Winning a beauty pageant has always resulted in a little bit of pride and prejudice.
That will be multiplied now that Miss Michigan Rima Fakih of Dearborn,has won the Miss USA title. http://bit.ly/9FdWRA
The pride part is easy. She is a resident of SE Michigan and our state can use all the good news it can get. As for beauty, Miss Fakih has it.
The prejudice part is more complicated.
On one level, there are going to be those who question whether someone born in another country should hold the title. There is, of course, plenty of precedent in contests in this country, and elsewhere around the world, where place of birth is not a requirement. It is not, after all, like being president of the US.
But there is also a world level, where the conflict between strict interpretations of Muslim beliefs about feminine modesty will certainly be raised. To win this contest, the women have to present themselves in public in costumes that some parts of the world will argue are far from modest.
The new Miss USA says her family celebrates both Christian and Muslim faiths, and she attended a Catholic school.
However, there are those who may not take kindly to a Lebanese woman, abandoning her birth culture at such a prominent level.
This will be a story to wathch.
And, as always, you can add your comments to the stories on The Oakland Press website.