Somebody call the “waahhhmbulance” — former beauty queen Carrie Prejean has been mortally wounded by the continuing attacks on her because she had the temerity to defend “traditional marriage” during the Miss USA beauty pageant way back in April. She’s so hurt, in fact, that she’s displaying her battle wounds on the Today Show and in a brand new book.
Prejean is outraged — outraged, I tell you — that her freedom of speech has been trampled on and is certain that there is some vast left wing conspiracy to “silence” her. She told Meredith Vieira that she is being targeted for her “beliefs”:
“The biggest thing and the reason I wrote this book is Americans believe their beliefs are under attack, and this is proof,” she told Vieira, adding that the sex tape is another example of what her enemies will do to attack her.
Ah, the “sex tape.” That’s what Vieira really wanted to talk about on the morning segment, but Prejean refused to answer any about the tape, invoking the secrecy of mediation. It was clarified that that she appears alone on the tape and made it for her boyfriend back when she was 17 years old.
Since her Miss USA pageant answer, Prejean has been making hay as a darling of the religious right – working for the National Organization for Marriage and making the speaking rounds at conservative events. She makes her faith a prominent talking point in speeches and in her new book.
Vieira took the time to read this excerpt to Prejean: “Our bodies are temples of the Lord. We should earn respect and admiration for our hearts, not for showing skin to look sexy.” Asked if that passage, and the aforementioned sex tape made her, well, a hypocrite, Prejean shot back:
“I’m a model. I was in a beauty pageant. If people want to call me a hypocrite, that’s their prerogative. But I’ve learned from my mistakes. No one is perfect.”
Apparently, if God gives you good genes and silky beautiful skin – you’re allowed to bare it all for money without violating the sacredness of said fleshly temple. Good to know.
Honestly, I’m surprised that Prejean isn’t painting herself as some modern day Rahab – the prostitute who housed Joshua’s spies before they took over the Promised Land. Rahab was spared for her faithfulness, despite her past sins. Just as philanderers like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford will claim King David as their political mascot, I think Prejean could go a long way to reviving the Rahab story, showing herself to be a deeply flawed woman of faith.
Prejean also complained bitterly that there is a double standard at play against conservative women like herself and former Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin who has also been “attacked”:
“If Sean Hannity went out there and said some of the things that Keith Olbermann has said about me, if he says anything about [Sonia] Sotomayor, Michelle Obama, he would be off the air. Why is there this double standard? That’s the reason why I wrote this book.”
Hannity has repeatedly attacked both Sotomayor and Michelle Obama in show after show, and remains on the air. Talker Mark Levin called Sotomayor “Ruth Bader Ginsburg plus about 50 pounds.” He’s still on the air. There is no reverse discrimination against Prejean, and right wing talkers continue to slam their opponents without mercy and get to keep their jobs.
What really happened to Prejean is this: possibly for the first time in her life, someone stopped looking at her body long enough to listen to her words, and found her to be ugly. Her white, pretty girl, privilege has worked fine up until this point. It has opened all the doors she wanted – to modeling, to beauty pageants, and now to TV and book deals. For once, though, in that brief, shining moment at the Miss USA Pageant, her beauty was not what people saw — it was the ugliness of her words, the cognitive dissonance between a beautiful body and ugly bigotry that caused people to criticize her and that is what shocked Prejean. I’m sure, before this moment, no one had ever criticized her. They were too busy fawning over her because of her all-American good looks. She believed that her breasts, her pretty white teeth, her blonde hair, and her white skin would shield her from all attack. They had so far.
All I can say, Miss Prejean, is welcome to my world. I’ve been called many nasty names from fat to ugly, usually with “dyke” following close behind. I’ve been called a “false prophet” and a “heretic.” I’ve been called “bitch,” “whore,” and all those slurs women have to endure from a male-dominated society. You know what? No one has ever given me air time on the Today Show to complain about it. As a struggling first time author, I’d give just about anything to get the free publicity and sweet advance you’re getting for your first book. But, I’m not a beauty queen, and am sexually suspect, so no Today Show for me!
And let’s talk about being silenced. No one is going to the polls to vote on whether or not Prejean has the right to free speech. No one is voting on whether or not she should be allowed to live freely in our society. Voter after voter has been allowed to go to the polls and vote about my right to marry and my right to keep my job and my right to fair housing. If you want to get into a pissing match over violation of rights, Miss Prejean, bring it on, because mine is definitely bigger than yours.
The truth is this: Prejean’s privilege is unharmed. She can get attention for her outrage for the same reason she got into trouble – she’s a beautiful, white woman and doors will still be opened wide for her no matter what the scandal. She’s gotten a few glimpses of the rough and tumble world of misogyny along the way, though. She recounts in her “tell-all” about meeting Donald Trump in a pre-pageant meeting with the other beauty queens. Trump promptly divides the beauty pageant girls up into basically, “hot” or “not hot” categories. What? The Donald is a sexist pig? Who would have thought? Stop the presses.
Despite being confronted with this bald-faced show of misogyny, Prejean is unmoved. She continues to play her role of put upon beauty queen who just wants to make the world safe for men and women to get married without those icky queers ruining the party. She’s still sucking up to powerful men to make her living and is unable to grasp that this is what truly demeans her as a human being.
