| Subject: Why beauty queens can do anything they set their minds to! |
Author:
 MissMerlin
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Date Posted: 08:56:37 09/17/08 Wed
This article was written by my friend Kate Michael, who also just happens to be Miss DC 2006 (that means, in the hierarchy of pageantry anyway, that she beat Sarah Palin!). I LOVE IT! Hope you enjoy too!
Politics from Pageantry
Every little girl’s dream. I could just as easily be speaking of becoming Miss America or the first female President of the United States. They aren’t really that different; and with Sarah Palin’s selection as a Vice Presidential candidate, the two positions just got a lot closer.
Any woman who has ever competed on a pageant stage, much less worn the coveted crown, can understand how the pressures of pageantry could prepare her for a life in politics. Much was made over Palin’s history as a runner-up to Miss Alaska. I think the significance of that experience has not yet been realized.
The drive to enter a pageant is not entirely superficial. It is about a desire to excel: in appearance, fitness, talent, scholarship and public service. The act of competing teaches contestants much about themselves. Obvious lessons of pageantry concern recognizing the importance of appearance, poise and self-confidence. The unwritten guidebook also includes coaching in sportsmanship, diplomacy and discretion.
Upon entering the pageant, a woman must look deep into herself to understand her personal values and ideals. And she must learn to express those principles and intensely defend them. That self-analysis and ability to communicate her ideology will serve Palin well in this election.
What’s more, Palin is physically prepared for the challenge. A pageant woman must learn to endure long hours of campaigning, in the political sense and otherwise. Pageant queens perform the same services as politicians, including ribbon cuttings, speeches, community festivals, and charitable fundraisers and must be taught not only to be down to earth and approachable but also stately and sophisticated. She must tolerate the harshest of criticism with grace and dignity. Her words and actions are scrutinized. Her appearance is scrutinized. And most likely a pageant queen must struggle with extra enthusiasm to prove her intelligence and worth, because she is wearing a crown and she is a woman.
But undoubtedly the most important lesson that conveys from pageantry to politics, and the one that Palin shows most strikingly, is the expectation that pageant women are put in a position to focus on community service. Many of the women in positions of political power, on all levels of government, were pageant women who chose public service because of this lesson of commitment to community and country.
There is a particular reason why years down the road a pageant winner continues to be referred to as "former Miss ‘State’," and why it was uncovered so quickly that Palin was a runner-up to Miss Alaska. These young ladies are forever representatives of their city, state and country. They undergo extensive media training and learn to speak in sound bytes, but they are a living symbol of an area’s pride. Sarah Palin continues to symbolize that pride, in Alaska and in the larger United States.
All pageant women should be proud of the lessons learned through pageantry. I didn’t win Miss America and I certainly hope that we elect a female President before I am old enough to run myself, but Palin is that much closer to every little girl’s dream. My new dream is to see these strong and stylish women succeed and become the fierce and fabulous female leaders we know we can be.
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