Miss UA not just a 'beauty pageant'
Winner should be awarded more significantly
Cody Kees
Issue date: 1/14/09 Section: Opinion
Saturday night marks one of my favorite events of the year … the annual Miss University of Arkansas Scholarship Pageant. What can be better than a night full of beautiful women eloquently gracing the stage while enthusiastically supporting philanthropies dear to them? Their beauty alone is enough to hold my attention, so their perfected talent pieces are an added bonus!
If it were not for the zeal and passion of Toni Bahn, the director of Miss UA, we would not even have the competition. After Miss UA's 14-year hiatus, Toni battled the bureaucracy of the UA to restart the pageant and has ushered in a new forum for women to earn money for college.
Programs like the Miss UA pageant garner criticism from those who compare the pageant to "the parading of cattle."
No freaking out at this point, please. Those "naysayers" aren't comparing the girls to fat cows; they're insinuating that these pageants allow young girls to be watched the way a representative of a meat-packing company views a cow that comes through an auction: as a piece of meat.
The Miss UA pageant, however, is based on much more than appearance only. It showcases both beauty and talent that takes much time and effort to perfect and, as a result, should be admired for its uniqueness.
Allison Waldrip, the 2007 Miss UA, remarked, "[The Miss UA pageant] is the only stage many girls will ever be given to display the talents they have been blessed with."
Miss UA contestants have grace, charm, poise and elegance, and the stage gives them the opportunity to present a talent that they, no doubt, take years to develop. Best of all, this scholarship program allows women like Waldrip to fulfill their academic potential with a lower financial burden.
Many people are unaware that the talent and interview components of Miss UA count for 65 percent of the competition. This means that the swimwear and evening gown components (often targeted by critics) only count for a small portion of the total.
If it were not for the zeal and passion of Toni Bahn, the director of Miss UA, we would not even have the competition. After Miss UA's 14-year hiatus, Toni battled the bureaucracy of the UA to restart the pageant and has ushered in a new forum for women to earn money for college.
Programs like the Miss UA pageant garner criticism from those who compare the pageant to "the parading of cattle."
No freaking out at this point, please. Those "naysayers" aren't comparing the girls to fat cows; they're insinuating that these pageants allow young girls to be watched the way a representative of a meat-packing company views a cow that comes through an auction: as a piece of meat.
The Miss UA pageant, however, is based on much more than appearance only. It showcases both beauty and talent that takes much time and effort to perfect and, as a result, should be admired for its uniqueness.
Allison Waldrip, the 2007 Miss UA, remarked, "[The Miss UA pageant] is the only stage many girls will ever be given to display the talents they have been blessed with."
Miss UA contestants have grace, charm, poise and elegance, and the stage gives them the opportunity to present a talent that they, no doubt, take years to develop. Best of all, this scholarship program allows women like Waldrip to fulfill their academic potential with a lower financial burden.
Many people are unaware that the talent and interview components of Miss UA count for 65 percent of the competition. This means that the swimwear and evening gown components (often targeted by critics) only count for a small portion of the total.
Be the first to comment on this story