Wake me when it;s over.

Please. The average person doesn't know the difference between the Miss USA and Miss America pageants. I actually was watching the Miss USA one a while back, rooting for Rima because she's from Michigan (one of a few places I consider home), and I was watching along with some other people...one of whom kept referring to the pageant as "Miss America."

Miss America has always been the top of the line for the beauty pageants. Miss U.S.A. was the wannabe pagaent , did Trump really thin his idiotic, overblown, self important ego, which has nothing to do with class or taste, he has proven that a million times over, would raise "his" pageant to a higher level and make it classy the Trump way by making it a trashy joke? Of course he did, I'm most suprised he hasn't released a perfume yet , "Miss Trump U.S.A., it smells like beauty and class, more like white trash and the end of the road for all of the professional pageant bimbos who can't cut it in the Miss America Pageant and have to settle for bring exploited by Trump!

The networks should do away with all this crap. One is owned and controlled by Trump who is hardly an example of what decency should be....he pretty well controls who wins that one. The other is so old and washed up who even gives a damn. There are not that many young women in this day and age that really deserve to represent what this country USED to be.

I can't believe at this day and age that we still have this antiquated (sp) contests of beautiful women that are judged solely on looks and a one minute answer to one question which everybody knows was added to appear these pageants are really about intellect.
Pageants are shallow and so are the contestants who are conditioned by their parents that this is the only way to be validated as a human being. It also attempt to show the winners are actually ambassadors to whatever cause they are hawking, but the process in itself does not remove the vacuous purpose of the pageants in itself: Men's public display of superiority over women. This is Trump's and other men's triumph as the modern procurer of the best looking female human meat in the world.

What's the diff, they were both told to pick blacks

God help us!

Wren.... Great post! Wonder if Jesus was a judge... think He might look at the heart? In this sick world it is sad that everything is judged according to looks... it is so sad to me to see woman in their 50's and 60's and even 70's who obviously have had plastic surgery... they look awful and it is quite sad.
There have always been people who just do not get it, but it is sad that that group is now the majority... plastic society in so many ways.

I have a daughter who is paying her way through college with SCHOLARSHIPS from being a part of the Miss America program. Additionally, she has put in over 4,000 volunteer hours with her platform of illiteracy (one in four adults in our state are functionally illiterate). There is nothing antiquated or exploitative about Miss America. If you select to be uneducated about the distinct differences between Miss America and Miss USA, that's on your head not the young women that participate in the programs. Miss USA contestants are (generally) eager to be models and actresses while Miss America contestants are working their way through school. Get a grip and get some knowledge before you talk about something you know nothing about.

'Miss USA' in this year's case is not! Things change, but this is not the way to do it! Lets face it the 'Miss USA contest' should now be called 'Miss International contest'! The point of something, anything, being called USA or American means that it's particapents are AMERICANS--not another nationality!
We all know that very few 'Americans' can say they are truely Americans and that the rest of us are blends of everything else and maybe a little Native American! So, if your parents are not AMERICANS and you were born in their native country---your are that nationality!!!
Donald Trump may have 'the golden touch' when it comes to money, but to me he has 'the touch of insult' to TV programs!!
I really don't see an American being allowed to enter 'Miss Italy contest' or 'Miss Lebanon'! 'Miss Lebanon', oh! that won't work will it????
Just the other day a friend was bragging about her months old granddaughter's multi wins in a 'beauty contest' and I wounder just what this little girl will think is important in life. I just pray that this child is more grounded than the adults in her lafe!!
So to me, the winners are the 'girls' who volunteer in helping others, keep themselves healthy, they study and make the best grades that they can and those who share their releigous faith in a respectful way! Now that is a 'girl' worth being called 'Miss any country in the world'! Let face it,wanting 'world peace" is just silly!
AND, 'Miss' ABC, after 90 years you should be better than you are!! Clean up your actions!!

No, if they would only televise a Miss Pure Platinum or Miss Solid Gold, now that would be something!!

I personally feel that ALL these pageants are nothing but a waste of time and money, where there are so many issues going on that need far more attention and dedication, e.g. education. I don't waste my time time with junk!

I have no problem with adult women participating in beauty contests as long as impressionalble kids understand that they are celebrating a particular kind of beauty - very thin, long hair, airbrushed make-up, etc. There are so many "perfect" images that young girls see and so many stories of young girls starving themselves that it seems pretty overwhelming to be a teenager or a pre-teen. I hope that parents of young girls spend time telling them that the list of requirements for contestants happened in a board room with men and women who stand to profit from what they have determined true beauty ought to look like. Advertisers want to sell clothes, diet and exercise programs, make-up, etc., which is their right to do. It doesn't mean that their decisions create an obligation in young girls to try to copy what they see. The same is true for boys who are bombarded with images of sports figures, film actors and others. I'm not suggesting that any of these women are dumb, poorly-educated or devoid of talent. On the other hand, if Miss America or Miss USA contestants were required to take the SATs and score in the top percentile to make the initial cut, it would go a long way toward emphasizing that, with few exceptions, education often trumps raw beauty in the long run and that being a size 14 with short hair is not shameful and can be as beautiful as a size 2. I know that many parents already do this but there are many who don't.

Miss America has talent contests etc because it is a scholarship pagent. They are judged on how they answer questions put to them, because just like anyone getting a scholarship etc. has to do. It is based on intelligence more than "beauty". Yes they are pretty for the most part but they win by being well rounded women who plan on being someone other than just Miss America. These are women who volunteer for charities and visit the sick and elderly etc. who give more than the take.

Miss USA/Universe and Miss World etc are all about beauty, not substance.