NO REWARD FOR BEAUTY. I'm sure many of you have seen the cringe-inducing video of Miss Teen South Carolina struggling during the Teen USA pageant to answer the question, "Why can't Americans locate their nation on a map?" Despite long-standing evidence that beauty contests are just that -- not serious intellectual competitions -- many parents who encourage their daughters to participate in these spectacles justify it by pointing to the college scholarships winners can earn. Whether the thousands of dollars families spend on coaching, gowns, and travel is really outweighed by the value of most of these scholarships is one question. But as the New York Times reports today, whether young women even receive the pageant scholarship money they're promised is another. Some winners are taking their greviences to the media and to court. It makes all those years of caked-on makeup and strutting publicly in swimsuits seem a little less worthwhile, doesn't it? --Dana Goldstein
