Is Miss America or Miss Universe or beauty pageants in general even relevant today?

[WI_DEM]

I remember when the Miss America pageant was considered a big thing and got big ratings. I'm old enough to remember when Bert Parks hosted it for years and years, and asked the contestants questions like, "What would you do to help foster world peace?" or "What would you do to make your husband more comfortable when he comes home from a long day at the office?"

Now, we have Miss America contestants being asked real and relevant questions like, "do you support gay marriage?"

Does it really make sense though? Does anybody really pay attention to beauty pageants anymore?

[closeupready]

1. Has been a joke for the last 30 years at least.

n/t

[spanone]

2. not in my world

[NC_Nurse]

3. no, not even.

[MineralMan]

4. I doubt if they were ever relevant.

That's probably not the point, though. Apparently, some people do pay some attention. Enough to make some money for the promoters of the things. So it goes.

[Johonny]

14. IDK

There was a time Miss America was a house hold name who's miss steps could dominate the press. I think the celebrity, entertainment field has become more much saturated from the hey day of these type of events.

[ROakes1019]

5. beauty pageants

As Jon Stewart said, beauty pageants are just a bunch of dummies displaying body parts to the world and saying stupid things.

[FSogol]

6. Sure, how else will Fox "News" choose their future anchors?

:woohoo:

[L0oniX]

17. ...and repuke vice presidential candidates

[Desertrose]

7. Only to the ones who participate in it....

[uberblonde]

8. Don't be silly!

It's a scholarship pageant!

[T Wolf]

9. It's not a beauty pageant - it's a scholarship competition. And if so, isn't this as valid as

throwing a football to getting university paid for?

Just sayin'...

[tbyg52]

10. It's a beauty pageant *and* a scholarship competition!

A winning combination.

I'm not crazy about athletic scholarships, either, but I'm not crazy about sports.

Unless there's a degree in beauty or football, I wish they'd just give scholarships for scholastic stuff.

I know, never gonna happen.

[Stagecoach]

11. I don't think they are

It used to be these pageants would take place on a Saturday night and be a huge draw, ratings-wise. Now, they're relegated to the 7p.m. time slot on a Sunday on NBC, in the case of Miss USA....and Miss America can't even find a consistent television home to the point it's on The Learning Channel these days. These pageants seem to have run parallel with boxing. Popular at one time, but now it just seems to me they're corrupt that it's not worth watching.

[tridim]

12. Miss America is about as relevant as Perez Hilton.

:nuke:

[OKNancy]

13. Different strokes

It's relevant for some especially the Miss America franchise. They give away a lot of scholarships. It's not just for the eventual winner, but all down the line, from tiny local pageants to the final. I used to be snobby about the whole thing, but no more. Not since I've had several of my dance students get money to go on to some really good schools.
One in particular was in a single-mom family and could have never afford to go to the fancy school she picked.
LOL - having a Miss America winner didn't hurt my outlook either.

[Mike Daniels]

15. If it were still relevant the pagaents wouldn't be on cable stations now

The fact that ratings dropped so much that it wasn't economically viable for the major networks to carry them anymore speaks volumes.

That said, I guess like many so things that are "tradition" people don't want to have them die off completely so they find a home on cable channels.

[L0oniX]

16. We need future pr0n stars ...it's a jobs thing.

[rrneck]

18. I don't see the impulse for physical perfection ending any time soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polykleitos

Polykleitos consciously created a new approach to sculpture; he wrote a treatise (Kanon) and designed a male nude (also known as Kanon) exemplifying his aesthetic theories<4>. The bronze has not survived, but references to it in other ancient books imply that its main principle was expressed by the Greek words symmetria, the Hippokratic principle of isonomia ("equilibrium"), and rhythmos. "Perfection, he said, comes about little by little (para mikron) through many numbers"<5>. By this Polykleitos meant that a statue should be composed of clearly definable parts, all related to one another through a system of ideal mathematical proportions and balance, no doubt expressed in terms of the ratios established by Pythagoras for the perfect intervals of the musical scale: 1:2 (octave), 2:3 (harmonic fifth), and 3:4 (harmonic fourth). The refined detail of Polykleitos' models for casting executed in clay is revealed in a famous remark repeated in Plutarch's Moralia, that "the work is hardest when the clay is under the fingernail"<6>.Text

I'd give a better source here but I'm in a coffee shop and the information I have is in those things with pages - what do you call them? - oh yeah, books.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f01/web1/ekanayake.html

Through observations evolutionary biologists have found a link between the popular fascination for Barbie doll curves (or small waist to hip ratios) in women and a higher disposition of fertility and health. Worldwide men of diverse backgrounds, ethnicity and ages have ranked women with a small waist to hip ratio of around 0.7(the waist is 70% the size of the hips), irrespective of variance in weight as the most attractive and healthy (2). This corresponds to scientific assessments that verify a woman with a small waist to hip ratio (WHR) as the most healthy and fertile. WHR is found to be positively correlated with high testosterone and negatively linked to estrogen (3), thereby high degrees of estrogen lead to low WHR. A high concentration of estrogen in the female body especially after puberty results in nearly 35 pounds of reproductive fat deposited on the hips and thighs rather than on the waist (2). A study conducted in Netherlands has found that even a slight increase in waist to hip circumference might lead to reproductive problems and infertility, as a woman with a WHR of 0.9 is nearly one third less likely to get pregnant than a woman with a 0.8 WHR (2). In addition, a higher degree of adult onset diabetes has been observed in women with high WHR (4).Thereby it could be observed that a female with a more hourglass figure is more fertile and healthy than non-curvaceous or high WHR woman. Male fascination with more curvy women therefore translates into a reasonable indicator of the actual reproductive value of females since the low WHR is associated with high fertility and good health. This is a good example of sexual selection in the evolutionary process (1).

[Captain Hilts]

19. It sustains the rule that women are supposed to be, first and foremost, decorative. nt

[Gormy Cuss]

20. IMHO neither pageant is relevant, but point of correction: It was the Miss USA , not Miss America

contest where Carrie Prejean made the remark.


As to anyone paying attention, the broadcasts make money so they're relevant to some people.

[Toucano]

21. Mass media sets the agenda.

As long as the people who control the media think it is relevant, it will be.

[Atman]

22. Miss Universe is total joke...

Totally rigged. I mean, someone from Earth ALWAYS wins.

.

[carlyhippy]

23. It's still big business, kids from infants are in pageants

There are even shows on TV about them, like "Little Miss Perfect" and "Toddlers and Tiaras". It is an awful lot of stress on a little kid, and for what...a crown and some money if they are cute enough.

[SheilaT]

24. To a particular subset of the population, yes,

the various pageants are still relevant. Probably not very many of those people post here on DU.

A similar question could be asked of all sorts of things: professional sports, violent computer games, vampire novels. I just named three things that I have zero interest in. But I'm enthralled by stuff that others don't care about, like science fiction and embroidery.

[bobbolink]

25. Was it ever "relevant"??????

Now, Miss Aloha Hula... that's a completely different topic.

:hi:

Hurrah for Miss Aloha Hula!

[Taverner]

26. I dunno, I prefer going to a titty bar myself

Just like why I don't go to Hooters or drink O'Douls

[foxfeet]

27. Pageants pretty much ARE titty bars.

They're just less honest about it.

[Taverner]

28. Yep - that's where I was going with that :)