From left, Miss Nebraska Sarah Rose Summers, Miss North Carolina Caelynn Miller-Keyes and Miss Nevada Carolina Urrea at the 2018 Miss USA competition. (Jeff Neira / FOX)
The new Miss USA 2018, 23-year-old Sarah Rose Summers. ( Brittany Elizabeth Strickland / Miss Universe Organization)
Vannesia Crayton
Meghan Markle wasn’t the only American wearing a tiara this long weekend…
The Miss USA 2018 Pageant was held at the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport-Bossier, Louisiana, and Miss Nebraska, Sarah Rose Summers, won the title. She will be representing the United States in the upcoming Miss Universe competition.
Yesterday’s evening hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey, was a live televised event composed of various runways, gowns, intense Q&As and a lot of surprises.
Summers, a 23-year-old contestant from Omaha, holds a Bachelor’s degrees from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, in child development and strategic communication. She is working on becoming a certified child life specialist.
Despite all the glitz and glam, the pageant had several cringeworthy moments, which left some viewers questioning the intelligence of the contestants.
Miss Dakota Madison Nipe, being announced as a top 15 finalist in Miss USA competition. ( Patrick Prather/Miss Universe Organization)
The evening’s Q&A session dealt with topics from this year’s most talked about social and sexual assault movements, such as #MeToo, Black Lives Matter and Time’s Up. Contestants did their best, but still struggled to give cogent answers.
Question: Why did one-third of women neglect the right to vote in the presidential election?
Miss South Dakota, Madison Nipe, gave a response that sounded appropriate for a completely different question than the right to vote. “Women are perfectly capable of expressing how you feel,” she said. “We need to get out there as women and show the world.”
…..Miss South Dakota just said in her answer that women should be able to vote….idk I don’t think I even have words for this… #MissUSA
— Becca Raney (@_beccaraney) May 22, 2018
Moral of the story: Beauty does not always equal to intelligence. #MissUSA
— Arissa Rosella (@ArissaRosella) May 22, 2018
Question: What can be done to protect women on college campuses against sexual assault?
Miss Florida, Génesis Davila, implied that it is a woman’s responsibility not to allow sexual assault, “Campuses should have different groups and activities where women can self-defend themselves.”
The answers were likely not what the producers of Miss USA were hoping for when they included multiple questions about sexual violence and race issues.
Marny Florence Miss Canada Petite 2015 Third Princess ( Maxine / Anything Goes Photography)
Thornhill native Marny Florence was third runner up in the Miss Canada Petite 2015 pageant, said she was in shock at the answers she saw being given Monday night.
” From everything I looked at during the full Miss USA, I definitely think there should be some sort of testing, just for the sake of being prepared, there should be some sort of pre-testing to get ready for when you’re put on the actual stage, although I didn’t have any,” Florence said. ” When given such broad issues that are important to our society, I don’t want to answer on the fly and make myself look bad. I don’t think anyone does. Plus, it’s something for us to show as beauty pageant contestants to showcase that it’s more than just what’s on the surface.”
This is not the first time that beauty pageant contestants have given embarrassing answers.
At 2007 Teen USA pageant, Miss South Carolina, Caitlin Upton, made international headlines for her response to a question about why a fifth of Americans weren’t able to locate the United States on a world map.
“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh, people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future. For our children,” Upton responded