Abby Ohlheiser: In the interest of The Revealer‘s ongoing coverage of beauty pageants, we’d like to draw your attention to the following FoxNews.com story about the latest batch of politically-charged questions posed to contestants.
Alleging that the questions, which ask about teaching evolution in schools and whether the candidates would pose for nude photos or not, are trying to create another Carrie Prejean moment (which, hey, they might be), the article cites another aspect of this year’s Miss USA pageant as possibly more worrying:
Another factor that could influence how contestants answer is the makeup of the crowd.
MUO has given away a significant amount of free tickets to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) to attend the live telecast. HRC are prominent champions for the legalization of gay marriage, the very topic that sparked the Prejean pandemonium two years ago.
The organization happens to be holding its leadership summit in Las Vegas on the same weekend, a source told Pop Tarts.
According to Meyer, the presence of a large contingent of HRC members in the crowd alone could be intimidating for the more conservative contestants if a question similar Prejean’s is raised.
It remains to be seen whether the HRC beauty pagent aficionados in the audience will intimidate the more conservative young women or not. Of note here is that beauty contests, which are a rather conservative, conventional presentation of what’s valuable about a woman, (and in that sense, an ideal platform for a certain sort of conservative, female potential leader a la Palin), have become a source for evidence of perceived liberal persecution of conservative values.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Miss USA, Rimi Fakih, the first Muslim to win the title, has been criticized for being not Muslim enough and too Muslim. Adding to the pen of would-be chaperones, the Miss Universe Organization, concerned that she might be partying a bit too hard (and too late) for their taste, recently reviewed security footage from cameras outside her apartment building.