masterplum posted...
I want to ask a question: If BET had a miss black America pagent would any of you be offended? I know I wouldn't because BET has the right to have a pageant for whatever group of people it wants. I would not be offended if there was a Mr. Black Man pageant and I couldn't compete because of my Caucasian decent, because I do not qualify under the rules of the pageant.
It seems that Miss Universe is designed for people who have the natural born sex of Woman, not the gender of a Woman, and so anyone who doesn't meet that criteria is not allowed to participate. This seems completely within its rights as a pageant to do so.
Interesting example, but let's flip that around.
Would it be ok if there was a "Miss White America"?
If you answer yes, would it be ok if "Miss White America" happened to call itself "Miss America" and just had rules against non-caucasians competing, sometimes sending girls home half-way through the competition when someone digs up their ancestry and finds out they're 1/32 Black?
I hope everyone here would answer no to that.
Now, let's say there were several competitions, "Miss America" for only white girls, which got all of the publicity, and a "Miss Black America" and a "Miss Hispanic America" and a "Miss other races America" all three of which got less attention than Miss America. Does the fact that there are separate but unequal competitions now make everything kosher?
I would argue no. Seperate but unequal just isn't ideal. Now if there was also a "Miss Everything" contest in addition to the race-specific contests, then that might be fine. Which, y'know, I would have assumed would be the point of the "Miss Universe" contest--this is the highest level of competition where everyone is included...right? Or are we going to exclude some people from the highest level of competition and tell them they can only compete in much smaller competitions?
--
Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision