The story of the recent Miss California saga is sad and should be a wakeup call for all Americans. What started out as a simple answer in a beauty pageant has turned into a media exploitation that has not only caused great stress in her life, her family’s life, the other contestants lives (what is the girl doing who actually won the contest? Has anyone heard from her?), but now it is affecting every American. I still say that the media has overplayed this into something more than it was (see my blog of April 21), but since it is already overplayed we need to look at the ramifications.
First of all, she expressed her opinion – she stated that it was her opinion – and she was booed by the audience, insulted by a judge, and thrown into a national controversy. She has a right to her opinion – it is guaranteed by our constitution. She was asked for her opinion. She gave her opinion. And she is being persecuted for it. The question was “Do you think…” She answered what she thought. As we have all seen that is not allowed anymore. You can only think and say what is politically correct. Do you think that any of this would have been reported, played on You Tube, and still be taking over the news a month later if she had given the judge the answer he so obvisouly wanted? Do you think that the next contestant will say what she thinks or what she thinks will be politically correct? If a beauty contestant can lose her crown over speaking her mind today, what will happen a year from now if an employee expresses the same opinion? How long will it be before we lose our freedom of speech completely?
The other big issue – in MY opinion- is the more recent controversy over her photos. She claims the photos were a modeling job for an ad – ok, I’ll go along with that. But the bigger question is why is that type of photo acceptable as a modeling pose? If it is a pose that will cause controversy of this magnitude, it should not be acceptable for any advertisement. I have long said that every generation is a little more relaxed and a little more accepting than the preceding generation. This is an understandable progression, but it seems that now we are at a conflict that needs to be resolved. We cannot have two standards for the same type of photograph. If one picture is published in Cosmopolitan it’s an advertisement. If the same photo is published in Maxim, it’s racy, if it’s published in Playboy it’s porn. We need to decide what it is and go forward.
America is changing. While the recent presidential campaign was run on a platform of change, we need to be sure that we are really changing for the better. What rights are we giving up and is political correctness worth the loss of freedom of speech? What ‘rules’ are we willing to relax for our children’s generation? What are we going to accept today that we wouldn’t have yesterday? From something that started with an innocent opinion and has created so much havoc in so many lives, lets hope we can learn some lessons.
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