Monday 15 May 2017

Talking Beauty Queens.

The current Miss USA, Kara McCullough, was asked whether she considers healthcare a privilege or a right. She said she takes the ‘privilege’ side, and went on to say:

‘As a government employee, I'm granted healthcare and I see first hand that for one to have healthcare, you need to have jobs.’

Note how she pretends a superior position: …I see first hand… Note how the logic of her statement amounts to: I have a job and I have healthcare, therefore it must be right that only people with jobs should be entitled to healthcare.

I wonder whether Ms McCullough knows what a non sequitur is. Laurel and Hardy did, which is why they used them occasionally in their scripts. Only they were smart guys, and they knew that a non sequitur is a joke. Ms McCullough, on the other hand, appears fairly bereft of both intelligence and a sense of humour, which means that on this occasion, she’s the joke. It also makes a joke of anybody else – irrespective of their political or social leanings, and irrespective of how they view the ‘right or privilege’ question – who cannot see the back-to-front absurdity of the lady’s statement.

I gather the term ‘bimbo’ has now entered the Handbook of Political Correctness as a forbidden word, and maybe rightly so given its undoubtedly sexist association. Ms McCullough just ripped it out to wear as a sash of pride around her moderately attractive body. Thank heaven she isn’t blonde.

Should I go on to take issue with a small matter of incorrect English in her statement? Nope. Clumsy English among public figures has become de rigueur ever since Trump slithered into the White House by mistake. Ms McCullough’s use of the language is relatively decent by comparison with what has sadly become the norm.

And should I go on to talk about the question of ‘Beauty Pageants and How They Relate to the Definition of Beauty’? Nope. Can’t be bothered.

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