I’m writing this post to document a situation that I encountered
at this year’s 6th Annual Egg Pageant in Sumner, Georgia. Oh, you
haven’t heard of this pageant? That may be because it isn’t real life. I mean,
it IS real life… but only for the young girls participating. To the rest of us-
this pageant doesn’t exist and the decisions made by the pageant judges will
never affect any of our lives directly. This pageant is a tiny, tiny occurrence in the
lives of 200 people MAX. I just so happened to be taking a vacation from
college to visit my family close to Sumner the weekend of the town's Egg Pageant. I decided
to attend the event with my little sister to watch and cheer on a good friend
who was competing that evening (shout out to Jessica Louise Black *wink wink* What's up?!). I have
participated in many pageants in my lifetime and I have attended several
others. In the South, beauty pageants are extremely popular among all ages. I
realized only after moving away to college that many people my age have never witnessed a beauty pageant. So for those people who have no idea what I’m even
talking about- lemme break it down for ya.
Beauty
pageants exist in communities all over this fine country as a creative outlet
and as a means for a bit of friendly competition among young girls. These competitions are very often
low-key community-centered events and simply for funsies (for
instance- this pageant exists to honor local egg farmers). However, as some of
you may have seen on TLC- beauty pageants can get quite extravagant! But I’m
not talking about an extravagant pageant. I’m talking about little bitty baby
competition that means nothing to ANYONE except the girls up on that stage. In
fact, I should have never even thought of this dang pageant again!
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to forget this junk. Ugh, it’s aggravating. I
want to move on with my life. But I can’t.
The
contestants were divided into maybe 5 small groups. They were divided
appropriately by age. It was actually cute because the oldest age group consisted of 2
adult moms! But anyways, the girls ranged from probably 8 to 19 (these are
estimates because I forget details later due to rage). Our friend Jessica is a senior at Worth County High School and she was so
pretty and amazing and I love her and her parents are so sweet and nice. Ok,
but the situation of the night surrounded the age group right below hers. This
age group was made up of middle school students. Remember how awful middle school
was? Yeah, everyone hates middle school. No one knows who they are in middle
school. Everyone is at their ugliest and most uncomfortable. All of our bodies
got weird in middle school. Everyone is miserable. Middle school is Hell on
Earth. I’m sorry, was that just me? Anyways, all of these girls were in middle
school. Nonetheless, they were all BEAUTIFUL up on that sparkly stage! There were 4 girls in this age group. Remember- this pageant is TINY.
Four middle school girls were competing for the same ‘Queen’ title this
evening. Well actually, they were all there fighting for several titles:
1-
Queen
2-
1st runner up
3-
Best Smile
4-
Best Hair
5-
Most Photogenic
6-
People’s Choice (audience members would vote
with $ for their favorite girl)
7-
Best Hair
8-
Best Dress
9-
Most Beautiful
So, wow, the odds look pretty good! Nine titles for 4 girls!
In fact, I can’t remember (rage) if there was a 2nd Runner-Up… so
there may have been one more possible title! Great odds! This will be great!
Well, I say “great”… but is it kinda strange that we would sign our 13-15 year
old girls up to have their physical appearance judged against their peers’ in
front of their town? Is that strange? Let’s rate these 4 children on how
“beautiful” they are and then announce who wins (and therefore who loses) to
everyone they know. Congratulations to the “Most Beautiful” child. I would
absolutely LOVE to be judged at the “Most Beautiful!” Omg, I would be so proud
of my face! I would literally wear it around everywhere for forever. Yeah, but
cool, anyway. These children are up there. Let’s cut to the chase-
There were 3 tiny pageant girls on display up there in the bright lights… and then there
was one girl who was a little more averagely-sized than the other three. It was
noticeable that she was slightly huskier than the others… but all four
children were gloriously made-up, sparkling and smiling so beautifully for the
judges. The TWO judges that were judging them. Two. Two middle-aged women.
Actually, I don’t know how old they were because #rage, but I DO know that
neither of them had a perfect hourglass shape. There were two, average,
grown-ass women RANKING these children based on their physical appearance.
