Comments on: The Dark Side of the Miss USA Pageant

The Dark Side of the Miss USA Pageant

reenum — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:10:30 -0800

Donald Trump trumpets the integrity of the Miss USA pageant. The truth is a bit different.

By: gwint

gwint — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:14:33 -0800

Did you just put the words "Donald Trump" and "integrity" in the same sentence?

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:16:59 -0800

"Keep Smiling!"

By: chavenet

chavenet — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:17:53 -0800

Some of the men who recruit and run the organization's lucrative pageants are scam artists with lengthy track records of manipulating desperate clients with false promises of fame. I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

By: East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:19:17 -0800

I believe it's been renamed to Miss Racist Plutocrat

By: JoeZydeco

JoeZydeco — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:19:26 -0800

Wow, that ItGirls website mentioned in the article looks like it's just begging for an avalanche of C&D orders from lawyers. Forget the Michelle Obama and Taylor Swift images on the homepage, the Oprah Hammer is the one you gotta watch out for.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:25:09 -0800

Did you just put the words "Donald Trump" and "integrity" in the same sentence? Separated by the verb "trumpets" so no foul here.

By: FirstMateKate

FirstMateKate — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:27:49 -0800

Its easy, and dismissive, to hand out a snarky comment about how "duh this is happening" right off the bat. But I feel like this warrants more attention. The story that the article follows along is absolutely, positively disgusting. Rodriguez took the girl to a parking lot and tried to bribe her into performing a sexual act on him, from a position not dissimilar between employer and employee, and she refused. She wasn't able to get anywhere with the cops, and the agency basically just said "Whoops! sorry bout that. You should still be in the pageant, though!" after backing him as a reputable agent in the first place.

By: Sternmeyer

Sternmeyer — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:30:25 -0800

Utterly vile.

By: kinnakeet

kinnakeet — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:37:54 -0800

Unsurprising in an industry based on the commodification of women.

By: JoanArkham

JoanArkham — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:38:11 -0800

The title insinuates there is a not dark side?

By: marienbad

marienbad — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:40:29 -0800

And on the other side - Honey boo boo.

By: Katjusa Roquette

Katjusa Roquette — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:44:03 -0800

Whole deal sucks. Pun intended. Pageants are basically a Bad Thing.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:21:25 -0800

"Beauty pageants and freak shows ritually enact a symbolic transference of embodiment within a cultural tradition which deeply, anxiously distrusts the body and its vulnerabilities."

By: klanawa

klanawa — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:29:24 -0800

I'd always assumed that the background of a beauty pageant would look more or less like the Bunny scene in Apocalypse Now. Not far off, I guess.

By: 1367

1367 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:54:15 -0800

"It's not a good sign if Donald Trump doesn't want to be associated with you."

By: xarnop

xarnop — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:01:57 -0800

No one deserves to be treated like a commodity. Phenomenons like this remind me of cults in the sense that it's hard not the think of participants "Yeah but WHY did you think this would be ok?" the first moment you realized the premise involved treating people badly? Somany human beings are frequently ignorant and delusional and not capable of basic logic applied to the myth they are compassionate aware human beings. I imagine many of the participants in things like this are assholes, but when you look at how brutal competition IN GENERAL can be and how we all turn a blind eye... We're forgetting to celebrate humans for human beings first- and enjoy their contributions and abilities second. I think this reflects an aspect of our culture that many of us (including myself) participate in and condone by going along with the fact that female beauty is something women MUST have to be seen as people worth looking at. (And a trend where this pressure starts being put on men as well is NOT an improvement in my opinion.) Our films and our tv series all feed this. A lot of us aren't as innocent about it as it seems or we would put more pressure towards changing it instead of just going along with it passively. What women get media attention? What women star in romance movies? The same pressure currently DOESN'T exist for men who star in romance movies, tv series, dramas... Just look through ANY teen movie or show-- what are we teaching your young people? It's not just these goons in stupid beauty pageants who are obsessed with seeing beautiful people as worthy of attention. It's a LOT of people making choices to feed this trend.

