Are Beauty Queens Stupid?

By Tom Kando

Like many husbands, I am often made to watch beauty pageants by my wife. The recent spate of hilarious moments has made it worthwhile, not the least because I am a social psychologist. I have been mesmerized by the brain shut-down process that takes place.

For example, on June 16, 2013, Miss Utah embarrassed herself in the Miss USA contest. In 2007, Miss teenage South Carolina’s performance was even more embarrassing. 

We could attribute these laughable moments to the inferiority and shallowness of American culture and education, or we could engage in stereotyping and dismiss these women as dumb bimbos. But that would not be adequate.

I bet you that miss teenage South Carolina has no trouble coming up with the necessary words when she gets into a vicious verbal fight over a boyfriend. I believe that the problem is situational. Answering a question intelligently, ANY question, is within anyone’s grasp, no matter how uneducated about facts one is.


If Miss Utah had been asked: “Miss Utah: Ever since the birth of quantum mechanics, physicists have known about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, namely that it is not possible to know both the position and the velocity of a particle simultaneously. Do you believe that quantum mechanics therefore undermines or strengthens our belief in the existence of God?”

Here is how anyone could answer this question intelligently: “I deeply apologize, but I don’t have the faintest idea what you are talking about. Your question seems to have something to do with science and religion. I have always HOPED that science and religion are compatible, but then, what do I know?” If I were on the pageant jury, I would give this contestant a ten for such an answer.

But what happens in reality is this: These poor girls are confronted with a question. Obviously, they do not know the question in advance. They are very afraid. At that moment, they are essentially “deaf.” They have worked themselves into a state of mind whereby they cannot truly hear or understand the question, or pause for a moment to think about it. Their brain is on auto-pilot, thinking only about the situation in which they are, namely: “I am participating in this huge Miss USA pageant tonight. It’s a celebration of beauty, of being beautiful, of glamour, of America, of all the motherhood and apple pie values in the universe, of freedom, love, world peace, equality, etc.” The brain’s automatic speech button has been activated, and the girl is only prepared to talk about these topics, nothing else.

The question, typically, will be something like this: “Miss Utah. You are one of five finalists of this pageant....If you had anything to say about it, how would you handle the recent....” and then, something is asked about women’s rights, or gun control, or government spying on our telephone calls, or the peace process in the Middle East...or some other current event.

But the poor girl hardly hears that. She is in a state of panic, although that state is being suppressed, which is what causes her to be practically deaf. Whatever the question is, here is what the girl hears, if she hears anything: “Miss Utah. You are one of five finalists of this pageant.... terribly complicated political and sociological question....”

Now, the contestant automatically runs the tape with which she stepped onto the podium. She tries to vary the words a bit (after all, she has to try to answer the question), but this only produces gibberish: “Yes, I am a Miss USA contestant, and I believe in the American Way of Life. Freedom is very important for everyone, especially for the children and for the parents, also in other American states...” Or something like that. leave comment here