MsKitka.com

A bylaw barring beauty queens:

Toronto Mayor David Miller has issued an apology to Miss Universe after the city barred her from opening a festival on municipal property over concerns about sexual stereotyping.

“It’s unfortunate and silly,” said Miller. “It won’t happen again.”

Natalie Glebova was set to open a festival last weekend at Nathan Phillips Square in front of City Hall, but municipal officials told organizers that the recently crowned Torontonian couldn’t perform that duty if she wore her sash or her tiara, or if she was introduced by her title.

They said beauty pageants and beauty queens were banned from the square by a bylaw that prohibits activities deemed to be degrading to men or women through sexual stereotyping.

So… if Miss Universe is banned from the square for being a beauty queen (i.e. a sexual stereotype of what a woman should be), then why are men allowed to dress as drag queens on gay pride week and raise the gay pride flag in the square?

There is nothing wrong with a little bit of stereotyping. It is obvious that certain fashions are what attract certain people. While most women dress in sexy ‘feminine’ outfits to attract males, so do many gay men… and while most men dress in casual pants and t-shirts and cut their hair short, so do many lesbians. Is there something wrong with this? No. It’s all a matter of preference.

The Miss Universe pageant is a pageant designed to judge the beauty of a woman from a heterosexual male point of view. If this doesn’t cater to your taste, perhaps you should start your own pageant.

I would love to see what would happen if Rue Paul were hosting an event in the square!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2005 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Censorship, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.