(Faded) Beauty on (fading) beauty

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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You know it’s sweeps when…

Former beauty queen Candice Little, a fading beauty queen, does a special report titled “Fading Beauty,” a hard-hitting look inside the dying world of beauty pageants.

Only Candice could pull off this inane report, a wide-eyed look that asks: Why isn’t anyone watching me any more? Oops. I mean, why isn’t anyone watching beauty pageants any more?

The pageant directors and experts interviewed in the report blame everything from the popularity of reality TV to the bad economy. At least Candace had the guts to note that ABC (her station is an ABC affiliate) has decided to drop televising the event.

None of the grown-ups mentioned a single word about how pageants objectify women, demean and belittle them and turn them into little more than tap dancing bathing suit models. Candice, a former Miss Georgia in the Miss America pageant system, even defended “scholarship pageants,” noting that she won $15,000 to put toward her college education. Candace also urged younger women to get more involved.

I just wanted someone to scream “bullshit” into the TV cameras.

Actually, Candice’s report did include some words of wisdom – from some young girls who all but called “bullshit” on beauty pageants. The two young women included in the report said the pageants are simply beauty/popularity contests that should really concentrate more on academics and talents than sheer beauty. But these words were relegated to the end of the report.