I Don’t Care That Miss America Is a Scientist

You seriously cannot ever please some people. Seems things can't just be changed gradually over time to be better; they either have to be radically changed or slashed and burned.

> It is upsetting to me that people still think a woman having interests outside of being poised and beautiful is a revelation worthy of a headline

With journalists and activists always bringing up the issue that there's a disproportionately low number of women in STEM, I don't see how it's not worthy of a headline. After all, you(the author) thought it was big enough of a deal to write your own article complaining about it. I don't think you(the author) actually believe what you're saying here because, if you did, you wouldn't even be paying much attention to it and you'd just allow the issue to die a quiet death.

> We’ve known for ages that women have interests!

And if it weren't the year 2019 your(the author) article could easily be titled "Miss America: Women Have More Interests Than Just Beauty And Grace!"

Why does that even matter, anyway? People can't enter contests and show off their interests?

I reread this article 3 times and I still don't get what exactly this author has a beef with over Miss America besides that it's a "bullshit patriarchal ritual".

Beauty if a gift. I'm a overjoyed if someone tells me my daughter is beautiful, she really is, but I don't let people photograph her, never-mind allow her to be in a pageant. But there's nothing wrong in being beautiful. It's a gift.

Nor does being smart intrinsically make the person worthy. Intelligence is also a gift, a good one, but it hardly makes the holder a good person. So I don't celebrate someone for their academic achievements. Big deal.

Instead I celebrate people who, with their gifts, work for others. Yes, even personal beauty and grace can be used for this purpose (see Audrey Hepburn). A person with a 250 IQ and ten PhDs means nothing to me if they're the re-incarnation of Robert McNamara.

[0] A "little black dress" like Audrey Hepburn's and with her grace is far more revealing of beauty than a bikini. The bikini seems to be about detecting "flaws" like you would a horse at a market.