Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Casey, New York on January 16, 2008:

Schadenfreude... Were she not a beauty queen, what relevance would the story have, as opposed to if she had been just an "ordinary" woman? Is there a sense of entitlement at play from those who rely on their looks to "achieve" in life? What happens when that doesn't always happen--such as being dumped by a boyfriend? Does disappointment come as a harder lesson for them?

This story gave me pause to wonder the part the spectacles of pagents play in our culture... our emphasis on physical beauty and the acceptance of that by us. Do we need beauty queens? (Beauty kings?)

Is it possible to have a culture where beauty is defined with less emphasis on the physical?

Please don't take my comments to mean that we cannot appreciate physical attractiveness, rather that studies have shown that the pretty people get the jobs, get better treatment. Obviously, this pitiful woman will find that out the hard way.

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You ask a lot of valid philosophical questions, which I won't attempt to answer. But: would the story have been worthy without her being a "beauty queen"? Absolutely! That a law student turns to crime makes it so. The only thing that the "beauty queen" angle adds is when you see not just the cheesecake photo from her portfolio, but also the mugshot. The two together are so jarring that it simply adds another dimension to the story. Yes, I had the photos in-hand when I wrote the story. And yes, I do agree there's an aspect of schadenfreude to it, especially in the comments. -rc