Yes, the Miss Teen USA blunder by Miss Teen South Carolina was funny. I did laugh. But then I realized, this is miss TEEN USA. In other words, this is a KID!
Take any other kid, throw her onto a stage with millions of people watching on TV and thousands in the audience, and watch what she does. Her comments were no less intelligent than those of virtually any sports figure being interviewed after a game.
There is more…. (even a video)
Those of you watching and snickering, okay, I can see where you are coming from. The scene would make anyone laugh. Nobody should feel badly for laughing at anything…
But the news producers and youtube hounds who keep re-posting her humiliation should be ashamed.
Worse than that, the screaming whining leftists and feminists who jumped all over Don Imus’ ass when he made his sexist comments are deafeningly silent now. What’s wrong? A girl whose appearance threatens you gets the pile-on treatment and there’s no umbrage, no outrage, no desire to defend her? You like the fact that this girl’s 30 second brain freeze feeds into your own prejudices, don’t you?
Congratulations to Lauren Catlin Upton for a) having more talent than any of her detractors, and b) for unwittingly exposing the hypocrisy of all those who rushed to the spotlight when the victim wasn’t someone that activated their own senses of jealousy and insecurity.
Update:
Appearing on Tuesday’s Today show, Upton, 18, discussed her mangled answer at the nationally televised beauty pageant when she was queried on why she thought one-fifth of Americans are unable to locate the United States on a map.
Today’s Ann Curry suggested that everything must have come at Upton at once, to which the beauty queen (third runner-up in the contest) replied, “Yes, everything did come at me at once. I was overwhelmed, and I made a mistake. I’m human.”
As for the pivotal moment, “right when that question was asked to me,” she recounted, “I was in complete shock, and I was just overwhelmed.” Upton says she thinks she heard only one or two words of the question itself. “I drew a blank,” she said, “I misunderstood.” (source)
Hat tip to Blawg Review for bringing the above to my attention.
Interesting… Ms. Upton seems to have handled her mistake with more poise and intelligence than Larry Craig, Bob Allen, Bill Clinton, Ted Stevens, or GWB (no link provided, because I would need to post so many).
If you want to goof on someone who both deserves it and isn’t a high school kid, here… enjoy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtOoQFa5ug8]
