Ms. Universe almost had a Russian Duckling for a contestant. This "plain Jania" was entered into the Russian roulette as a joke, a protest against the "barbification" of female beauty standards. Officials stepped in and disqualified her because she was three years under the legal limit, even though she was leading in Internet voting.
As the father of daughters, I am more and more appalled by the mentality represented by this story and fostered by shows like "The Swan" (and even "The Apprentice," which I otherwise enjoyed tremendously) that promote a very narrow concept of beauty, featuring unnatural proportions, cartoonish bosoms that defy every natural law of physics and biology, and facial features that don't permit for ethnic characteristics that should othewise be appreciated or even considered beautiful.
These stereotypes and limited definitions of beauty both instigate and perpetuate negative self images in females. I, being naive, would have believed it if I hadn't heard it on these shows, things like, "maybe I'll have a better self-image if i didn't have this hump on my nose." We have refined a culture that promises to fix deep-rooted spiritual problems with cosmetically-altering physical solutions. Once this has been accomplished, when the remodeled person is unveiled to herself and America, she can only cry out in Lithgownian fashion before covering her face in self-loving shock and awe. All the while the team of Dr. Frankenstein's progeny all nod with smug self-congratulations on reshaping this woman from normalcy into their twisted perception of an ideal.
oh hurl.
Yes, thanks Television, and folks like Trump (Ms. USA pageant) and Nely (the "life coach" and producer of The Swan), we continue to work diligently to make sure each emerging generation of women has ample opportunity to self-loathe, develop inferiority complexes, and pursue relationships where hypercritical shame and vainglory are the two sides of the coin of disfunction. I am already preparing for the times when I have to assure my daughters of their beauty and value in Christ, because they live in a world that will not praise and idolize them if they aren't frighteningly underweight, vacuous, and filled with alluring, tantalizing attitude.