Please, Look More Disabled
I'm not really sure what side to take here... or at what I should be shaking my head.
The story centers on a woman with muscular dystrophy who won a Miss Wheelchair "pageant", but was later revealed capable of standing (at least at times)... apparently, the pageant folks want the handicapped to see these women in the chair only, or at least more often.
I don't mind a nice pageant, but are we at the stage where we're going to have a Miss Skin Graft, Miss G.E.D., Miss Eco-Friendly, Miss Midtown, Miss Freckles, etc.? At what point do we have enough? (The article may say this wasn't a beauty pageant, but that woman has a fairly pretty smile!) ;)
Don't get me wrong, I want to see more pretty ladies considering what passes for class and style often ain't classy and ain't stylish... poise and grace seem to have gone out the window, too. However, doesn't the overwhelming number of pageants (and sub-categories) diminish beauty? It's like having more than one gold medal in the Olympics or more than one Best Picture award at the Oscars. It softly and slowly removes an element of competition.
We all know that some folks in this country would prefer less (if any) competition. For a long time we haven't heard, "...and the winner is...", instead we are treated to "...and the Oscar goes to..." for fear of hurting the feelings of the losers. Yes, I said it... if you didn't win, you lost! Some parents know that certain youngsters' sports teams do not keep score... everybody wins! It's all about our new idol: self-esteem.
Saints preserve us!
You probably have friends that talk about their favorite movies... one guy likes "The Godfather", someone else likes "Goodfellas", yet another wants to talk about the HBO series "The Sopranos". Inevitably some jackass waltzes in, looking down everyone's nose and proclaims that he simply cannot compare any of these films with each other. The same with "Gunga Din" and a modern film like "Raiders of the Lost Ark"... the jackass says, "You simply cannot compare the two." Of course, you can (you fool)... compare styles, scripts, performances, choreography, score, the amount of entertainment brought from each film, how many scenes worked well versus those that didn't, to what extent they succeeded, experimental and novel shots, etc. You can compare a James Bond movie with "The Incredibles"... in fact, you should! Just because you consider a film to be historic, artistic, or superior doesn't diminish anything when you look at it's various elements and how they stack up with other films.
Damn, I'm all over the map here... there's all sorts of soapboxes under my feet now! ;)
The story centers on a woman with muscular dystrophy who won a Miss Wheelchair "pageant", but was later revealed capable of standing (at least at times)... apparently, the pageant folks want the handicapped to see these women in the chair only, or at least more often.
I don't mind a nice pageant, but are we at the stage where we're going to have a Miss Skin Graft, Miss G.E.D., Miss Eco-Friendly, Miss Midtown, Miss Freckles, etc.? At what point do we have enough? (The article may say this wasn't a beauty pageant, but that woman has a fairly pretty smile!) ;)
Don't get me wrong, I want to see more pretty ladies considering what passes for class and style often ain't classy and ain't stylish... poise and grace seem to have gone out the window, too. However, doesn't the overwhelming number of pageants (and sub-categories) diminish beauty? It's like having more than one gold medal in the Olympics or more than one Best Picture award at the Oscars. It softly and slowly removes an element of competition.
We all know that some folks in this country would prefer less (if any) competition. For a long time we haven't heard, "...and the winner is...", instead we are treated to "...and the Oscar goes to..." for fear of hurting the feelings of the losers. Yes, I said it... if you didn't win, you lost! Some parents know that certain youngsters' sports teams do not keep score... everybody wins! It's all about our new idol: self-esteem.
Saints preserve us!
You probably have friends that talk about their favorite movies... one guy likes "The Godfather", someone else likes "Goodfellas", yet another wants to talk about the HBO series "The Sopranos". Inevitably some jackass waltzes in, looking down everyone's nose and proclaims that he simply cannot compare any of these films with each other. The same with "Gunga Din" and a modern film like "Raiders of the Lost Ark"... the jackass says, "You simply cannot compare the two." Of course, you can (you fool)... compare styles, scripts, performances, choreography, score, the amount of entertainment brought from each film, how many scenes worked well versus those that didn't, to what extent they succeeded, experimental and novel shots, etc. You can compare a James Bond movie with "The Incredibles"... in fact, you should! Just because you consider a film to be historic, artistic, or superior doesn't diminish anything when you look at it's various elements and how they stack up with other films.
Damn, I'm all over the map here... there's all sorts of soapboxes under my feet now! ;)
posted by Badda at
1:55:00 AM
