Dear Tell All: I’ve been following the story of Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, shocked by the continuing revelations about his team’s possible collusion with a hostile foreign power. But as a longtime fan of Miss Wisconsin and Miss Madison Capital City, I groaned the loudest when Miss Universe became part of the sleazy narrative.
When he owned the pageant, Trump teamed up with a Russian oligarch to hold Miss Universe in Moscow, allowing the oligarch’s no-talent son to sing at the event. He was apparently greasing the skids for a Trump Tower in Moscow.
The no-talent son, Emin Agalarov, is the one reported to have set up the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer promising dirt about Hillary Clinton.
I hate to see pageants tainted by this association, particularly in a year when Miss Madison Capital City, McKenna Collins, was crowned Miss Wisconsin.
Can the local pageant world recover from this blow?
Runner-Up
Dear Runner-Up: You’re going to hate me for this, but I hope the local pageant world doesn’t recover from this blow. Russia scandal or no, it’s long past time we shelved beauty pageants as a sexist anachronism.
Despite attempts at sugarcoating (the scholarships, the talent show), pageants peddle a pernicious view of women. What matters most is how prettily the contestants smile; how round their butts look in a swimsuit; and how closely they conform to an oppressive ideal of beauty. The objectification is so blatant — with the contestants getting scored as they display their assets on a runway — that it might as well be a cattle-judging competition. I sympathize with the often accomplished women who seek the scholarships and the career boost, but I can’t help wondering if such a degrading spectacle fits with civilized values in 2017.
I imagine pageant defenders will accuse me of blowing this out of proportion. How harmful can a beauty pageant be? Well, let’s look at pageant values taken to their logical conclusion in Donald Trump’s behavior. When he believes a woman has crossed him, he insults her looks, as if her worth is determined solely on a pageant-style 1-10 scale. He employed this approach in his presidential campaign and continues to do so in the White House. It’s just as creepy when he announces that a journalist or a foreign president’s wife does meet his Miss Universe standards.
Sorry, Runner-Up, but it’s just a short leap from this worldview to grab-‘em-by-the-pussy behavior. I wish Miss Wisconsin McKenna Collins the best, but I hope beauty pageants go the way of the dinosaurs.
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