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Who would have guessed that if you went about choosing your role models based solely on looks that you might not get the kind of person you want young ladies to model their lives after?
Tara Conner, pictured left, decided to go into rehab because of the generosity of Donald Trump, the man who owns the Miss Universe organization. What did she do wrong?
US tabloids have recently been full of reports about the beauty queen’s hard-partying lifestyle, alleging exploits including drug use, illegally drinking in New York clubs and bars and even smooching with the Miss Teen USA [Katie Blair pictured right] in public.
In addition to a taste for New York’s club scene, Conner reportedly failed to show at appearances scheduled by pageant officials.
Now, I’m certain that a girl from Kentucky can certainly be influenced by New York, and the glamor attached to having a pretty face. After all, she’s been competing in beauty pageants since she was 4! I’m certain that there was a lot of people that would like to party with Miss USA– regardless of the statements that she has to sign regarding her conduct.
The problem is that this is a problem in the whole concept, rather than an isolated incident. Shortly after this thing with Tara Conner came to light, another former beauty queen came out and asked that she have a second chance. Her crime?
Katie Rees appeared in photos posted online “revealing a breast, exposing her thong underwear and kissing other young women at a party in Tampa.”
The problem that I see in both Tara and Katie’s case (as well as the Miss Blair) is multi-fold. It’s part to do with our sexualized culture, with the atmosphere that they are placed in, and with their idea that what they do has no consequences.
Miss Rees highlights this:
“I am so sorry this happened,” she said at a news conference in Clearwater, reading a prepared statement. “So many of us don’t realize how our actions, even one night of poor judgment, can affect the rest of our lives.”
She goes on to say that these pictures were taken long before she was in the contest– but that’s something we seem to hear a lot of. Take, for instance, the nude or risque pictures that came out from Dr. Laura. Or the fact that Playboy some time back took pictures of women from WalMart or women from Home Depot.
The one thing I’m sure of is that these women believe that the temporal is more important than what will happen to them down the road. They let these pictures be taken, either professionally or privately. They behave in ways unbecoming a lady, least of all someone that girls are supposed to look up to. Then they expect us to accept an apology when they goof up.
Again, the core of this problem is that we are rewarding the wrong thing. We are rewarding the wrong thing. We are looking at the external only– and we miss the fact that these women are not women of character. (Remember, character is what we do when we know no one is looking.)
Miss Conner caught a break– whether it’s because of her looks, or Trump was actually feeling nice. But in my mind, we should take great care to exalt those women around us that have great character– calling them blessed, exalting them and praising those whose beauty is more than skin deep.
Frankly I could really careless about the pageants. They are nothing but exploitation and I think they should do away with all of them. Not my role models, ick, not even.
Self-esteem. What you value in yourself. What you value about yourself. How you think about yourself. What do others value in you. Should you care about superficiality? Mamy questions, plus peer pressure and fashion industry ideals. And teenagers without solid moral guidance from home, because what home cares about is money and success, because it pays immediately.
I think that if you rewarded people– men and women– who do good things and have good character and gave them the spotlight, then you’d be doing a whole lot better service to the next generation than the pageants.
I have seen where some people get their children into these things early like a sport– and in that sense, it is better to be healthy than to just maintain an animal or play video games. The problem that I see is that it’s easy to become vain, and it also doesn’t grow the inner “man”.
That’s what’s showing in these different cases where people have been caught either before or afterward with things that violate their contracts– their outsides do not match their insides.
In some ways, this is almost a commentary on some Christian’s lives. It was something that Christ identified in the Pharisee’s lives. Some Christians (and we all have the tendency) put on a “church” look on Sunday because we don’t want people to see what we’re really like.
Lots to think about.