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Show !PA,E 10 MON PAY, JANUARY 22, 2001 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OPINION LETTERS Pageants ha_rm women TO THE EDITOR: Beauty pageants have been a part of our culture since the early 1920s. Women in our society have considered the contestants to be America's icons of beauty. That may expla in why a psychological study in 1995 found that women feel depressed, guilty and shameful after looking at a fashion magazine for only three minutes. Or why one in four college-aged women has an eating disorder. By sending a message that only the thin and "beautiful" w ill succeed , we are inevitably destroying our emotional and physical selves. Ask yourselves whom you support when you attend a beauty pageant. Do you support the crash diet she's been on or all the times she's been tanning, slowly destroying her skin? If you support this, surely you applaud the way she feels about herself every time she sees someone just a little thinner or more beautiful. ·, It's not only damaging to the contestants : consider the audience. Women. evaluate your thoughts as you watch a beauty pageant. Do you compare yourselves to the contestants? Of course, some may argue that this is a scholarsh ip program, not a beauty contest It was developed to award the most well-rounded. talented and confident woman to represent our school. These contestants each have a talent they have undoubtedly practiced for the past couple of months. Each contestant also had to choose a platform to represent. They were then assigned to write a paper on their experiences. If the hour spent serving were compared to the hours spent tanning, at the salon, finding the right gown and the most flattering swimsuit, then service would be at the light end of the scale The biggest disappointment is that these contestants are all very intelligent women, but their intelligence is not portrayed in a beauty pageant. If a scholarship is awarded to the most wellrounded woman. then why is there a swimsuit contest? I am not w riti ng as a bitter woman, rejected by mass beauty pageants. I am writing as a woman who grew up watching and always wanting to be one of those beautiful. flawless women. I am writing for my seven-yearold sister who is entering the realm where Britney Spears is each girl's role model, where makeup makes you beautiful and short skirts help you succeed. Most importantly I am writing as a woman who has struggled to find myself for the past 19 years, only to realize that perfection is not possible. I won't be able to stop an 80yea r-old tradition of beauty pageants; it's been attempted by many women , but I believe everything starts with an Idea and is developed by our environment Ask yourself when yoi.J began to compare yourseJf with others whom you decided were more attractive . In our society we are taught that regardless of our achievements, we are failures if we are not young, flawless and above all, thin. If only one person reads this and wants to see a tradition of self-destructive behavior change, I believe we are one step closer Tiffanie Clawson JOURNAYL SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY · CEDAR CITY. UTAH DIRECTING STAFF AND DESK PHONE NUMBERS: Editor Kam1fyn11 Savage 586-7750 Auoctate Editors Jes$1CB Blonqu1st Photo Editor Janelle ReJc;hen 586-7750 Copy Editor Aml>erty Robinson 586-1992 Focua Editor Stacee Ct>ids 586-1992 Atta Editor Ashley Adams 865-8443 Spo.r tll Edilrw Jaon Erickson ~ 3 586-nso Camery Lybbert sas-nsg Almanac Editor Jody Johr,soo 665-8226 Webmastar Russell Wolhams 586-7750 Ad Manager Cam, Perl<ins 586-7758 AdYIHI' Larry Baker 586-7751 Writing Coach Paul Husselbee 865-aSS6 SENIOR STAFF WRITERS ANO REPORTERS' DESK S86-n57, 586-S488 The U~ Jo,.,mei II ~ e¥1fY Uonday """ n..ncs.y al the 11CM»mic y- by me! lot the ,.._,. body of Soulhem UT.. Unrversrty II rec<1ovu a<lvlsemern !rom the """'...ay adm""-on 1fid from Ille ...-Y• c,:,,nnnalml <iopm,1IMt1I. T l w - lltld ~ ""l)IW....S w, ltle .lol.<nlll . . ltlo$e DI irdvidua wril«s - CID nee nocesnnly reffect the .,.,.. of the inst1uocn, lacully, .sW! Of '1Udonl body w, _ ._ The ~ci<-,. allove is Ol lhe Uri..~ .Joum.J u a >irl!llol lt'lllly. L - . 10 lho edilo< ......, be lypeO ,nc1.