By: mibo

mibo — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:24:37 -0800

"Everyone wants to make some money somehow." Except for some of the recruiters, who just want free blow jobs. But this is the worst: "I never thought I was worthy enough anyway," she said. "I didn't think I was what they were looking for." That's because they don't look for fighters who call their bullshit to the mat -- and so, so sadly she feels this reduces her worth.

By: sammyo

sammyo — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:26:50 -0800

"It's not a good sign if Donald Trump wants to be associated with you."

By: marienbad

marienbad — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:33:33 -0800

JoeyZydeco is right about the "Itgirls" site. Also, there is a photo upoader at the bottom of the page, if only I had a peice of software to automatically upload a shed ton of random google pics.

By: Fists O'Fury

Fists O'Fury — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:43:27 -0800

"Beauty pageants and freak shows ritually enact a symbolic transference of embodiment within a cultural tradition which deeply, anxiously distrusts the body and its vulnerabilities." I think there are all sorts of reasonable things that can be said about this stuff--e.g. that it is nauseating and grotesque, that many of the people are scumbags, and that they are victimizing innocent, trusting people. Since basically everything that needs to be said about it can be said in fairly clear and straightforward terms, like those, let me suggest--or at least raise the possibility--that falling back on lit-critty (so-called) "theory' does nothing but muddy the waters in a case in which it'd be better to keep them clear.

By: cribcage

cribcage — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:45:55 -0800

The worst story depicted in that article is unfortunately just "He said, she said." That doesn't mean something didn't happen, or that it didn't happen exactly as she says. But if it didn't, then that portion of this article is unfortunate.

By: but no cigar

but no cigar — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:57:17 -0800

God, it's all just so gross. Also, I had a hard time reading this at work for fear the photos of the oily creeps in the article would be seen by others and out of context folks would wonder why I was looking at these sleazy dudes. Ick.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:09:55 -0800

"The beauty pageant promotes the ideology of America, that we are capable of anything, that 'we've got... pluck', in the most non-threatening of ways, through the female body.

By: murfed13

murfed13 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:46:24 -0800

Its easy, and dismissive, to hand out a snarky comment about how "duh this is happening" right off the bat. But seriously . . . Duh. I'd be more shocked if this wasn't going on. There is nothing about this that is remotely surprising.

By: vespabelle

vespabelle — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:21:30 -0800

Even the non-seedy side of pageants is seedy. My 12 year old recently received two solicitations to enter local beauty pageants within the last few months. (I'm not sure who sold her name, maybe American Girl?) Since I've been on a Toddlers and Tiara's binge I checked to see how much it would cost. I figure I could repeat This bit of activism at the 1988 Miss California pageant. Fortunately (or not?) the cost to enter was nearly $500 (not including hideous cupcake dresses, white socks, or fake eyelashes) and the pay-off in terms of prizes was pretty bad (pageant "coaching" and lodging while promoting the pageant and some other unspecified prizes. no cash, no bonds, no scholarships!)

By: palomar

palomar — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:37:02 -0800

Another article came out today about Erik DeSando, one of the recruiters profiled in the Gawker story. As of the posting of this second article, DeSando has resigned effective immediately from ItGirls (which he founded).

By: juiceCake

juiceCake — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:45:37 -0800

It's not a good sign if Donald Trump doesn't want to be associated with you.

By: FirstMateKate

FirstMateKate — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:04:09 -0800

Its easy, and dismissive, to hand out a snarky comment about how "duh this is happening" right off the bat. But seriously . . . Duh. I'd be more shocked if this wasn't going on. There is nothing about this that is remotely surprising. posted by murfed13 at 1:46 PM on March 13 [+] [!] If you think the point of trying to shed light on sexual harassment in the talent business and the grim nature of using women as a commodity is for shock value, then you're missing the fucking point.

By: murfed13

murfed13 — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:14:55 -0800

If you think the point of trying to shed light on sexual harassment in the talent business and the grim nature of using women as a commodity is for shock value, then you're missing the fucking point. My point is that Miss USA is gross, and that these types of things would be going on is obvious. It's not "shedding light" at all. This isn't news; this is the natural byproduct of an industry that sells women as objects. It's sad to me that anyone actually requires enlightening on the subject.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:06:25 -0800

Is Miss America much or any better? I genuinely don't know. Also, even outside of the commodification and the sex crimes and so on: beauty pageants are really weird.