Nina Davuluri achieved her dream of winning the Miss America Pageant this September. The former Miss New York probably did not anticipate the disgusting slew of insults that would be thrown her way in the wake of her crowning.
Miss Davuluri is the first contestant of Indian descent to win the prestigious title, and she thought some would see this as a step towards progression, acceptance, and welcoming of diversity; however, others made it clear that they could not stand the idea of having someone with an atypical Miss America background win. Social media websites were filled with statuses expressing various rude, ignorant, and flat-out racist remarks in response to Davuluri’s victory:
Davuluri says she will “rise above” this horrendous commentary, proving why she deserved to win Miss America.
It’s evident, or it should be evident, that the face of American beauty is evolving and that the pageant world should not continue to be a battleground for acceptance. Tajae Williams ’16 couldn’t have said it better: “Americans have to accept that the word beautiful does not apply to just one look, or else we’d be a very boring and seemingly robotic society.”
When I first heard about these affairs, it was frustrating to know that no matter how many progressive changes towards acceptance of other races and cultures have been sewn into American society, determining beauty is an ongoing battle. Smart, confident, mature women may not care about what these cruel commenters may have had to say on social media websites and can ignore the images thrust into their faces depicting what the “ideal” American woman should epitomize. Young girls, on the other hand, may believe that they will never be considered beautiful or worthy unless they fit into a certain mold set forth by the expectation of divine, and frankly unachievable, beauty in today’s society. This unwarranted lack of self-worth is concerning and is simply not worth any sort of intolerance.