The Miss America Organization refers to itself "one of the nation's leading achievement programs and the world's largest provider of scholarship assistance for young women." It awarded a total of $340,000 to young women at its national competition in 2008, and I’m glad to know that an organization exists which is so very amenable to providing educational resources specifically for pretty women across the nation.

Potential competitors can visit the website, which is headed with a quote from 1987 Miss America Kellye Cash on her complete mediocrity as a person: “"I did lots of things. I was a pianist, but not quite good enough to get a music scholarship; an athlete, but I didn't play a varsity sport; smart, but not smart enough to get an academic scholarship. So competing in the Miss America program was an opportunity to get a scholarship for school." Lucky for Kellye, it’s not really about the skills, so much as the smile/hip-waist-bust ratio.

Of course there are many charitable causes supported by the competition, but does the positivity of the charity work necessarily outweigh the focus on embrace of mediocrity? Why is the Miss America Organization choosing to make Cash's statement on her lukewarm athleticism, ambiguous musicality, and so-so academic work, a selling point and focus on their website?
 

Local Miss America preliminary competitions, like Miss Thousand Island, are now accepting applications from vaguely talented women across the nation.