Soon, their decisions would be read to the auditorium. (Just a side-rant: A
pageant is supposed to have odd-numbered judges.) So, there are the children up
on the stage. Cori-Beth Sutton is the host of the show (omg, she did
spectacularly. She is a freakin’ natural!! You go, girl!!) and as she prepares
to read off the winners, the girlies are smiling and posing to imitate
life-sized Barbies, as one must in this sort of arena. One-by-one the awards
are attached to a winner. After each award is announced, the pageant director
hands the winner the title’s corresponding trophy. Slowly… the huskier child’s
facial expression begins to morph from hopeful to shameful as the number of
remaining available awards runs out. As all three of the other contestants
fumble around trying to hold their new trophies and sashes… the odd-girl-out
begins to realize that she is about to walk away with nothing. I sat in the
audience with my eyes fixed on this child’s facial expression. I thought that
surely she would win SOMETHING. But as time passed… it was clear. The ‘Queen’
was announced last. I watched the losing girl’s face twist into the most
heartbreaking expression I can remember seeing in my entire life. Her hands
ever so slowly shifted from confidently hanging by her sides… to nervously
fiddling with the front of her dress. Her eyes struggled to withhold her tears.
Her face had turned perfectly red by the time Cori-Beth congratulated the
winners and dismissed them from the stage. That sweet child… bless her heart.
As I looked around the auditorium it was clear that everyone noticed what had
just made me shaking mad. SHAKING. I was so furious. She had been the only child to lose. She did not win a single award, but instead had lost in all categories. That girl would remember
this public humiliation for the rest of her life. PUBLIC HUMILIATION. Bright
lights and an auditorium full of family, friends, and schoolmates… For nothing
but humiliation. I was enraged. Her expression broke my heart. And those two
ladies were 100% at fault for her pain. Why would those ladies break that
child’s heart in that way? I never saw the kid again… I looked for her as the
other three kids came out into the audience carrying their trophies… but she
wasn’t there. Her parents got her out of that building immediately.
Knowing how it
feels to be in middle school, I can imagine each of those four girls being so
incredibly nervous throughout the whole day as competition time approached. All
day each child felt nervous that they may trip or be judged unfavorably. And as
the night of the competition drew nearer, these feelings would become almost
impossible to avoid. Being on stage is terrifying for the majority of us.
Imagine this happening to you. Imagine being the loser. The only loser. MY
HEART BROKE. And ask, my sister- I was shaking. As soon as the competition
ended- I headed to the judge’s table.
I approached the
judges shaking and obviously holding back tears. These two ladies, by
definition, score each contestant on numerous scales based on their various
beauty/pageant skills. I asked the first judge to noticed me if there was a
“head judge in charge.” She said there was not. I asked for an email address
that I could reach one of them by. She refused. She told me to say whatever I
needed to say to them right there. I was so angry and disturbed that I couldn’t
speak clearly. I told them that what they did was awful. I didn’t even need to
explain which girl I was talking about when I accused them of being awful. I asked
them HOW they could do that. One of the ladies said, “We don’t have any control
over that. We just tally up the scores.” -a ridiculous thing to say. I replied,
“You’re the ONLY people that have control over this! You are responsible for
this!” I reminded them of how small of an event they were running. I reminded
them that this event doesn’t matter… but that that little girl was going to be
SCARRED by their decision to act carelessly. It was then that they referred me
to the ‘Pageant Director’. WHAT?! The who?! Does she JUDGE these children!? No.
But they called her over to the table to speak with me. Cool, hi. She asked me what my problem was. I told her. She asked me which
girl I was referring to. I said, “ARE YOU KIDDING?! The girl who just got
humiliated by these two in front of all these people! You know who I’m talking
about.” It was at that point that all three ladies involved realized that I
didn’t actually know the child personally. Oops, I guess I’m not a mad parent/sibling.
I might just be an upset member of the human race. She ended the
conversation by saying, “Oh, the little girl who didn’t win anything? Yeah,
we’re taking care of her.” I replied with- “I’M SORRY, YOU’RE WHAT?!?! No,
ma’am.” And I walked off. It took
everything in me not to burst out in tears.
I’m sorry, maybe
the little girl wasn’t as humiliated as it looked. Maybe I am the only one who
wouldn’t be able to go to school the next day. I’m just saying, that was awful
of those two ladies to do to her. They saw what they did. They saw how the
child reacted. And I hope with everything in me that those two thought of that
little girl shying away with defeat and embarrassment as they tried to sleep
that night. I hope that child is stronger than me… because I wouldn’t be able
to come back from that very easily.
I wanted to
get back at the three compassion-less women in this story by trying to get the
story into the Sylvester Local… but I digress. Karma is real when it comes to
disregarding the feelings of others. They’ll get what they bring on. I’m not in
charge of dishing out karma. However- I can document whatever I want for my
personal memories and share it with my family! ;-P
