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From: sam@phs.UUCP (Sherry Marts)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Miss America
Message-ID: <911@phs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jul-84 16:20:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: phs.911
Posted: Tue Jul 24 16:20:45 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jul-84 02:13:20 EDT
Organization: Duke Physiology
Lines: 19

The Miss America Pageant and Penthouse magazine are symptoms of the same
disease.  Both objectify women; both seek to titillate and appeal to
the male observer's prurient interest; both present an unreal image
of women.  The main difference between the two is that the Miss America
Pageant leaves slightly more to the imagination.  Miss America contestants
perm their hair, paint their faces, undergo surgery, starve themselves, and
force themselves to smile nonstop for a week in an attempt to earn a
quarter of a million dollars.  Penthouse models perm their hair, paint
their faces, undergo surgery, and take contraceptive steroids to swell
their breasts and hips in order to earn several thousand dollars.  It's
all exploitation, it's all a form of violence against women.  In reality,
women are not the plastic Barbie dolls of the Miss America Pageant.  They
are not the mindless Pets of Penthouse nor the Playmates of Playboy.  I
feel sorry for Vanessa Williams, not because she "lost her title", but
because she has accepted such a limited vision of herself.  I feel sorry
for every woman who sells herself and her sex, whether as a beauty pageant
contestant, a model, or a prostitute.