Aren't We Past This?

I was under the impression that it was 2013 and that archaic sexist, racist, and just generally biast things wouldn't be such a big issue anymore.  Clearly, that was naive of me.




A few examples:

Beauty Pageants.  To be clear, I did not watch the Miss USA pageant. However, I've seen the train-wreck answer the contestant from Utah gave and I'm so offended on so many fronts that I had to rant on the blog. This girl and the pageant she's competing in offends me both as a woman and as a Utahan.  Thanks a lot honey for making us look like vapid, shallow morons who can't speak with any authority, or ya know a 4th grade reading level, on an issue (income disparity between men and women) that should be important to you as a woman.  You've really done both your gender and home-state proud.

But let's not place all the blame on this girl.  How are beauty pageants still even a thing?   And I don't buy the whole "scholarship program" nonsense, the contestants and their desperate-to-live-vicariously-through-their-daughter parents are spending ridiculous amounts of money competing in these things on everything from fake tans, fake teeth, fake hair, fake eyelashes, and boob jobs to those tacky, fugly gowns.  Perhaps, if they spent even some of that money on a book every now and then, or here's a novel idea: using it towards the tuition you supposedly need a scholarship for, they might know how to properly form a sentence that expresses an intelligent thought instead of  "create education better."  Let's just call this competition what is really is--a pool of ready-made golddigger trophy mistresses for Donald Trump to pull from.

Blatant racism.  Is Johnny Depp really pretending to be Native American for that Lone Ranger movie? Really? I am baffled how this one made it through the politically correct nets of the movie studios.  Doesn't Hollywood pride themselves on being "forward-thinking" to the point of delusion?  Didn't George Clooney essentially take credit for the civil rights movement during his Oscar acceptance speech?  And yet, he we are, in 2013 and Johnny Depp is onscreen spewing that horribly stereotypical version of a Native American accent.  Isn't what he's doing essentially the Native American equivalent of blackface?  I'm so uncomfortable just thinking about it.  The first time Brody and I saw the trailer we just looked at each other with that obvious, is this really happening? expression.  You know, the one you get when watching the "What Makes the Red Man Red" scene in Peter Pan, or any time Mickey Rooney makes an appearance during Breakfast at Tiffany's.  And we live in a city with an NFL team named the Redskins. The Capitol of the United State's (which we basically stole from Native Americans)  still has an NFL team named the Redskins in 2013.  Just let that sink-in for a minute.

I like to think of myself as not easily offended.  I think I have a pretty good sense of humor...but good gosh people it's just common sense and decency.