"She is the girl next door" - What crowning an Indian American as Miss America 2014 says about and means for America

First things first...I'm sorry it's been almost 18 months since I've posted here. I've had a lot going on personally, (and frankly, my life is still a little all over the place) and blogging just wasn't a top priority. However, I couldn't simply ignore this topic, and I felt compelled to sit down and type something to share with all of you. Oddly enough, the topic at hand does kind of suit my blog doesn't it? I mean my original intent with this blog was to examine and embrace all forms of beauty around us.

As some of you know, one of my childhood friends was competing for Miss America 2014. Even though she's an incredibly talented dancer, gorgeous, intelligent, and well-spoken, she didn't make the "Top 15." Aside from her participation, I had no reason or interest to stay tuned in to the broadcast of the pageant unless you count Sunday evening boredom...

But I did end up watching the rest of the pageant, and I'm glad I did. I was absolutely ecstatic that the top two ladies were Asian Americans. To me, the reality that for the first time ever, two women of full Asian descent occupied the top two spots at Miss America was exciting. I am thrilled that Miss New York Nina Davuluri, an Indian American woman, who sees herself as more American than Indian, won. What makes her remarkable is how very open she's been about her past struggles with bulimia, especially since her parents, who are immigrants, didn't really understand what she was dealing with nor how to respond as eating disorders are not as common in Asian societies. (In fact, Nina herself refuses to reveal her weight publicly...not because of her past body image struggles but rather so that other girls and women can not use that information as motivation)

Appropriately, the "final question" she was asked dealt with Julie Chen's recent revelation about her choice (due to pressure from others -- for the record, this is a topic I want to explore in a whole separate blog post) to undergo plastic surgery on her eyes so that she would appear "less Asian" and the message it sends to young women across the country. Nina didn't shy away from any aspect of the question. While, she acknowledged that she understood why Julie chose to have the surgery, Nina also affirmed that she personally did not believe in plastic surgery. She spoke about how we all need to embrace who we are as individuals and that people should NEVER feel like plastic surgery is necessary to make us or others happy with how we look.

However, I found the most remarkable part of her response to be this, "I've always viewed Miss America as the girl next door, and the girl next door is evolving as a diverse America evolves. She's not who she was 10 years ago, and she's not going to be the same person come 10 years down the road."

Nina managed to take something "small," like how a prominent female Asian American news anchor felt that plastic surgery was necessary so that she could achieve her goals in the realm of her career because she wasn't "white" enough, and apply it to America as a whole by using the idea of Miss America. Miss America is supposed to represent us, the people of this great country, the most diverse in the world, one giant melting pot of identities and cultures. Being different is what makes us Americans. Nina basically called out society on still insisting on defining America by its "whiteness." She reminds us that we should realize that the "'all-American, blonde-hair, blue-eyed' girl next door" is not actually the "girl next door" anymore.

I'll refrain from going in depth and inferring longterm effects of Nina's win or what I believe that she will/can accomplish as Miss America. Nonetheless, she possesses several attributes that will serve her well and really impressed me. In short, she's beautiful, intelligent, driven, and very well-spoken. Most importantly, she understands what being Miss America means not only to her but to young women in this country. She's going to give minority populations a voice and work on her platform to get America to "celebrate diversity through cultural competency." 

She is a role model and advocate for how we should embrace and celebrate diversity in this country, and she knows that it doesn't begin with her winning Miss America. Rather, her awareness and understanding of her platform begins with how she identifies herself and who she is, especially if you take her comment prior to being crowned into account. She already recognized that it was a special and ground-breaking moment for two Asian America women to be the last two standing. This also seems like a good -- and necessary -- moment to point out that pageant organizers/insiders encouraged her to not do a Bollywood dance for her talent as it would be viewed as "too foreign." As we all saw, she didn't take that suggestion to heart. She now has an opportunity to encourage change and increase awareness in our society, and I do not doubt her ability to achieve these goals during her reign. Nina's advocacy for her platform began the minute she took that stage in the competition, and she's already working to spread her message as she eloquently fielded questions with the media -- in her post-win press conference to be exact -- regarding the negative feedback/outrage about her win (just google it if you want more).

Yes, I may be particularly passionate about this situation because I am an Asian American woman, I am friends with a contestant -- which in turn meant that I wasn't actually prepared to root for anyone else after the "Top 15" were revealed. (I thought about picking another contestant but ultimately, I didn't. Instead, I watched 15 wonderful women compete to the best of their abilities and just crossed my fingers and hoped that whoever did win was worthy of the title...for the record, Nina is). If having a personal interest in the matter wasn't enough, I spent a good portion of my undergraduate degree in history on coursework and discourse dealing with racial/ethnic identity and racism, especially with how it relates to historical events and the shaping of a country's history and identity, both of America and elsewhere. It's rather disheartening that something that should be in the past is still alive and well, if not even more prevalent and obvious in the present (i mean, did we really fail to learn from history?).

