Greetings! Last year a transsexual made a case to be allowed
in the Miss Universe Pageant. This year’s Miss America Pageant had its first contestant,
Miss Kansas, with an exposed tattoo. Last week a California transgendered
student was crowned Home Coming Queen.
Some say these examples show openness to individuality and equality
for participants. However, others use blogs and Twitter to render hateful
messages about contestants.
Our textbook notes that behaviors are only deviant if a
society deems them out of the norm. What
do you think should be the norms for beauty pageant? (Examples. Born female,
cross dressers, natural hair color, cosmetic surgery, inclusion of casual
wear-jeans, intelligence test, think across any existing category or consider new
ones).
PLEASE NOTE, this is not a question about the concept of
pageant, if you agree with them, like them or otherwise. Our purpose here is to
discuss cultural norms for pageants in the United States, from Home Coming
Queen to Miss America.
