Well I suppose that's a relief- I was afraid they were going to attack newly crowned "Miss America" Kira Kazantseva for her Russian background, since the mini-Cold War with the land of her fathers esp after Putin's seizure of Crimea and mischiefmaking in the Ukraine- but no, they "only" did so due to her work with Planned Parenthood.
Personally I've been inclined to be skeptical of the whole business of beauty pageants in general and "Miss America" in particular since Vanessa Williams of "Ugly Betty" fame was elected in 1983(she had to resign her crown after nude pictures of her surfaced). Critics(mainly African American) questioned whether Ms Williams was"authentically black"( due to her fair skin, auburn hair and green eyes- full disclosure she is also a Pisces like my favourite film star Drew Barrymore in addition to having green eyes as well( actually Drew's publicist says her eyes are "greenish hazel" but hey, why split hairs?) even though she had NEVER tried to "pass"( ie conceal her African American heritage), whilst white supremacists and other racists grumbled that a"darkie"(and other racist terms) should not be allowed to be entered in Miss America pageants.
(until fairly recently they weren't - hence "Miss Black America"pageants).
Had i daughters I most certainly would not encourage them to enter beauty pageants anyway as I think(even though I appreciate feminine pulchritude , irrespective of ethnicity and skin colour as well as the next straight guy), they reinforce the most regressive concepts not just of sexism but of racism itself( it's no coincidence that Ms Kazantseva is both blonde and grey eyed-granted, she is no more to blame for the colour of her skin, hair and eyes than was Ms Williams her predecessor, but has there EVER been a "Miss America" of Hispanic, "white ethnic" or Jewish background?).
Anybody think as I do?
PS I was mildly surprised to discover that an American woman of Russian descent could and did win the prize; I tend to think of Russian women(even though Ms Kazantseva was born in San Francisco)- save Raissa Gorbachev- as being more reminiscent of Rosa Klebb in that James Bond film "From Russia With Love" than say Raquel Welch!
Log in to comment