American Education Part II
Miss Teen South Carolina (see comments to Today's Project) is a good example of a person who may have failed even to achieve half-education. (In fairness to her, it's easy to get flustered when the adrenalin is flowing, but it was still a pretty dismal showing.) Even half-education should at least prepare one to give an answer related to the question asked; she obviously had prepared herself to comment on South Africa (why?) and Iraq (obvious why) and felt obligated to work them in, even though the question put to her had nothing to do with either country.
The beauty-pageant phenomenon is an interesting example of an underlying premise of American education, previously mentioned; we expect everyone to be "educated". (What "educated" means is not usually discussed; it should be, and will be later, because it's one of the central problems of the overarching problem.) Beauty pageant contestants are generally associated with, well, beauty (another ambiguous and fraught term, but one which will remain unexamined at the present time). Generally, the attraction of these competitions is looking at unusually good-looking women in revealing clothing; however, it is also demanded that the contestants show that they can do more than apply makeup. Hence the question put to Miss Teen South Carolina, and the exhibition of "talents". and so forth. The contestants have to be more than just good-looking; they should be able to comment intelligently on, say, American education, or the war in Iraq, or Federal Reserve policy and the housing bubble, or what have you. So much the better; insofar as it reflects a real cultural priority, honoring intelligent and well-spoken women is a very good thing. Part of the problem, however, is that it is not usually a real priority. One will never see a plain woman as Miss America; one might well see a badly-educated woman in the role. Intelligence and education serve as window-dressing or ancillary accomplishments to the real "accomplishment"--being physically beautiful.
*reviews*
I think I'm losing the thread here a bit, but onward and upward! Tomorrow--it's not just beauty pageant contestants, and what good is it to be educated anyway?
The beauty-pageant phenomenon is an interesting example of an underlying premise of American education, previously mentioned; we expect everyone to be "educated". (What "educated" means is not usually discussed; it should be, and will be later, because it's one of the central problems of the overarching problem.) Beauty pageant contestants are generally associated with, well, beauty (another ambiguous and fraught term, but one which will remain unexamined at the present time). Generally, the attraction of these competitions is looking at unusually good-looking women in revealing clothing; however, it is also demanded that the contestants show that they can do more than apply makeup. Hence the question put to Miss Teen South Carolina, and the exhibition of "talents". and so forth. The contestants have to be more than just good-looking; they should be able to comment intelligently on, say, American education, or the war in Iraq, or Federal Reserve policy and the housing bubble, or what have you. So much the better; insofar as it reflects a real cultural priority, honoring intelligent and well-spoken women is a very good thing. Part of the problem, however, is that it is not usually a real priority. One will never see a plain woman as Miss America; one might well see a badly-educated woman in the role. Intelligence and education serve as window-dressing or ancillary accomplishments to the real "accomplishment"--being physically beautiful.
*reviews*
I think I'm losing the thread here a bit, but onward and upward! Tomorrow--it's not just beauty pageant contestants, and what good is it to be educated anyway?
Posted by sealionii on
Thursday August 30, 2007 at 4:02pm