Miss California: The Morality Paradox

This whole Carrie Kerfuffle (if I may call it that) has got me thinking. Last month when Prejean defended herself by saying, "I'm a model, and a I'm a Christian", I didn't give it much thought. But now that she's been dethroned, I realize she was on to something. She is facing discrimination based on all sorts of aspects of her identity.

The former Miss California has been widely criticized for publicly opposing gay marriage. She says that's intolerance on the part of the Left. I say it's more than that. She made those comments while holding the title of Miss California. California is a state that keeps voting for Proposition 8. So really, everyone is criticizing her for doing her job and worse, for being a Californian.

And yes, she signed some statement for the Miss USA organization, attesting to the fact that she had always acted "in accordance with the highest ethical and moral standards." And yes, there is a specific clause that says she never took nude or semi-nude photos. So technically lingerie modeling would be cause for dethronement. But then how is wearing a bikini on national television kosher? (Don't let the misleading term "swimsuit competition" deceive you. They're not wearing full body wetsuits.)

Is partial nudity only "ethical and moral" when the Miss USA Organization is making money off of it? And does that make Donald Trump a pimp?

Oooh wait a minute... I get it! Beauty Pageants are a kind of legalized prostitution. And that's moral, but people of the same gender getting married isn't. There is no sexual discrimination of any kind going on here. The world makes sense again. Now I can get back to worrying about important things, like The Bachelorette.

Yes, people. Dirty.com has come out with yet another incriminating photo. All in favor of rescinding Michael Phelps' Olympic medals say aye!
(The LATimes has confirmed that that is, indeed, Phelp's butt. His immoral behavior must be stopped.)

Comments

[SpencerCat]

Your don't seem to understand why she was fired. She was fired for refusing the appearances booked for her by the pageant officials. That's a pretty simple matter. It's called breach of contract.

Your entire post is based on a wrong idea.

[Tasha Gordon-Solmon - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi SpencerCat, Thanks for reading! Let me clarify, if I may...

My attempt was never to claim any privileged knowledge about the reasons for Prejean's firing. Rather, I was commenting on the public opinion and accusations on all sides, surrounding Prejean. I was attempting to humorously point out some of the hypocrisy that I saw. (Maybe I should have said knock knock first?)

I personally do no agree with Prejean's stance on gay marriage. However, I wonder if that warrants all the criticism of her semi-nude pictures and cosmetic surgery. To me, that seems quite hypocritical given the way women are portrayed in beauty pageants. Whatever Ms. Prejean may or may not have done, I took issue with the clause in the pageant contract in general. I also though my Michael Phelps joke was pretty funny, but that's just me.

Let me also state for the record that I did not mean to offend any Californians. I am not from California, though I do have some relatives who live there and I enjoyed Disneyland when I visited as a kid.

Yes, the Miss USA Organization has accused Prejean of breach of contract, but Prejean has denied those charges, claiming the real reason was her comments on gay marriage. I have no relationship with Ms. Prejean or with Donald Trump and did not intend to endorse either one of their opinions. I did, however, intend to poke fun at both of them.

[Tasha Gordon-Solmon - Huffpost Blogger]

And finally, I am not an official news-repor­ter-type-p­erson, I just blog about my opinions. But if you'd like to do some research, here a couple links.

This is by no means a definitive list. I'm sure there are better sources out there. If someone out there is writing a college essay, I suggest you hit the library.

You can read how Donald Trump and the Miss USA Organization accused her of - "contract violations including Miss Prejean's unwillingness to make appearances...." here
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=7805752&page=1

You can watch Prejean claiming her firing based on the appearances issue was a set-up and that the real reason was her comments on gay marriage.
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&vid=92a7ad39-7b1d-42b8-8b57-498f256cbded

You can read about the clause in the Miss USA contract on "ethical and moral standards" here
ttp://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/05/06/2009-05-06_miss_california_miss_usa_carrie_prejean_may_lose_her_crown.html

[Shayrae]

mlaiupp says: '' She was fired for being anti-work. She was fired for being lazy. For breach of contract, to be more precise.''.

Bottom line, you're right.

[mlaiuppa]

Carrie wasn't fired for being anti-Gay.

She was fired for being anti-work. She was fired for being lazy.

For breach of contract, to be more precise.

She had a job and she blew it off. She was told where she was supposed to appear as Miss California and she consistently didn't show up.

She was fired for truancy.

Now maybe being pretty and a few winks and a wiggle will get you out of Saturday truancy school in La Jolla but she's playing with the big kids now. Trump gave her one more chance and she promised she'd tow the line and she blew it again.

She should have known better. There are plenty of pretty girls but a dollar is a dollar. Once you start costing Trump money....you're fired.

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

I feel such DEEP pity for Miss Prejean. To be pretty stupid is bad enough, but to be pretty AND stupid is worse.

Gee, she announced that people should be deprived of their legal civil rights based on her own religious delusions, and feels it's okay for her her religious delusions to be written into our laws, in a clear violation of the seperation of church and state, and people got upset about it. She deliberately made enemies of a whole class of people, and then pouted and whined that her enemies didn't just take it lying down. Too bad, sister. She's okay with denying me MY rights, but she whines when she delusionaly believes hers have been violated. After all, she's pretty, so the terms of her CONTRACT shouldn't matter. Her Christian skygod must love hypocrites; he made so many of them.