So to the people who are embarrassing themselves -- and disappointing me, and making me re-evaluate the little faith I have in humanity -- by saying Nina Davuluri is not "American," you should be called out for your idiocy and racism (since some tweets have been deleted form the BuzzFeed compilation, here's separate post on Jezebel - courtesy of my big brother). I usually don't condone "public shaming," but your tweets and comments that have be shared by various sources all over the internet just show your lack of thought, factual inaccuracy, and well, general and extreme ignorance. I mean even CNN has chimed in on this. Rather than barraging you further or correcting your assumptions and statements by going into a long-winded discussion and analysis, I advise you to listen to what your Miss America 2014 has to say -- see the quote above. You could afford to learn a thing or two from her. America is changing whether you like it or not...you better get used to it.

This is not a battle that can be won in a year, and it would be naïve to think that the opinions of America will change completely or even a little bit because of the result of a pageant. Nevertheless, I can only hope that it will play a role in helping our country understand and embrace its diversity and each other as Americans. I was raised to believe and taught that America is a true melting pot of backgrounds, and physically, we already are. So let's all take Nina's message to heart and aim to one day change the definition of "American" so that it's no longer synonymous with "white/whiteness." Let's alter that standard and start believing that "diversity/diverse" is the ONLY word that can describe America.

By winning the title of Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri, an Indian American woman born of immigrant parents, changed the face of America. She's won the crown and now has the position and ability to make a difference in this country over the next year (and possibly beyond). Her platform of "celebrating diversity through cultural competency" seems particularly relevant in the wake of the response her win stirred. What about the rest of us? How will we respond? What are we going to do? Will we change our opinions and how we view each other? Are we going to step up with Nina and advocate for this message and or not all?

...the ball's in your court, America.

Don't hesitate to leave your thoughts and comments below!

oh! time flies! -- a quick reflection on FB

So I just logged on and realized that I haven't posted anything in a MONTH! How did that happen? Time really flies when you are having fun have too much to do. I have so many things I want to blog about, but I just haven't had to time to put all the thoughts down to share :( That's not to say that I won't, but I just don't know when (probably next weekend) since every time I seem to have time, I remember I have something else to do. And on top of that, some of the things I want to blog about are time-sensitive (and if not, I feel silly blogging about them now because they seem unimportant). But maybe I'll still get around to them...

So until I actually get around to typing up all those crazy thoughts I have in my head, this will have to suffice.

In 5 days, I get control of FB account again. 6 weeks zipped right past. Did I learn anything? YES! Am I going to ever do it again? possibly yes/possibly no...mainly because not only did I learn how little I actually needed FB, I also realized how integrated it is into our lives. To be honest, I've made a better effort to communicate with people without that huge form of social media -- though, I was still on twitter and tumblr. I wrote more emails, called/texted/skyped people (but I did just realized I never actually got around to talking to 2 people I'm been meaning to talk to...oops!) However, the BIG thing was realizing how many more hours a day I had if I didn't use FB. That being said, I ALSO learned, that society nowadays doesn't really work in the absence of FB. It was harder to keep up with popular trends, new developments in people's lives, and et etera (mainly because no one thinks of how they should communicate with people not on FB anymore -- thought that may have been my own fault, since I didn't really tell people I'd be off FB but kept the account active so people could still write on my wall and tag me in things). There's a natural and accepted assumption that everyone can find out everything from FB so we don't/won't need to use other forms of communication.

So yes, going without FB was a good thing, but not having it at all really doesn't work either (well, at least until the "next big thing" comes around, I guess). Nonetheless, the really strange thing was I realized I really, truly did not need FB at all. I didn't really miss it. Over the past 6 weeks, I didn't try to access my account. I didn't need to because FB is actually not important enough for me to use it as much I have been using it. Yes, it was inconvenient not having access to it, but I learned it was such a small thing that I had managed to make a big thing. So here's to hoping that I can take what I learned and sign into my FB account significantly less than I did before cutting myself off from it entirely for the past 6 weeks. Time really is better spent elsewhere. Maybe, just maybe, I'll reach the happy medium of using FB they way Mark Zuckerberg originally intended and not the complete-and-total-time-consuming-procrastination-technique the vast majority of us have managed to make it become.

Brain or Face?

