2008 Woodie Awards
Taking off my clothes:
Will it buy me success?
Alanna Jones
Issue date: 10/12/05 Section: Editorials
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Scenario: "An hour has passed as I sit in a dimmed room during an after hours school function. I am anxious as to what's next because the show has been excellent thus far. The disc jockey turns on the seductive music, which only adds to the steamy, erotic ambience. Then I turn my head to see an attractive, tall young lady draped in a bikini. As she struts down the runway, the audience is laced in her demeanor, confidence, and elegance. One after another, the ladies stroll down the runway to model what they think is being admired, their: bikinis."
As I sat at this function, along with the many other pageants that are beginning to take place at PV, I wondered what the purpose was in having to be naked to showcase beauty. Naked may be a little extreme, but why must our black sisters show their "goodies" to become recognized?
True, most of the pageants on campus are to raise money for scholarships, organizations, and also bring a certain celebrity to the contestants involved, but how do these scholarly aspects of education equate to showing skin?
Besides the glamour of the outfits being modeled, and the models themselves, these events can be compared to slavery and prostitution. For example, the shows have their headmasters/ pimps (coordinators), instructing their slaves/ whores (models), to go and sell themselves for the good of being sold/ pimped (modeling for scholarships or nothing at all). I don't consider any girl a whore, but these females are being brainwashed into thinking that they have to show 'what their mama gave them' to get through school. The question is: "Does sexiness equal success?"
There is all this ranting and raving about being at a black school; being at a black school allows students to get away from the oppression of whites have shown our ancestors and become one as a community, but why do we degrade one another? This philosophy does not only apply to pageants, but sports, Greek organization initiation, and so forth. The answer can be found in the old cliché: "Treat others the way you want to be treated." In anything, the PV society should praise its members for the brains and individuality each one of us has, not for beauty or for brawn.
As I sat at this function, along with the many other pageants that are beginning to take place at PV, I wondered what the purpose was in having to be naked to showcase beauty. Naked may be a little extreme, but why must our black sisters show their "goodies" to become recognized?
True, most of the pageants on campus are to raise money for scholarships, organizations, and also bring a certain celebrity to the contestants involved, but how do these scholarly aspects of education equate to showing skin?
Besides the glamour of the outfits being modeled, and the models themselves, these events can be compared to slavery and prostitution. For example, the shows have their headmasters/ pimps (coordinators), instructing their slaves/ whores (models), to go and sell themselves for the good of being sold/ pimped (modeling for scholarships or nothing at all). I don't consider any girl a whore, but these females are being brainwashed into thinking that they have to show 'what their mama gave them' to get through school. The question is: "Does sexiness equal success?"
There is all this ranting and raving about being at a black school; being at a black school allows students to get away from the oppression of whites have shown our ancestors and become one as a community, but why do we degrade one another? This philosophy does not only apply to pageants, but sports, Greek organization initiation, and so forth. The answer can be found in the old cliché: "Treat others the way you want to be treated." In anything, the PV society should praise its members for the brains and individuality each one of us has, not for beauty or for brawn.
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