Leave Miss Utah alone

Yes, Miss Utah flubbed a question in Miss America 2013, but don't let one stupid mistake remove her 'personhood'


Now consider: she entered an inoffensive competition, where under the gaze of an unknown and massive multitude, she was asked this question:


Marissa Powell, Miss Utah in the Miss America 2013 competition, had mere seconds to answer, no preparation. She thus fumbled. This wasn't an examiner asking a doctoral candidate about her paper; this wasn't a teacher testing a student who was supposed to have prepared. This was a beauty pageant contestant thrust into answering a difficult – though important – question of economics and gender inequality.

She fumbled. And the internet was provided with yet another plaything, yet another tool to throw into the laughing factory. Look how silly she is. Look how stupid this dumb American beauty pageant person is. Wow.

Deadspin's Timothy Burke posted an unpleasant and mean-spirited response from the film Billy Madison:


How is this response proportional to her fumbling, under a glaring spotlight – metaphorically and probably literally – and with a sudden large question? Why are we OK with such meanness toward someone who appears to be a good person and someone who maybe many of us would respect?

(The Billy Madison quotation might be given more acceptance if it was, say, in response to an internet comment – instead of to a young person suddenly forced to answer a vague-ish question. However, even if it was to a comment, I think this response itself would be unhelpful and merely mocking.)

Why have we allowed people on our screens to be seen as automatic village idiots, worthy of derision and scorn, with our vulture-like gaffaws and mockery of their character fading out, as we move on to the next victim? A young, inexperienced person made a mistake – like many of us young, inexperienced people – only the wonder/horror of the internet makes her fumbling viral, makes her words "create education better" eternal (until we move on to the next village idiot for the week).

I think we should stop tweeting links to it, stop watching it, stop laughing at someone who briefly messed up. (I realise I'm doing this but hopefully you understand why.) Mistakes should not be thorns, but rungs in a ladder toward improvement. But by trending and buzzing and tweeting and liking and redditing someone's brief moment of mistaken response, keeping that alive rather than anything else of Powell – her work, her experience of adoption (and loss), her parents moral actions that inspired her – we remove her personhood; we think of her as yet another silly American beauty who said something funny, instead of a person who studied and has actually tried helping others. (Adoption is an important issue, after all.)

Don't send that link. Don't laugh at someone making a mistake. Treat yourself and others better than the internet so commonly would. It is we who make the decision to put this person up as the next target for our mockery darts and character barbs.

There are enough actual bad people to hate, enough actual stupid and suffering policies to fight – which can be fought with the tools of mockery and derision. Better these than briefly confused individuals, who are suddenly put on a spotlight so their mistakes will be digitally engraved for longer than is necessary.

This post originally appeared on Tauriq Moosa's blog Against the New Taboo.