John Oliver on the Miss America Pageant

September 25, 2014


Parental warning – I’d rate this PG13, due to mild language and a bit of mature content. But he makes some excellent points about the conflict between how Western society says it views women and how our culture actually treats women.

In the interests of full disclosure, I feel I should confess that while I’ve never actually watched an entire Miss America Pageant, I bear an unhealthy love for Miss Congeniality, a movie that has just as many issues as the pageant itself but still puts me in a good mood every time I watch it.

What about you? Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? Are you troubled by their continued existence in a so-called equal society? Do you love a cultural artifact that, on deeper analysis, is seriously problematic? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.



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