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QUEENS: More to pageanting than ‘butt glue,’ teased hair
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college for free this semes
ter,” Black said. “I paid for
college in one night [of
competition].”
Miss Warner Robins,
Channing Wood, said her
mother has had her in pag
eants since she was three
weeks old, but the scholar
ship opportunities were
always the reason for com
peting.
“I’ve gotten really lucky.
My freshman year, I had
money from my high
school pageants, and
through HOPE scholarship
and pageants, my entire
school career has been
paid for,” the junior biology
major said. “From room
and board to these shoes
on my feet.”
So who is funding all of
this? Each crown comes
with its own pageant
board —a group of volun
teers who typically get
involved through the coun
ty government. In addition
to the scholarship awards,
the board allocates money
for the queen’s dresses,
transportation, meals,
hotels and venue fees.
But the board also pro
vides a lot of non-mone
tary support.
“Once we are crowned,
it’s like an instant family,”
Black said. “Our boards
volunteer their time only
because they love advocat
ing this support for women
... it’s nothing for them to
call me and say, ‘Hey, how
was your day? How were
your finals? I heard you
were really stressed out
about that.’”
Lindsay Mann,
Georgia’s Watermelon
Queen, had a different
incentive for competing for
her crown. Mann is a
“commodity queen.” This
means she represents an
industry in Georgia, and
rather than a scholarship
opportunity, her title is a
paying job.
“This title is not about
me. It’s about the farmers
of Georgia their liveli
hoods depend on this,” the
accounting major from
Tifton said.
“[lt’s] like a job in a
marketing department,
you get involved in poli
tics, working with state
representatives and mak
ing people happy at the
same time. I mean, who
doesn’t love a piece of
watermelon?”
Mann will not compete
for Miss Georgia this sum
mer but will compete for
the national Watermelon
Queen title in 2010.
Although it is not part of
the competition’s criteria,
the pageant features a
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***
Another reason women
compete for a crown is to
promote a “platform.”
Black, who has been vol
unteering at nursing
homes “long before [she]
ever started doing pag
eants,” said her platform
the Alzheimer’s
Association is some
thing she has experienced
first hand.
“I can’t just walk into a
school and say, ‘Hey, I
want to talk to you about
Alzheimer’s disease,’ and
have people listen to me,”
she said. “But apparently,
when I have a crown on
my head, I have something
important to say.”
Briana Jewett, who was
crowned Miss University of
Georgia in February, said
her platform is a big part
of her pageanting because
it hits close to home.
“A good friend of mine
had a cousin, Lindsay
Bonistall, who was brutally
murdered in her apart
ment off-campus [of The
University of Delaware],”
she said.
Jewett’s platform,
PEACE OUTside Campus,
aims to promote off-cam
pus safety.
“I’ve worked with land
lords, realtors simple
things like changing locks
on a door for new tenants,
more blue light stations
that’s something I hope to
accomplish by the time I
graduate.”
Although every woman
has a unique platform spe
cific to her concerns and
interests, collectively they
are working to eradicate a
problem plaguing pag
eants for years: the Barbie
stereotype.
“Oh, that just drives me
nuts,” Stone said. “People
will tell me they’re sur
prised that I’d do pag
eants, but I think they’d
think that for all of the
girls [I compete with].”
Stone is a speech com
munication major from
Waynesboro and took 20
hours of course credit this
spring. She was also vale
dictorian of her high
school.
“There’s such a diverse
amount of girls, so I don’t
think you could pinpoint
one kind of ‘pageant girl.’”
Jewett, an exercise and
sports science major from
Atlanta said “breaking the
Barbie mold” has been
something she and her
mother have talked about
since her involvement with
pageants began.
“I have never consid
ered myself the typical
\ jf
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Courtesy Matt Boyd
▲ Miss University of Georgia, Briana Jewett, is
an exercise and sports science major. She
danced with the Atlanta Ballet for 14 years.
pageant girl. You don’t
need the measurements,
you don’t need the plati
num blonde hair, you don’t
need the boob job,” Jewett
said.
Miss Black and Gold
Georgia, Tiffany Hobbs,
went into her first pageant
thinking it would be a
“shallow experience” but
learned quickly there was
a lot to be gained.
“I got sucked in. I do
set my standards high, but
it’s not always about win
ning. Sometimes it’s just
about being able to make
it to the next round,” said
Hobbs, a theater major
from Augusta. “Because no
matter what level you’re
on, you’re going to go to so
many different places that
you’ve never been before,
meet so many different
people, and they’re going
to teach you so much
about yourself, more than
you could even ask for. I
really respect pageanting
even more now.”
And get this they’re
not catty toward one
another.
