The first thing I thought when I heard the news about this 'beauty queen' was that the girl must have gotten extremely drunk, danced on top of the bar without her top, and perhaps gave a few blowjobs under the table. But since they're not saying what she did, (and probably never will) I'll just wait for her to be replaced.

and i'm viewing as a continued overall problem with society in totally devaluing people who are not 'status quo'...... which is pretty much everyone.
I agree w VioletPrue handle it with some decorum (sp) not only for her but for public relations - its sad then when given a chance to help or not most dont. (yes i'm thinking of a utopia based world but is it such a bad standard to maintain?)

The stigma of mental illness is so sad .

stfu

Um, I don't seem to remember saying that it didn't apply to the UK media. The only difference is that (with a couple of exceptions) Miss [wherever] contests don't really happen here.

And I doubt VP needs you to defend her.

Well yeah, in an ideal world... but in an ideal world they wouldn't even have these contests, because everyone would be rewarded for everything good about them all the time.

Far as I can see, the whole concept of Miss [thing] contests is fundamentally shallow, no matter how much they may try to dress it up. Yes, they're being extremely judgemental of the girls involved, but that's what judges do. Yes, they shouldn't care if someone's mentally ill, but they're trying to cover their asses by projecting a belief in very traditional (out-of-date) morality. They and their viewers would probably get off on screwing some mentally retarded blonde beauty queen a hundred times before breakfast, but they have to make the thing look credible.