Can a beauty queen be a feminist?

Sarah Palin was a beauty queen. And she has called herself a feminist. I say no way: beauty queen and feminist are mutually exclusive.

Beauty competitors, as I prefer to call them, love to say that pageants are opportunities for young women to get scholarships, and showcase their talents (also their "talents"). Maybe in 1950; today, any competition that is based on one's physical appearance is a beauty contest, and nothing more. Pageants might occasionally select the smartest pretty girl, but if the president of her college's Mensa organization enters a pageant, she won't get far if she doesn't look cute in a bikini.

Beauty pageants are anti-feminist: they maintain the fallacy that all of a woman's achievements are secondary to her physical appearance. Sarah Palin has said, since accepting the nomination for vice-president, that while she is proud of her accomplishments as Miss Wasilla, and her attempt at Miss Alaska, she doesn't think these competitions should continue to include a swimsuit event. This feminist thinks the swimsuit competition is just fine; after all, the point of a beauty competition is to decide who best fits the standard definition of beauty.

The portion of the event which really needs to be eliminated is the talent competition; let's stop pretending the competitors' various talents are even relevant. Feminists come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Some fit popular beauty standards, and others do not. But a feminist entering herself in a competition where her physical appearance and talent are given equal stature? That makes as much sense as a pig working in a slaughterhouse.