Oh my God, I think I just orgasmed.

Jay Smooth, will you be my boyfriend?

The cat wants to learn how to play guitar. Sorry, I'm in a random mood today.

Psssh, Miss California isn't a time traveler from the future, that's waaaay too complicated and conspiracy theorist-y. The real answer is obvious... she's a secret Canadian. (I'd guess Albertan since she does still think marriage should be between a man and a woman). :D

transcript?

So glorious.

First, awesome video.

Second, I really love this blog, but I find the persistent lack of transcripts to be extremely ableist. This should be an inclusive and respectful community, so I think it's important that every video be coupled with a transcript. I've seen a lot of people comment on this problem before, so I know I'm not the only person that feels this way.

I know adding transcripts will take extra time and effort, but I think it's worth it to make this a community that doesn't exclude those people who are unable to hear the audio on these videos.

He's got quite the way with words. In a good way, not like such as and.

This is hilarious! Love it. The cat in background is funny to watch also.

Also, only in pageants and fairy tales do they use the word "land". Why can't they learn terms like "state", "country", even "nation" would be a step up.

Good call on the calls for transcripts, feminist friends. This should at least help in the short term.

I’m making a video every day for the rest of this month. Some of them will be regular videos, like yesterday. Some of them will be a little more… random. So for those of you who might be uncomfortable with randomness, I will now institute a labeling system. Form now on when you see the words “minidoctrine” in the title, you’ll know that this is something random that might not be fore you.

And speaking of random and things that you might want to skip—The Miss USA pageant! Perez Hilton caused a scandal asking Miss California how she felt about gay marriage:

“Well I think it’s great that Americans can choose one or the other. We live in a land that you can choose same sex marriage or opposite marriage. And, you know what? In my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think that it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you.”

Watching that clip raises a lot of questions for me. Questions such as “Why do beauty pageants still exist?” This ritual seems so out of place to me in 2009, like watching a renaissance faire. My twitter friends pointed out to me that beauty pageants are a leading source of scholarship money for young women, which is something. But I mean, if that scholarship is coming along with some crazy messages about how women are supposed to be valued. It’s like we’re pulling you up as a reward for letting us push you down- do you really come out ahead in that? It’s like a patriarchal metaphysical conundrum.

But in the meantime, right-wingers across the land area already hailing Miss California as their new champion. The Joan of arc and/or Joe the plumber of the anti-gay marriage movement. And on the surface I guess that does make sense. but I don’t know, when I take a closer look at her answer, I start to wonder what side she’s really on.

For example, when most people in her position talk about heterosexual marriage they call it “normal marriage” but she didn’t do that. She called it “opposite marriage”- do you see what she did there? she struck a blow against heteronormative nomenclature! And she started out her answer by telling us how proud she is to live in a land where everyone can choose what kind of a marriage they want.

Now of course, that’s not true about this land that we live in, but she never said she was from this land. Do you see where I’m going with this? My theory is that Miss California is from another land that exists in the future! A land where she’s free to have her beliefs without them being legislated on anyone else.

Perez Hilton, listen to me. All you need to do is go to Miss California, and tell her she’s been teleported back to present day America without her knowledge and she will join your side. She will lead you to victory! And then you can fix her flux capacitor and send her back home to the future. The truth is out there.

I've loved Jay Smooth since Feministing first started showing some of his vlogs.

But then he referenced The X-Files.

And now I'm really struggling against the temptation to devote all of my spare time fangirling him.

This was a really good video. I'll have to check him out more often.

ElleStar- Just give in to the temptation. I'm surprised there isn't a "Jay Smooth Fangirl" group on Facebook yet. Just joined the Ill Doctrine group, tho.

That's great. I wasn't expecting that there at the end, but it was hilarious.

What I find interesting is that Miss California seems to think that same-sex marriage is something that people can choose. She seems to forget that the Federal Government doesn't recognize same-sex marriage.

Cute cat. Also dig the sci-fi reference.

Hehe. That was funny. I agree about the Beauty Pageants... it's like... "We think you should only go to college if we find you pretty and sparkly enough."

is this guy... my new feminist hero? wow.

Very clever, very funny. I wish Perez Hilton had his style, wit & charm...and maybe the hard Right wouldn't have a ready made "Joan of Arc" for the next 5 years.

O my goodness. This was perfect.
Bravo.

