Pageant Rage

           I’m writing this post to document a situation that I encountered at this year’s 6^th 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-      1^st 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 2^nd 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