Marie Peters, who did not
make the finals because
her swimsuit was not
revealing enough
VanBuren, who made the
finals, thereby beating out
Miss California. Did
she make the finals
because she was more
beautiful, more ugly, or
just the baddest??
The Post reports in the Sports section of the newspaper that Miss California, Tarah Marie Peters, who reached the semi-finals, did not meet with the judge's approval because she wore a one-piece bathing suit, whereas all the other semi-finalists wore a two-piece bikini.
Of the 51 contestants, representing 50 states plus the District of Columbia, only six chose the one-piece version. The other 45 wore bikinis. The six who did not wear a bikini represented Alaska, California, Florida, Idaho, New Jersey and Washington. All of those six were eliminated before reaching the semi-finals, except for Miss California, who was eliminated before reaching the finals.
The Post reports that Contest Judge Jermaine Jackson, brother of Michael Jackson, deducted points from Miss California because she did not wear a bikini.
There might be practical reasons for this. A girl might not want to wear a bikini so as not to reveal that she has stretch marks from giving birth to a child, for example. In general, contest rules have been that a contestant must never have been married or given birth to a child. Abortions and miscarriages are allowed, however.
In past years, there have been scandals where the contest winner had secretly either been married or had given birth, and sometimes had borne an illegitimate child, and this was discovered after she won.
One refreshing change in this years contest was that all of the contestants were reasonably attractive. In past years, contestants in these beauty contests have ranged from barely average to pug ugly. I do not know if this is a change but this year girls were accepted who had jobs that required them to be beautiful. Typical occupations for this beauty contestant were TV Newscaster, Professional Football Cheerleader and Professional Model.
Of the ladies below, only one made the finals. Miss Kansas (below) was the only white girl to make the finals.
The Miss USA contest is less prestigious than Miss America. However, I feel that Miss USA is a better contest, because points are awarded for beauty, unlike the Miss America contest. I have this prejudice that the winner of a beauty contest should at least be somewhat beautiful, or more beautiful than the other contestants.
Miss America contestants are generally judged on their ability to play a musical instrument, rather than on their beauty. In their defense, they do not even call it a beauty contest. However, Miss America had better start getting their act together, because if they keep on parading a bunch of average-looking or ugly dogs in their "beauty contests", they are going to loose the ratings war to Miss USA.
In case you are wondering why the New York Post published this story in the Sports section, it is not because broad jumping is a sport. It is because her boyfriend is Eric Byrnes, A's baseball star, even though beauty contestants are supposed to be virgins and not have boyfriends. (One wonders how they managed to get up on that stage, while hanging onto their virginity.)
Sam Sloan
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