I noticed it had been awhile since some official meandering had been done here at Highbanks...once the cold weather takes over and the writing chair goes from chair on the deck to chair in the living room, I guess the inspiration shuffles a bit. However, from the chair in the living room last night, I viewed something that, unless I had been told what it was repeatedly, would never have recognized it.
It was, I understand, the Miss America pageant.
What I viewed was kind of like a bad mix of a reality show/pageant/trashing of tradition--all at hyper-speed. Yikes!
I hadn't watched one of these for a number of years; now I'm wondering how it got to this train wreck status.
Hopping into the way-back machine, I can remember as a kid watching this show as an event. I know, our choices back then were limited, but this was kind of a big deal, especially to us little girls who would line up their Barbie dolls to view the event along with us. What I remember were beautiful ladies with lots of hair, walking very straight, speaking politely, and doing everything with more grace than could be believed.
What I saw last night was excessive fast talking, lots of twisting and exaggerated walking, that ever-present "hand on the hip/back arch to make me look fashionable", and talent presentations on a floor space that was squeezed as tightly as the bikinis on the now undernourished women competing. Only once did I hear my beloved say, "She's actually shaped like a real woman." I'd have to agree.
Back in my living room of long ago, I would always get a piece of paper and I would rank my top five. Mom and Dad would play along, being the good sports that they were. Sometimes, my top five would be obliterated in the top 10, so my kind parents gave me a do-over for my top five from the new top 10.
Last night I was confused and mortified in the way that all the women were marched out to await their turn only to be singled out for elimination and then being asked that long-standing, idiotic perennial question by one of the "hosts"..."How does it feel?" I would have to guess pretty rotten... And, the "people's choice" young lady picked from the start? Do we have to participate in everything that's produced for TV anymore? Can we not just sit back and let them put on the show without our direct involvement? Yikes again!
The real kicker for last night was, however, the "let's choose our best playground buddy" in what was called the "save"...the poor women had already been eliminated, so then three were called back and their peers voted them back on this merciless merry-go-round not by a dignified secret ballot, but by running to them like kids on a playground when choosing up sides for a game of tag. The poor woman in the middle last night was doubly humiliated by just a smattering of supporters. That goes beyond a yikes, right into a WOW.
So by the end of the evening with all the speed talking, the speed walking, the speed performing, and the speed question answering, we did end up with a new Miss America...and I think many of us ended up with a dizzy spell.
Sorry...but I'm going full-out old school on this one. Let's face it and not hide the fact...this is a beauty pageant...and it's okay! Not everyone will qualify--also okay. There are plenty of things for the rest of us to do. And, since it truly was originally meant to be a beauty pageant, let's get back to treating it as such and allow us to just sit back and watch a couple of hours of talent, poise, grace, and some good, old-fashioned pretty.
I have to give the young ladies in last night's fiasco some real credit. They pretty much achieved the impossible. Even with the lousy direction of people who thought they were being clever, these young women were able to do what they needed to do and represent themselves as beauty queens from their home states...good on them.
Maybe there's hope yet, Bert...
