I don't understand people who are annoyed at Miss America for celebrating beauty. I would understand them if they were upset at the gratuitous nudity [0], but t

I don't understand people who are annoyed at Miss America for celebrating beauty. I would understand them if they were upset at the gratuitous nudity [0], but that doesn't even register today - we're saturated with scantly clad people celebrating themselves in public. Beauty if a gift. I'm a overjoyed if someone tells me my daughter is beautiful, she really is, but I don't let people photograph her, never-mind allow her to be in a pageant. But there's nothing wrong in being beautiful. It's a gift. Nor does being smart intrinsically make the person worthy. Intelligence is also a gift, a good one, but it hardly makes the holder a good person. So I don't celebrate someone for their academic achievements. Big deal. Instead I celebrate people who, with their gifts, work for others. Yes, even personal beauty and grace can be used for this purpose (see Audrey Hepburn). A person with a 250 IQ and ten PhDs means nothing to me if they're the re-incarnation of Robert McNamara. [0] A "little black dress" like Audrey Hepburn's and with her grace is far more revealing of beauty than a bikini. The bikini seems to be about detecting "flaws" like you would a horse at a market.