Miss America FAIL

At the Miss America pageant last night, Miss California was asked a question about gay marriage:

“Vermont recently became the 4th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit. Why or why not?”

To which she responded:

“Well I think its great that Americans are able to choose one or the other,” she said. “We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you very much.”

There is plenty to say about the ordeal, from the Miss America pageant as a whole to her answer to the crowd’s reaction.  I would like to highlight two things that struck me:

The classic, "No offense, but…"  I hear this comment all the time from colleagues, who are about to say something entirely sexist, homophopic, racist, you name it.  With this disclaimer, the reaction of the person/people at whom the statement is directed is devalued, because they aren’t supposed to feel offended by offensive comments. (Especially if such comments are really people just standing up for what they believe in, like Miss California is apparently doing.)

More notably, I’m finding (in discussions such as that on the CSmonitor ) the theme, "why bring up such a controversial topic in such a wholesome program?"  Since when is controversial and wholesome mutually exclusive?  God forbid these "wholesome" women be expected to be able to articulate thoughtful arguments about meaningful topics.  They shouldn’t be thinking human beings with agency, but rather pretty and one-dimensional.  And why bring up "controversial" topics like same-sex marriage at all?  Why not just silence the entire discussion?