Miss Alaska called at "4"

A few weeks ago I was doing a search on the new Miss Alaska for the newspaper I work at. I had a really hard time finding any photos until I came upon a blog called kodiakkonfidential. The site had about 5 photos of Courtney Carroll, the new Miss Alaska. She's an accomplished, beautiful young woman who beat out many other women for the title. And yet, the comments that were left on the site all focused on what she looked like. And most of the comments were NOT pretty. Commentors starting rating her, sayings stuff like: "Humph. I'd give her a 6. Slim pickens up there, huh?" (you can read all the comments here: http://kodiakkonfidential.blogspot.com/2007/12/miss-alaska-usa-redux.html)

I was so mad I left a comment: "OMG you people are all snobs!! this young woman is beautiful: tall, thin, full head of hair, big white teeth, pretty face. What the frack more do you need to be considered beautiful these days. You're obviously basing your definitions of beauty on what you see on tv. And besides that, State Pagaents are based on more than just outside beauty. Good grief!!"

And I'm still pissed off about it. I can't seem to let it go. If this young woman isn't considered beautiful, then what about the rest of us? Are men (and women) in this society now being taught to consider anyone who isn't "model perfect" to be ugly? We need to stop the insanity!!!

China's new beauty standards. OMG!

I guess U.S. women aren't the only ones obsessed with "beauty". There's an article on ABC News about women in China going under the knife to have more "western" eyes, fuller lips, bigger breasts and longer legs (a painful procedure where they break the leg bones and insert robs to make the legs grow a few more inches). Ouch!!!

There's even a beauty contest for women who have had plastic surgery. I suppose that the majority of U.S. beauty pageant entrants have also had some plastic surgery, but we don't talk about that. The photo shown here is of winners of China's beauty pageant for women who have undergone plastic surgery. (AP Photo)

The article says that the new beauty standard in China is "whiter, thinner and taller." It's so sad to see those beautiful Asian women wanting to look white. It's something that women of color here still struggle with. I myself am American Indian and even though my generation has embrace our ethnic beauty; there are still lots of women striving to be "blonde and blue eyed".

Have you noticed the diet/exercise commercials on TV: whenever they show before/after photos of women who've lost weight they have almost always become a blond, too. What is this crap about "blondes having more fun" anyway?

Its sad to see women in other parts of the world trying to look like our immaciated, boney, starving white models. How many of us actually look like that?

So the U.S. continues to spread its insane definition of "beauty" to other countries. oh joy...