It's been over a week since I've posted. Oops! That's mainly because I've been keeping myself as busy as possible, but staying focused on school. It's kind of funny how quickly time goes by when you keep busy. I'm currently without Facebook, so my biggest every day distraction is gone, and I oddly don't even miss it. I'll be trying to post more frequently, and I have some ideas jotted down, I just haven't had the time to expand on anything. Just a note, I'll be going on a brief trip for Spring Break to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, OR without a computer, so we'll see if I can squeeze in some cool posts then. I'll be catching 3 plays and a musical in those 5 days, while hanging out with family...it'll be fun, and I look forward to sharing!

So for today, I'll just share an really interesting article I found on CNN, "Beholding beauty: How it's been studied" about how scientists have studied our understanding of beauty. This is part of a 6-week series they're doing called "Perceptions of Beauty."  I'm most intrigued by the idea that is presented in the final section, titled "Beauty as Power." I'm not sure that I agree with the study's results, but I do think there's some truth in the idea that physical appearance can sway people's perception of an individual. I think how a person presents oneself to others is the key to power and success, which comes from one's own personal belief in self, and THAT is a beautiful thing.

I hope to be keeping up with this series in the next few weeks, and I hope you join me!

Anyways, leave your thoughts and comments about the article/series and let's talk!

ps- don't expect another post for another 6 days, I NEED to study, wish me luck on my next exam :P


[edit]: I decided to register my phone for mobile posting and add the email posting option...so maybe you will get a chance to check out the OSF with me next week assuming I'm not to lazy to write something via my phone ;) But if you follow me on twitter, I'll definitely be sharing there! So hit the follow button under my profile!

Finding Beauty

Beauty is both visual and intellectual. Beauty in and of itself is a paradox. It's such a simple concept because we all know it when we see it, yet every person has their own unique definition and way of identifying beauty. What one person perceives as beautiful may or may not be the common perception. The simple idea of finding and appreciating beauty no matter how unusual as it may be is what makes life beautiful.
As clichéd as it may sound, life is full of beautiful moments. Those moments might be small, personal, and internal, or they might be grand and in the greater world around us. Learning to identify and appreciate the beauty of those moments are what allows people to find happiness and reach their dreams. Finding beauty in life in whatever medium, size, shape, or form is the basis for inspiration. Capturing a moment and sharing an experience with the world is what drives an artist, both visual and performing. Recreating a moment, image, or event is what a writer hopes to do for their audience. Teachers work tirelessly to help their students find and present beauty in their lives. Doctors and scientists are always striving to find a way to preserve the beauty of life. Whatever it is that you do in life, I'm sure you've experienced one of those life moments that just made you say, "WOW!"

It's being able to recall those moments and finding them that is the greatest struggle. It was during my 4 years of undergraduate study that I finally realized all the little things in life I was missing. I think I finally learned to see and appreciate the beautiful moments I was creating, the ones that already existed, and the ones I was hoping to one day have. I'm not here in the blogosphere to wax poetic about clichéd moments or be overly sentimental. In fact, those who know me well understand that I'm usually a cynic and love a healthy dose of sarcasm. At the same time, I'm a firm believer in finding the goodness and beauty in all people and things. Some may call me naïve, others will say I'm too idealistic. I won't deny either claim since I know I can be at times. But really, the fact of the matter is that I'm a "closet optimist."
Why? I always hope for the best, but it's the fear of being disappointed that prevents me from verbalizing whatever hopes and dreams I have about every situation in my life, regardless if I can control them or not. No matter how small or insignificant they may be, I always want the best for myself and others. However, like every person out there, I don't like being wrong. It's not that I think it's a failure if my wishes don't come true but rather that I allowed myself to be disillusioned and experience a sense of guilt because I feel as though I have "lied" to myself. So what if this makes me seem week and insecure, isn't it better that I can reveal this about myself? Knowing this about myself helps me deal with the challenges life will direct my way. I know I'm better prepared for dealing with our crazy world because I am able to hope for the best, but prepare for the worse. I know I'm not perfect nor am I like anyone else, but at the end of the day, isn't that the beauty of life?

Embracing my identity is what makes me believe that I am beautiful and happy. Appreciating the beauty of knowledge is what drives me toward my future. Understanding the beauty of the human spirit is what makes me believe I can succeed.

So join me on my ride through life as I seek and find all the ways that "Unusual...is Beautiful"

I leave you with this,"To dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed." - Bernard Edmonds.

Until next time,
Ruth


ps - Be prepared. With my various interests, this blog will be a roller coaster ride for my readers. Sometimes, I'll be intellectual and philosophical like I was tonight. Other times, this blog will be a vehicle for me to express my frustrations or excitement. And in all other instances, you can expect lots of fun and randomness.