She is a disgrace to California, and as a native Californian, I don't want that creature representing my state. The only state she really represents is the state of stupidity.

Christians: Can't live with 'em; can't crucify 'em.

I do hope that this is the 14th minute of her 15, because I'm sick of the silly cow.

[scotia626]

people mocked prejean more for the inanity of her reasoning than her stance- "its not how i was brought up" ok. so tell us how you have thought it through, examined the issues and concluded that while you personally disagree with this type of marriage you also have the right to impose that view on everyone else. she was and is mocked because she is a vacuous air head only capable of holding 'opinions" that were planted by someone else. and unfortunately in california- especially san diego and orange counties- there are millions just like her. thank god she wasnt brought up an as an anti-semitic terrorist.

[floridafun]

she is a good christian girl who doesnt approve of consenting adults mayyring if they want to marry someone other than her. but her lord and savior didnt create her to be quite sexy enough to be a winner so she got her shiney new jugs for jesus, after lying about her semi-nude photo op history,. that is the fine christian thinking that seems an oxymoron to me. i didnt care if she wasnt pro gay equality as a personal opinion. but to use religion as an excuse for her bigotry and ignorance, then go out and remake herself physically only to look more sexy, after lying about her semi-nudie pics, told me all i needed to know about her true self.

[NoFactsJustTruth]

You act as if the apparently often difficult Carrie Prejean is the only person experiencing impacts to their job in these economically troubled times. The TRUTH is, most major corporations in OUR country now have diversity training and don't appreciate bigotries being brought into the workplace, even if ancient and religious in nature.

The business 'bottom line' here was likely the difficulty in marketing a beauty queen, that's publicly acting 'ugly' and bigoted towards ...anyone.

[whitemerlot]

Carrie Prejean and Adam Lambert both represent the paradox of living in a democracy, but having undemocratic cultural institutions. Although I support gay rights and gay marriage, I know that a majority here in California and across the US don't, and that they probably support Carrie Prejean. Since Miss. USA/Miss California is not democratically elected by the audience, they are at the mercy of the few who are in control (Trump, etc.). Adam Lambert, who should have won American Idol, lost because he was at the mercy of the democracy of the audience- had it been up to Simon Cowell et al, he probably would have won.

[Tasha Gordon-Solmon - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey, what if they put Miss USA and American Idol on the ballot? Stay with me.. I bet it would do wonders for voter turnout. They could also add Miss America and So You Think You Can Dance and Survivor and... wait a minute, this is not going to work. Unless - do you guys think anyone would ever considering holding elections during sweeps? Or like- on a weekly basis?

[MBryant]

Actually, Carrie Prejean said Adam Lambert should have won!

Of course Adam's orientation was in question for everyone except Bill OReilly and presumably Kris Allen (who had probably had to sit is roomie down for a little talk).

Prejean is no right-wing Christian zealot. She's just opportunistic. She found someone to pay for her boob job and only had to lie a little to get into a pageant that she won. She got put on the spot by Perez Hilton and then realized however she answered - it could be leveraged to longer lasting effect than runner-up and Miss Calif. So she started working her own agenda. She got fired, but for some kinds of celebrities - there is no such thing as bad news - all publicity is good...

On a practical level, she's probably a bigger fan of Adam Lambert than Jesus, but maybe she took a lesson from Bush the younger and decided taking advantage of Conservative Christians (they'll pay for my legal and pay me for speaking engagements and get me on Fox News...) is a way up....

[LMPE]

Prop Hate passed because the anti-gay marriage part was hidden. Had it been clear, the proposition would have failed.

[AGarcia]

Did you miss the part where Carrie Prejean could get into a fight with a paper bag? She wanted to be dethroned. This frees her up to go on a "tolerance tour". Thanks Perez Hilton!

[grammy11]

Yeah. She can join Bristol's tour on abstinence and make it an "Abstinence and Opposite Only" tour. Of course, Sarah will join in to promote her "Only Me" campaign.

[Salvadore69]

Beauty contests are about making money. They have little to do with the actual winner. The endorsements, public appearances, and show that accompanies it all have to do with an income stream. As a selected employee of the Miss California contest, a subsidiary of the Donald Trump corporate structure, she was there to help them make money via those things she signed up for when she entered the contest in the first place. For her to suddenly decide that she would make up her own rules and do what she wanted whenever she wanted and start costing them money from missed appearances and sponsers leaving the fold is too much for any company to want. After all, we're not a bunch of socialists, are we?

[newzealandpolscistudent]

Uninformed posts like yours are the reason Carrie thinks she can get away with her lies. Its been conclusively shown time and time again that she was not fired for her gay marriage opinion, and she was not fired for the photos, but she was fired because she BROKE HER CONTRACT REGARDING APPEARANCES, BEING AVAILABLE TO THE DIRECTOR, NOT BOOKING APPEARANCES WITHOUT THE DIRECTORS PERMISSION AND GENERALLY FAILING TO FULFILL THE DUTIES OF THE TITLE.

You just need to look at what is recorded here:
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/06/problems-carrie-prejean-began-pageant-says-official

and most importantly here:
http://www.aolcdn.com/tmz_documents/0511_carrie_prejean_wm.pdf

She breached the contract she signed and it is entirely within the rights of her directors to pull the title. Its just like you deciding you don't want to turn up to work today... or this week... or this month and then you expecting your boss to be totally fine with it.