By Karen Lee
lee@newsroom.byu.edu
The official name of the annual parade of scantily clad women is now 'The Miss America Scholarship Pageant.'
I think that a scholarship that doesn't truly measure the knowledge one has, but merely the beauty one possesses, should be done away with.
When I think of a phrase containing the word 'scholar' I think of knowledge. However, when the word 'scholarship' was added to the official title of the Miss America Pageant, I believe there were ulterior motives.
Pageant directors were trying to get away from the idea that the pageant was just another beauty contest. Therefore, they changed the name of the pageant and didn't do much about the criteria used to judge those who were striving for the title.
Elements of the pageant still include: talent, which counts as 40 percent of the total score; interview, which accounts for 30 percent; eveningwear at 15 percent and swimwear at 15 percent of the total raw score.
Pageant directors wanted to portray the idea that pageants are won based on merit and inner beauty and not on outer appearances.
However, when 30 percent of a contestant's score is based on walking in high heels from one side of the stage to the other wearing either a fancy gown or just a swimsuit, the idea of merit and inner beauty fizzles.
I'm sure judges aren't looking on the so-called 'inner-beauty' of a contestant. This is evident when most competitors use stuffed bras, fake nails, 2-inch-thick layers of make-up, bodies wrapped in masking tape to give the appearance of thinness, skin that looks like leather from fake tanning and hair that is stacked to the sky.
The idea of merit also fades far, far away when the pageant is looked at on a local level. On this level a contestant is not even required to have a platform statement -- a cause the contestant is trying to champion in her community.
The whole idea of the platform is not even thought about until after a contestant wins at the local level.
As far as academic merit is concerned, those contestants who are still in high school are only required to have just over a 2.5 G.P.A. Most students with a G.P.A. in that range would easily be overlooked for other scholarship opportunities.
And while speaking of academic merit, I'm not even going to answer the question of how knowledgeable one has to be to parade around in a swimsuit wearing high heels.
I'll admit I have had my fair share of competing in pageants, and I've even won before. But I would have to say that never have I felt more like a potato salad with flies hovering over head waiting for their chance to pick me apart than while competing in a pageant.
Those flies were mostly the judges, but occasionally other contestants possessed maggot-like qualities that were used to tear me apart behind the scenes.
I sometimes wonder if the money earned by pageant winners is really worth the amount of time, effort and money they put in to the pageant themselves.
While it is true that winners are given scholarship money, it is also important to consider the amount of money a contestant has to pay just to compete.
Every contestant, be it on the local, state or national level, needs an outfit for the production number, talent routine, interview and eveningwear portion of the competition, as well as a swimsuit. Each of the outfits also requires shoes and other accessories, pushing total costs of competing into several hundreds of dollars.
Other expenses may include make-up, getting music cut for a talent number or obtaining a live accompanist, not to mention most lost for getting time off work to attend all pageant practices.
Not counted in dollars is the vast amount of time spent by each contestant practicing up for the big event.
Contestants not only spend time practicing their talent numbers and interviewing skills, but also their high heel walking capabilities, as well as time exploring their make-up and hair styling options.
Unlike the Miss America Scholarship Pageant, most scholarships don't require you to spend money at all, and may only require you to fill out an application or submit a piece of work you have done in order to be considered.
Although it is not likely this scholarship pageant will be done away with anytime soon, it is my hope that a more appropriate title could be arranged. I think a good name would be something more along the lines of 'The Miss America, High Heel Wearing, Money Costing, Time Spent Practicing, Outer-Beauty Judged Scholarship Pageant.'