Jennifer Galm | Arts & Life Blogger

I’ll lay aside my initial thoughts about beauty pageants, for the moment, and instead focus this post about the right of those who wish to compete to be treated fairly and with respect.

Nina Davuluri, a young Indian American woman, was crowned the winner of the 2013 Miss America pageant. The final two contestants, Davuluri, a medical school student from Syracuse, NY and California’s Crystal Lee, a Stanford graduate, are both Asian Americans, which was a groundbreaking moment in and of itself. Davuluri won the hearts of the judges with her platform on spreading the word about accepting diversity and by captivating the judges with her Bollywood fusion dance routine. After winning, she talked about how she had viewed Miss America growing up and compared it to her current experiences.

“I’ve always viewed Miss America as the girl next door, and the girl next door is evolving as diversity in America evolves. She’s not who she was ten years ago, and she’s not going to be the same person come ten years down the road.” Davuluri said in an interview.

I feel that this is a very accurate and forward-thinking statement; a comment made by someone who has more than likely felt like an outsider at some point in her life. But, as soon as she was crowned, social media outlets like Twitter were abuzz with less than supportive and downright mean comments about an Indian American woman winning the pageant.

“Call me crazy, but I think that Miss USA should be um…AMERICAN.”
“Miss America right now or Miss Al Qaeda?”
“Nice slap in the face to the people of 9/11, how pathetic #missamerica.”
“How the f**k does a foreigner win miss America? She is a Arab! #idiots.”

Just to clear things up, Davuluri is an American-born Hindu of South Asian descent.

Okay, I’m going to put on my smarty pants for a moment…

I hate to break it to these people who have evidently been living under a rock for several decades but being American does not equate to being white, blonde, and straight, which I myself carry two of those cards. I’ll let you figure it out.

[Pause]

Davuluri won the pageant because she was considered to be the best representation, in the way of pageant standards, of the all-American woman. She won her crown fairly and certainly has the poise to carry out her reign spreading her platform of diversity. Wouldn’t a person who has experienced bigotry based on her ethnicity be more credible when talking about diversity than, say, a white, blonde-haired, thin, straight woman? It is one thing to learn about diversity and a completely different one having lived through it.

Now, let’s sashay to the other side of the States to Huntington Beach, CA where this last Friday the Marina High School student body nominated and crowned a 16 year old transgendered teen homecoming queen. The crowd that came to cheer on a rousing Vikings football game was also exuberant when Cassidy Lynn Campbell took the crown. She tried to hold back the tears as she waved to the cheering crowd. Campbell also had a platform of diversity. But, of course, after her win, she too received many unkind and hurtful messages via social media.

Campbell spoke hopefully in response to those who spoke disparagingly of her win, “[If I can] make them look a little bit differently at myself or anyone else in this world and judge a little less harshly, then it was all worth it.”

“I am doing this to show that it doesn’t matter what kind of girl you are, you can still be a queen, transgendered or not. Being transgendered is okay. It’s not something we choose to do. I don’t dress up as a woman for fun or to go out there and make a joke of winning homecoming queen. I’m doing it because I feel I am just as much of a girl and deserve it just as much any other girl in the running,” Campbell said.

Societal views are, ever so slowly, changing to mirror what the real world is actually like. The “Most Beautiful Bathing Girl in America” aka Miss America originally was a “whites only” pageant. It wasn’t until 1970 that Cheryl Adrienne Browne, an African American woman from Iowa entered the pageant and it took another fourteen years to crown one, Miss New York’s Vanessa Williams.

One thing that is different between the two races for the crown is the fact that Nina Davuluri won for being judged by a panel of seven celebrities (most of whom I’ve never heard of), while Campbell won her crown from a school with a student body of just over 2,800 peers. Yes, some of Campbell’s classmates had cruel and disheartening things to say to her upon winning, but there were obviously many more that believed in her and stood by her. Davuluri, who is eight years older, had this to say about her detractors.

“It’s a difficult situation, and that was something I experienced even as Miss New York. That being said, for every one negative tweet or comment that I have seen or received, I have received dozens of positive words of encouragement, support, and love,” Davuluri said.

It would be nice to someday get beyond all the bigotry and mean spiritedness and move towards equal treatment and amiability towards one another. But, until then, we have two crowned beauty queens ready to take their reigns and seriously promote the diversity of our nation.

Graphic by Aaron Burns