I think people need to let up on Miss California. She has a traditional view on marriage and that is okay. If anything, i respect her for giving her real opinion on the issue! Anyway, i found this video today that shows how different news outlets are covering the story... definitely worth a look:

http://www.newsy.com/videos/miss_california_stands_by_pageant_answer/

That was great!

Beauty pageants are such a weird relic from the past. I love how everyone is getting up and arms over the fact that she may have been poorly judged because of her beliefs. But no one seems to question the fact that the contestants are also judged on having silky hair, white teeth, great makeup, beautiful expensive gowns, and ideal bodies. I mean, seriously? It's not ok to judge someone for their beliefs and values but it's A-OK to judge them based on how their tits and ass look in a bikini?

And doesn't Donald Trump own the Miss USA pageant? Inciting controversy was probably intentional and Miss California will probably get more work than the winner because of all the publicity.

I hold a lot of respect for Miss California for actually expressing her views -- kind of. If you really listen to what she said, as Jay Smooth noted, she uses a lot of anti-heteronormative language while still maintaining a conservative stance.

I think Miss California may be a gay rights believer, but not a supporter of gay marriage as a specific issue. I read on another blog (or maybe it was here?) that her sister is a gay rights advocate/activist, as well as a lesbian.

What I have an issue with is that Perez Hilton asked the question and couldn't handle the response given. He called her all sorts of misogynistic things, like "cunt", when she gave an answer he didn't agree with. She is entitled to her opinion, just as much as I, or Perez, may disagree with her.

I'm really curious about her use of the word opposite in reference to heterosexual, civil marriage. I'm curious because she didn't say "opposite sex" and I think she makes the mistake twice; makes me wonder if she was giving the answer she thought the majority of judges wanted to hear as opposed to something more. Once she gives her answer she does have to stick to it through it all -- so, I think there might be something more here than what meets the eyes.

Jay makes my ovaries go *pop*

Yeah, I find it hard to feel sympathetic for Hilton when he uses misogyny to back up his views. I think they invented the word "clusterf@#$" for situations like this.

On the one hand, who here is really surprised that a beauty pageant answer appealed to middle America, at least facially? I think we're all falling into the same trap that Hilton did if we assume her answer was motivated out of brainwashing or false consciousness or whatever. Chances are she's a really sharp person and formulated a very political and diplomatic answer to the majority of people watching. I don't think she was unfairly railroaded by the judges, because as someone mentioned above, it's essentially a subjective judgment, and qualitatively there's no difference between a subjective judgment on opinion and one on appearance.

Bringing up further questions: why politicize such an event at all? If you really want to take a stand for progressive politics, why not refuse to participate in the project, Mr. Hilton, until it's not about swimsuits and gowns but research or contribution to the arts or any other number of deeper ways in which young women impact society around the country? His outrage just rings hollow, and I think that divides, rather than opens dialogue.

Just my .02 cents.

He just used the word "nomenclature" casually, then made a "Back to the Future" joke.

patriarchal metaphysical conundrum

nomenclature

"Back to the Future" and "X-Files" references?

I have such a crush.

Excellent video.

While I agree that everyone has the right to which ever opinion they want to have I don't know that we (as individuals and a society) view all opinions as equally noble. If she had been asked about feminist issues and responded that women belong in the home and shouldn't work or seek education, or if she'd been asked about racial equality and responded that she didn't believe that minorities should be allowed to have the same rights as the white majority, would we have been ok with that? Would she be given some sort of a free pass for honestly stating here opinions then? If no, why is this any different? Sarah Palin honestly stated her opinions that women shouldn't be allowed access to abortions. Did she get a free pass for honestly stating her opinion?
Truth is some opinions really do suck and they are hateful. When a large group of people have these opinions they have a negative impact on the minority groups of the population. For examples o this just look at people's opinions about women (both historically and today) or minority races. Perhaps there are times when an opinion really is more than JUST one's personal thoughts and feelings on the matter. This stuff shapes policies and effects other people that feel very differently.
I'm still puzzling out how to feel about this issue. I do keep hearing that at least she was honest with her opinion, but I'm not so sure that's always a good and positive thing. But at the same time I want to be open-minded to other people's ways of viewing the world. I don't think she should be made into the personification of all that is wrong with the world (clearly her view doesn't exist in a vacuum and there are many others in society that feel the same way) but should we just let her (and all politicians, MRAs, anti-choicers, racists, community leaders, friends, associates, etc.) slide because they were simply HONEST with their opinion?

perez hilton definitely gets on my nerves. i wish he would just disappear. CD Label Software