- Ille nome .,,., pl,ono , , , , _ Ony lne """"'..t be prr,l9d. - . .,.;1 l10I be . . . - . . - ..,. orn.msianceo Ind tbe r.,,....,.. ldi•no pnv~s ,mm 11a >utim,ned by 5 p ,n_ Th<ndays lot on Mood8y tditions, - by 5 pm !.landayl for Tl'r.nday Mtion,_ ~ ' Any - - a gnr,or,ce _ , s i 11w .Jouma/- &.cr llUdl"""""' Ml ID"" eOIOf ~ - - - l h o u d l l w l b a - lDlheadvloer u,,,-,_Joum.ol:Ofliou o,SW Technology S.-,.,011 Maof II SUU, CeowClry, l/bn94721l. FAX (4:15) 5116-S4117 E·mail aodrUS io,mll@tw.odu the.,.._ L-• ~ ,)"AJNTal ON REcYCLEO PAPER Pl.EASE RECYCI.E THIS COPY /NAUSORAL BALL LEAH HARTMANN COMMENTARY Don't ,ness tNith ,ny ,nertnaids In the last hours of 1999, my dad filled two 55gallon drums full of the cheapest gasoline he could find You can get out of your bunker now. Dad. Y2K didn't happen last year. It happened this year. Happy New Year! We've got energy shortages and a slowing economy. I blame everybody who didn't vote for Ralph Nader (just kidding). Actually, the blame belongs to every single one of us overindulgent, insatiable Americans. We've been sucking the world's fossil fuels through a goldplated straw as if the party would never end. We've been casting a lazy, overfed eye at the rest of the world as if to say, "You don't have enough to eat? Too bad; next time try being born in the United States like a smart person." In an ever-so-ironic way, getting richer has doomed us. How much longer do you think we can keep up this exhaustive race to acquire bigger cars. bigger houses, and bigger bandwidth? There are more places to spend money than there are holes in the U .S.-Mex1co border. Consumer debt is at an all time high , and Old ' Navys are going up faster than LOS temples. Meanwhile, somebody just invented a $10 mango-kiwi-passion fruit body spray for that most lucrative target market in all of mall culture: the high ma fntenance hootchie-mamas with frosted hair. fake nails, and pierced belly buttons. The absolute epitome of American excess is a little town about 15D miles down the road called Las Vegas-Sin City and proud of it. You've all been there; you know what I'm talking about. Here is a town of near1y a million residents and growing every day. In Vegas, you'll find golf courses, 20-acre lakes. volcanos, Venetian canals, swimming pools , mini-malls, football fields , hospitals, portable meth-labs, brain-melting heat, but no water. How long do you think that can last? St. George is the same story-with fewer stoppers. A rash of bland, pre-fab, cookie-cutter houses is breaking out all over Utah, Nevada. California and everv other open space left in America. Sprawl is ugly, and I've never seen anything so self-indulgent. Trying to imagine the thought processes of these conspicuous consumers goes kind of like this; · • I finally have enough money to borrow some more money and do something really big • • "Hmmm (light bulb!), here's an idea: I buy a house that looks like exactly like 40,000 others, and I paint it Status-Quo Silver. " . • "The perfect place to build my boring piece of paradise is on a nice stretch of virgin desert I need to rip up the ground so I can lay some pipes. so I can get water onto my big, thirsty lawn with its nonnative leafy trees. • ' I need lots of storage space for au the useless' crap I buy, so why don't I eradicate some more endangered turtle habitat and hang up a basketball hoop? You know what the best part is? The outlet stores are only a 15-minute drive away: • "I Just put a down payment on a dolphin-and· mermaid fountain with track lighting and a sound system. Man, I'm not turning that thing off ever. • • ' VVhat do you mean there's a power shortage? How could this happen? I need my dolphins and mermaids. I need them now!" Could the slowing economy mean we're finally taking a look at our credit-card debt and wanting. to 01ake It smaller rather than larger? Could we possibly have that much sense after years of endless gorging like a mob of Romans after a good Christians vs. lions match? We can never be expected to return to the simple ways of past generations. They knew all about sacrifice; but we can't be bothered to tum off our Christmas• lights. We don't have endless natural resources. We don't need another enormous shopping center with convenient freeway access, surrounded by gas stations. A little moderation wouldn't kill us. It might even save us. Leah Hartmann is a senior communication major from Kemmerer. Wyo. |