“People think we’re pul
lin’ hair backstage,” Jewett
said. “Most people would
be surprised to know that
we’re back there dancing,
with curlers in our hair,
snackin’ on Snickers and
helping each other put
fake eyelashes on,” Black
said. “We’re all just a
bunch of nerds, really.”
But there are some pag
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VARIETY
eant stereotypes that still
ring true.
“You cannot, cannot,
cannot, say it’s not fun to
wear a crown. It’s a pretty,
pretty princess thing and
it sparkles so much,” Mann
said. “And teezin’ hair to
high heaven I have
never seen so many girls
teeze so much hair!”
“I’m a huge tomboy, I
have three brothers, I play
in the mud, but I just
adore getting dressed up
and looking my best,”
Black said.
“You’ve gotta get butt
glue,” Stone said. “Spray
adhesive from Wal-Mart
will work, but if you have a
wardrobe malfunction on
stage, that is probably the
worst thing ever.”
***
As glamorous as it all
sounds, these beautiful
women can receive some
pretty ugly criticism.
Peggy Kreshel, an
advertising professor in
the Grady College of
Journalism and Mass
Communication, said it’s
hard not to view pageants
particularly the swim
suit portion of the compe
tition —as anything other
than objectifying.
Kreshel participated in
an industry pageant as a
child and worked closely
with a women’s studies
graduate student who
wrote a dissertation about
The Red & Black | Finals Edition I Friday, May i, 2009
feminism and pageants.
“It’s not that me, or
feminists in general are
against makeup, frivolous
ness or whatever, but [the
swimsuit competition]
seems like an opportunity
to go back to the concept
that women are important
for what they look like, not
what they do.”
The queens all said the
same thing about the
swimsuit portion of the
competitions: It’s not their
favorite, but it is an essen
tial aspect of proving your
confidence.
“It’s more about being
physically fit, it really is,”
Wood said. “It’s not about
being the skinny girl up on
stage. I will never be teeny,
tiny skinny, I have soccer
legs. It’s proving that
you’re eating healthy and
exercising every day,
because being fit is hard
work.”
Black said the swimsuit
portion stems from the
tradition of the Miss
America pageant, and is
therefore “promoting
women.”
“It’s one of those things
that is just so ingrained,”
Kreshel said. “[The] swim
suit [competition] seems
like a throwback to the
older days, and that’s just
not something we’re inter
ested in anymore. But the
Miss America pageant has
a lot to counter-balance it,
with the platform and the
scholarships, and even the
talent [portion] is fun.”
The University has a
student population of
nearly 33,000, so statisti
cally, it’s only logical it’s
produced 14 queens.
However, Mansfield Bias,
president and executive
director of the Miss
Georgia Pageant, said
there is greater reasoning.
“When you think of it in
terms of the best of the
best and top students,
most gravitate toward the
University of Georgia,”
Bias said.
“In the past 10 years,
four [Miss Georgia win
ners] were UGA gradu
ates.”
Black said it was only
natural for highly motivat
ed girls to go to the
University because it takes
a lot to get in.
“Not to toot our own
horn, but we’re amazing,”
she said. “I’m lucky to
know them. While we want
different career goals, we
want the same things.
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We’re ambitious, we’re stu
dious, on top of things
in order to compete in
pageants, you have to be
like that.”
So while seven of our
girls will go on to the Miss
Georgia pageant in July
a week-long endeavor
sending one girl to Miss
America —most of them
recognize their pursuits
and accomplishments as
pageant queens benefit
them beyond the crown
clad chapter of their life.
“I have never been ner
vous getting up in front of
people or going to a job
interview,” Black said. “[ln
pageants,] you will never
go up against a more qual
ified group of people for
anything.”
“It’s amazing the skills I
can relate to as only a
sophomore,” Jewett said.
“These are things that will
benefit me for the rest of
my life.”
And if nothing else,
there will always be the
memories of the crown.
“I have these indentions
in my head from wearin’ it
all weekend,” Mann said.
“It’s hardcore.”
REIGNING
PAGEANT QUEENS
Reigning Pageant Queens at
the University will go on to •
Compete for Miss Georgia
2010.
Miss Gwinnett County
Jessica Black
Miss Southern Rivers
Lauren Edmunds
Miss Lake Lanier
Amanda Erwin
Miss University of Georgia
Briana Jewett
Miss Savannah River
Laura Lyn McLeod
Miss Southern Heartland
Laura Stone
Miss Warner Robins
Channing Wood
Other Queens
Miss Sorority Row
Katie Black
Cherry Blossom Queen
Rachel Cozart
Miss Angus Beef
Katie Gazda
Miss Georgia USA
Kimberly Gittings
Miss Black & Gold Georgia
Tiffany Hobbs
Miss Alpha Kappa Psi
Christina Jones
Watermelon Queen
Lindsay Mann
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