Laura's thoughts on Crowned

I’ve been incredibly busy but I wanted to check in and let everyone know my thoughts about this weeks edition of “Crowned”.

Although I’m decidedly biased since I’ve always been a fan of Miss Wyoming 06, The Daredevil Divas performed extremely well. I’ve always got my fingers crossed when they perform. It’s usually very nerve wracking to be watching a pageant versus being in it, and I always hold my breath when the teams I like are performing. Team Wyoming’s performance and fitness were outstanding- I have to say that their performance exemplifies “fitness” in a world where the swimsuit competition sometimes means pursuing unhealthy options to look the most “fit”. They did an excellent job.

And now for a Crowned Connection: Team Diamond Dolls are former American Coed ladies. The daughter has another sister, Amanda, who competed with me in Orlando for the title of Miss American Coed last year. I remember seeing the mother, and the girl competing on Crowned is also a former American Coed queen.

The only aspect of the show I don’t really like is that it was clear their was a division between the “nice” girls and the “mean girls”. There are plenty of stereotypes about pageants already, one of them being that the girls backstage are vicious and always prepared to sabotage or talk another contestant down. In my opinion, the girls I have encountered through Miss Virginia preliminaries are nothing of the sort: they are the kind of girls who will lend you swimsuit adhesive when you run out, offer to feed you when you’re traveling alone, lend their steamers to girls who need to steam their dress, and kindly offer hair help. Unfortunately, I’m sure that kind of behavior doesn’t get good ratings. I was amazed at how openly nasty a few of the teams were- they were making fun of beautiful accomplished women only a few feet from their faces.

After the swimsuit challenge, the team from Delaware won (and they picked good colors for their skin that highlighted their fitness) but several other teams appeared to be jealous and began making fun of their noses.

This always reminds me of the vicious comments that appear on anonymous pageant message boards, but it takes some real nerve to make fun of somebody who is living in your house and eating dinner only a few feet away. In this case, I don’t think there is any way we can blame the nastiness on poor editing: a bad attitude translates easily.

In any case, I was uplifted by some of the nicer teams and continue to wish them the best of luck!