Views on Conservatism

By Lara Maertens Rhea

What does it mean to be Ms. Texas Conservative US 2012? I get asked this a lot. Why do women want to be in beauty pageants anymore? Don’t they insult or demean us? Since I am a writer, most notably a political speech writer, I decided to write an article about this issue. Primarily, I wanted to use this opportunity to talk about the stereotypes of women in pageants, in politics, and discuss a little bit about what Conservatism means to me. I hope it provides some insight into the minds of women like myself.

First of all, everyone understands what a beauty pageant is, but not many people understand that contestants use the notoriety of their position to gain awareness to a specific platform or cause for which they hold certain interests. In this case, the issue is Conservatism. Some people think it’s hollow to use women in swimsuits to bring attention to a political movement; however, the reverse is really true in this case. We are bringing attention to the fact that women in swimsuits, attractive women in general, are smart enough and strong enough to understand and care about political issues. We are proud American women who love God, our country, and our families, and we are unafraid to speak out about our beliefs. We feel we have something important to say about where we feel the country is headed and we are willing to be leaders and examples to others, often educating others on what it means to be a Conservative and what they can do to help steer our country in a better direction. We are tired of the stereotypes attached to women like Sarah Palin, who was a beauty queen and therefore treated by the media as a bimbo. There are many others, who are labeled as “too pretty to be taken seriously.” Michele Bachmann has been given the same treatment. Like their politics or not, the fact that people, especially other women, engage in tearing down these strong, independent women is a slap in the face to all of us. We should be proud that these women are great mothers, strong leaders, and represent what we should all aspire to be. Their looks should never be discussed as they go about trying to secure certain jobs in politics, anymore than the size of your rear should enter in to whether or not you are qualified to do your job, but because there is an underlying assumption by most that attractiveness or beauty equates to stupidity, sadly it probably always will. I heard someone talking about Michele Obama’s rear-end the other day, and it infuriated me. Again, like her or not, the obsession about her looks is unfair and wrong. Any of these women can take hits on their politics or job performance, but how do you fight against “her butt is so big” or “her hair is too long?” The comments and the people making them are shallow, not the women trying to defend them…………………………..

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© by Lara Maertens Rhea

Lara Maertens Rhea, the current Ms. Texas Conservative US 2012, was a speechwriter for U.S. Congressional Candidate between 2008 and 2011.Since 1987 she is also a Freelance writer.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Business and English from the University of Houston, 1999.

Born with a congenital heart defect which culminated into three major and often fatal heart conditions she now has a pacemaker and defibrillator because of this.

Lara is the living proofs that beauty pageants, and conservative moral ethics do not exclude each other.