Friday, May 01, 2009

So should Miss California just lie so that she can win?

I'm not sure how I feel about this whole story of Miss California stating her true beliefs on the issue of gay marriage.

So would it have been better if she just lied? I mean, it wasn't a political office or an ambassadorship she was running for, after all. Perhaps it would have been better to not have asked politically loaded questions in the first place, but that's probably going to be coming even more and more now. Perhaps beauty queens and others who vie for such public positions should just prepare their responses in advance so that they say what the judges want to hear.

She was asked for her opinion, she gave it, and no doubt the judges told themselves "Hell, do we want the PR firestorm that will come if she's made Miss USA? Let's just give the crown to somebody safe so that we won't have to deal with this messy situation." So I ask again - would it have been better if Miss California had lied instead?

5 comments:

blackink said...

No, I think she should answer what's really in her heart and mind.

To me, the biggest problem is that she came off sounding sort of stupid. "Opposite marriage"? I think there was a better, more coherent way to convey her thoughts on the issue.

Then again, Miss USA ain't about the brains so much, is it?

John P. Araujo said...

I have to disagree, Chief. Like you said, it's not generally brainiacs who participate in such pageants, but I don't think it was so much that she sounded kinda stupid as it was that she voiced the wrong viewpoint. It also makes me wonder if these sort of political litmus tests are going to be part of the pageant now that this issue has been brought to light. Given that these ladies work so long and hard to get to this level, it'd be a real pain in the ass to be undone by a pageant judge looking to score cheap political points and rah-rah applause moments. Better to just bypass that by saying what the judges want to hear rather than what they really believe.

blackink said...

See, again, I think you can express your opinion on this sort of issue without coming off like a doofus. Which is what happened with Ms. Prejean. She didn't even meet the low-level standards that were required in that portion of the contest ... really, she was almost completely incoherent.

But Perez Hilton didn't do much to elevate the discourse either, btw. I wouldn't invite that dude back to the contest at all ... and given some of the blatantly misogynistic things he says about women on his blog, you have to wonder why he was invited in the first place.

That said, looks like Miss Cali might have had to surrender the crown anyway, given that some of her old modeling pics that were "leaked" to the internets.

She's better off for not winning, as it were. Who even knows the name of the winner? I'm sure Prejean will ride out these 15 minutes, thank you very much.

John P. Araujo said...

Oh definitely she will be riding out her 15 minutes, and it's 15 minutes she wouldn't have otherwise had, had Perez not felt the need to press her into a corner with a politically loaded question. Neither of them came out looking good from all this, I think.

Bougie Applebum said...

I know I'm late with this, but I agree with blackink - say what is in your heart. There are different pov's on everything. Perez asked a loaded question so he should have been prepared with whatever response was given.

Backlash was inevitable, whether Miss California expressed support or spoke against it. I'm assuming the shocker comes from the fact contestants are expected to echo a 'politically correct' answer and Miss Cali dropped the ball.