent our country.
But let's take this even further, shall we?
Please explain me to why our cable news networks will giddily attempt to instigate a scandal over dubious claims of "indecency" but they continue to inject obvious sexual overtones of female news anchors that use camera angles focusing especially on their legs.
Or the half-hearted criticism by said anchors of a recent video showing scantily-clad 7 year-old girls perform "Single Ladies" in a mall that sounded more like "Oh wow, they sure do have moves" than "This is completely inappropriate."
Or we could point out the dozens of times CNN, MSNBC or Fox News have covered Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue since its creation without a hint of moral righteousness.
But here's my favorite... the Miss World Organization, which oversees all the national contests, has contacted the establishment in which these photos were taken, one would assume to look into possible disciplinary measures for Fakih.
Of course, this comes after organization itself paid for official photos of all the contestants erotically posing in lingerie.
But that's art, right? If it's corporate-sponsored and spun the right way, who cares how women express their sexuality, right?
No, Fakih's crime is not in being irresponsible or indecent. Her crime is being a woman in a society that has no qualms with broadcasting excessive, graphic violence but will not fail to publicly humiliate those who do not live up to our ambiguous standards on morality.
What are your thoughts on this?
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- From: lightandfaith@xanga
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Comments (63)
the pole dancing didn't even involve the removal of clothing, lol this is why this country's Media is so retarded
I don't understand how the Miss America pageant can have them take pictures in lingerie and on beds or lying out so as to appear sexy then turn around and say something about her pole dancing when she was what, like 21?
I think those photos are indecent. Her ass is hanging out of her shorts and she's got her legs sprawled! I don't think that's becoming of someone who is representing our country! I also don't agree with the swimsuit competition. Women shouldn't be forced to take their clothes off in order to be viewed as beautiful. And those bikinis are getting tinier and tinier every year. This year they had lingerie photo shoots. Modesty is a virtue and women should remember that. When we forget, we devalue ourselves.
I JUST LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE BEAUTY PAGEANTS...
not
The majority of good people are people that are good at hiding the bad things they do.
Take that in any context.
Dude. She's from University of Michigan- DEARBORN!
MAJOR DIFFERENCEfrom University of Michigan. Dearborn is ... no offense, not as hard as umich.
And she doesn't even associate herself with Muslim, she's like between catholicism and muslim. Her family is shiite
She stayed fully clothed, let's give her that. Lol. Could have been like one of the last Miss America's who did a topless shoot.
All things considered, it's hard to find any girl involved with beauty pageants or things of that nature who hasn't done something along these lines. I don't see that big deal. But then again, I don't give a shit about these things. Though I am glad to see that a fellow Michiganian succeed.
@VidaRenaza@xanga - Still, dual degrees and law school is impressive.
@mcmeister89@mancouch - true, but from someone who got rejected from Umich, got into state, and into dearborn easily.. I just feel that difference you know? plus, alot of umich people wud be mad reading this article haha there is even a facebook group "Umich dearborn is NOT the University of Michigan"
i really wish people wouldn't hate on [real] pole dancing. it's quite an athletic feat regardless of the hypersexual connotations.
anyway, i don't care if she wants to shake her stuff. rock on, miss usa.
@VidaRenaza@xanga - The hardest things about Umich is getting in. I have a lot of friends at Umich and I'm a microbiology major at State, it's not all that different. Besides, I know kids way dumber than me who just bought their way into Umich.
i don't really care.....=/ ; they will do anything to dig up some dirt on people....just to stir things up.
The way that female correspondent on CNN speaks... it makes me I want to punch her in the neck. I don't even know what she's saying most of the time... I just really want to smack her a good one.
And honestly, the Miss World Organization can suck a large one.
You just know all those beauty contestants have done something sleazy in their past. There is always a picture popping up. Miss USA of Muslim faith to go with our closet Muslim president?
@mcmeister89@mancouch - Haha, I do too. I kind of gave up on the idea that umich's idea of getting is "fair"
i'm at state too! yay spartansss
The media always needs something to bite on to, otherwise there is no story.
these pageants are a joke to begin with and I think despite the judges scoring on the contestants, donald trump has the final say on picking the winner and she looks exotic like kim kardashian so she won for being hot, not really for everything else they test contestants on like intelligence
I know Smallville's not the greatest thing to quote, but in one episode, a character says that the only thing people like more than a hero is tearing a hero down, and I think that this is often sadly true.
@StabbedPillow@xanga - lmao.
why can't the media report something more important?
miss usa is not a fucking nun, they should just calm down.
@pianomusicchick@xanga - Its a perfect example of what our country is. We so fucking hypocritical on sex it's sicking. We use sex to sell everything. We promote kids to have sex younger and younger each year. Then when someone in high standing has pictures of them doing something *dirty* everyone is shocked. Are you kidding me? Everyone does things like this. If we have pictures of a women who is representing us having fun in a bar and comfortable with her body it's a great example of us.
Taking away her crown is a prefect example of why America is the biggest hypocrites of sex.
You're absolutely right (again). Keep blogging.
That Single Ladies video made me want to vomit.
Why do we even bother having these pageants, again? We parade these half naked women around on a stage for a few rounds, have them cry about how honored they are to be so beautiful, and then after we give them a fucking crown, we take it away the next week because of some pictures. EVERYONE HAS SEX. A lot of people that have sex take dirty pictures or do some dirty dancing. The pageant's guidelines need to catch up with the cultural shift. (Or just find all the pictures and videos before we let them compete.)
@Bluekiller2025@xanga - I totally disagree. I don't think it's right when we use sex to sell everything. I don't think it's right when someone does things like this. She's completely indecent. I think it's wrong for ANYONE because it sets a bad example. People don't do things like that because they are comfortable with their bodies. They do things like that for attention, because they lack the self-confidence to approve of themselves without others' approval, without the attention of men to validate their self-worth. I am comfortable with my body. I believe myself to be beautiful, but to go and treat my body as something as cheap as a show would be to devalue what I am.
She is very pretty