The War on Beauty - guest post by Ed Cline

By Edward Cline
[Republished with permission from edwardcline.blogspot.com​]

Most men who watched the annual Miss America pageant did not tune in to evaluate the intellectual content of the contestants, but because the girls were drop dead gorgeous, unctuously curved in all the right places, but unfortunately and as a rule inarticulate and banal in their dreams and aspirations. It usually had something to do with public service or helping mankind or was a fillip of political virtue signaling. 

This is to be no more. Miss America will no longer be a parade of faultless eye candy. On June 5th, the head of the pageant signaled her so-called virtue. 

The Miss America Organization has announced an end to the swimsuit portion of its competition and the practice of judging contestants specifically on their outward appearance.  Breitbart reported:

   Gretchen Carlson, who was crowned Miss America in 1989, made the announcement of the new direction on Tuesday’s broadcast of Good Morning America, CNBC reported.

   Branding the pageant “Miss America 2.0,” Carlson said, “We’re not going to judge you on your appearance because we are interested in what makes you you.”

  Carlson, the latest head of the pageant’s board of directors, added that many contestants expressed criticism of the swimsuit and evening gown portion of the pageant in this day of a heightened awareness of sexual harassment.

Which means having to endure listening to people verbally signaling their “social justice.” This had nothing to do with Islam, although Carlson’s announcement was preceded by Sadiq Khan’s decree that swimsuits will no longer be advertised on public transportation. The Daily Caller reported on June 13th 2016, that the London mayor has proclaimed it is haram to look beach worthy.

​Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, announced that “body shaming” advertisements will no longer be allowed in London’s public transport.  No more sexy advertising that proclaims that being drop dead gorgeous in a bikini is halal.

“As the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies. It is high time it came to an end,” Khan said.

The mayor added, “Nobody should feel pressurised, while they travel on the Tube or bus, into unrealistic expectations surrounding their bodies and I want to send a clear message to the advertising industry about this.”

There was a petition with over 70,000 on Change.org opposing an advertisement with women in a bikini that asked “are you beach body ready?” The petition said, “Protein World is directly targeting individuals, aiming to make them feel physically inferior to the unrealistic body image of the bronzed model, in order to sell their product.”

Back in 2011, advertisements featuring bikini-clad models in the British city of Birmingham were spray painted over. Birmingham has a high Muslim population.

Of course, no one will ever know if Muslim women who frequent beaches in “burkinis” have beach ready figures. In Islam, displaying an attractive figure – or uncovered wrist or ankle – is haram, and an invitation to rape. It is “exposed meat” for Muslim men.
                                                                                                                                                 
Are these Sufi Muslims raring to go the beach to drool over “exposed meat”?

​In the 17th and 18th centuries the ideal feminine profile tended to be chunky (as can be seen in many artworks), as opposed to today's well-proportioned svelteness. 

No discussion of feminine beauty would be complete without academia’s two cents worth.  Campus Reform reported on June 6th about a new sophomore course at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York:

   “White Mythologies: Objectivity, Meritocracy, and Other Social Constructions” is a sophomore-level course taught by Kendralin Freeman and Jason Rodriguez, who are sociology and anthropology professors, respectively.

   “This course explores the history and ongoing manifestations of ‘white mythologies’--
long-standing, often implicit views about the place of White, male, Euro-American subjects as the norm,” explains the course description, which adds that students will also “explore how systematic logics that position ‘the West’ and ‘whiteness’ as the ideal manifest through such social constructions as objectivity, meritocracy, and race.” 

Leave it to academia and numerous intellectuals to gum up the concept in men’s minds in the name of “social justice.”  Beauty through the ages has usually –but not entirely – been defined by white males, from art to literature to architecture to the feminine form. Beauty in academia, one supposes, is now a “white mythology” and a “social construct.” Or perhaps a Marxist “deconstruction.” Leave it to academia and numerous intellectuals to gum up the concept in men’s minds, bequeathing them the hair shirt of subjectivity and the endless nattering of the MSM.

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