Jay, thanks for sharing your perspective and clarity and using humor to elevate something pretty easy to ignore into an important conversation. I'm amazed. Beauty contests and Perez Hilton (?) and Perez Hilton judging a beauty contest? Exactly. http://now.anzidesign.com/2009/04/she-said-oh-no-you-wont It's an interesting time we're living in. According to Randall Robinson, less than 1% of the Earth's population owns about 40% of its wealth and resources - and we're seeing that come to a head. I'm hoping we can talk each other through it, but I get the feeling that things are going to get much worse before they get better. To the people freaked out by gayness and marriage equality: 1) there's no such thing as 'partial' equality and 2) if it's that problematic for you, don't ever marry anyone of the same sex. Oh and 3) marriage contracts aren't something that we run out of. They can always make more. If people want beauty contests (and celebrities) ... alright, let them do what they like. But ask yourself: if all the contestants of a certain contest meet a certain profile that doesn't resemble those who enjoy, produce or judge that contest, what is that? For starters, from what I can tell in the case of the Miss USA pageant, neither the audience nor the people behind the scenes producing the contest nor the judges look anything like the contestants. If we go back, the demographics for each were probably even more stratified than they are now. Now flip that and put yourself in the equation as either a contestant, a producer, a judge or as part of the audience. Where do you fit?