Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 13, 1995 TAG: 9507140024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And if Miss Virginia is supposed to embody all the virtues of the mythic all-American girl, to be held up as some sort of ideal of womanhood by fans of this cultural curiosity, honesty and forthrightness ought to sit like shining stars on her crown. Or so one would think.
What to make, then, of the overstated achievements padding the bio of the current Miss Virginia, Andrea Ballengee? Revelations that she was not a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, as claimed; did not graduate magna cum laude, as claimed; was not her high school's Most Outstanding Female Athlete, as claimed, all are explained away as miscommunications and misunderstandings.
No big deal, pageant officials say. The judges didn't consider these items in making their choice anyway. But knowing now that Miss Virginia's resume is spiked with a string of achievements that she didn't quite achieve surely steals some of the luster from her crown, whatever its value.
The judges may not have pondered G.P.A. alongside contestants' other statistics, but favorable biographical information certainly is ballyhooed to the public after a winner is chosen, the message being: Not only is the lovely Miss Dawn Peaches a gift to the eyes, she is smart and talented and has a kind and loving heart. A paragon of virtues, including, presumably, integrity.
If Andrea Ballengee were that classy, she would have given up her crown. After finding, to her professed surprise, that she had claimed honors that were not hers, she could have taken responsibility for her carelessness (she had had four years to get her facts straight), and resigned. Oh, well.
Pageant officials themselves could avert such embarrassment by verifying contestants' claims. They wonder about the time this would take for people who are, after all, volunteering their services. But if contestants were asked to produce the documentation, they could simply review it; outright tampering would be clear-cut evidence of cheating if questions arise later. Such precautions, if a sad commentary, would be fairer to participants than the current outcome.
While perhaps racing toward obsolescence, this pageant remains a Virginia and Roanoke Valley tradition; across the nation beauty contests entertain and amuse millions. Maybe fans will forgive Ballengee's resume enhancements (are they that different, in principle, from a little silicone-aided physical enhancement?), as professional-wrestling fans ignore the staging of matches. It is probably taking the pageant too seriously to expect its winners to be role models.
Yet the Miss Virginia and Miss America competitions invoke this expectation when apologists try to explain away the old "beauty pageant" concept with pious hogwash about scholastic achievement and character. And pageant participants take themselves and their competition seriously, apparently quite seriously.
There are more legitimate ways to identify females worthy of scholarships without reviewing how well-proportioned a woman's bust and buttocks are, how long her legs, how high her cheekbones, how straight her teeth. That winners receive some scholarship money is small enough reward for parading before strangers like poodles in a puppy show being examined for how well they've been bred to achieve a certain length of snout.
But no one forces contestants to participate. If they choose to, they should leave the hype to the pros - after a winner is crowned.
by CNB