Dennis Prager Show - The Male / Female Hour with Miss Tennessee
Aired: 2021-07-29
Duration: 08:30


=== Why Miss Tennessee Competes (06:46) ===

[00:00:01]  Anyway, I explore a lot of these, every issue that I can think of, and through various, well, basically family contacts, we learned that Miss Tennessee, specifically Miss Tennessee Volunteer, I'll explain that in a moment, was in town, and I thought, you know, why not have her on the show?
[00:00:23]  There are a lot of questions that I have, and sure enough, she's here.
[00:00:28]  Her parents are with her.
[00:00:30]  She's Amelia Collins, and you could obviously look her up, and I'm sure many of you will.
[00:00:36]  Most logical instinct.
[00:00:39]  And welcome to the show, Amelia.
[00:00:42]  Thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:44]  So, first of all, explain the difference between Miss America and Miss Volunteer America.
[00:00:51]  So Miss Volunteer America is similar to Miss America before the changes, before it became Miss America 2.0, in the sense that we have a swimsuit still, we have evening gown, we have talent, and interview.
[00:01:04]  And I think our scoring is also a little bit different in the sense that interview actually accounts for the majority of our score.
[00:01:11]  Really?
[00:01:11]  Yeah, 40% of our score.
[00:01:14]  Oh.
[00:01:15]  That's a lot.
[00:01:16]  How does it break down the other percentages?
[00:01:19]  They're all even.
[00:01:20]  They're 20% each.
[00:01:21]  So, talent, interview, swimsuit, gown.
[00:01:26]  Yes, and then we also have an onstage question for final night.
[00:01:30]  I know.
[00:01:31]  Well, those questions have always been problematic to me.
[00:01:34]  It's somewhat like, would you like to see the world peaceful?
[00:01:41]  But you don't know what's coming, right?
[00:01:43]  You don't know what the thing is.
[00:01:45]  You have no idea.
[00:01:46]  You actually picked the question out of a fishbowl.
[00:01:48]  Oh, is that right?
[00:01:49]  Yeah.
[00:01:50]  So what was your question?
[00:01:51]  So my question started out by saying your generation is often considered entitled, but what's one word that you would use to describe your generation?
[00:01:59]  Oh, that's a toughie as an immediate response.
[00:02:03]  So what did you say?
[00:02:05]  I chose to say the word educated, and I explained that I feel like my generation has access to a lot of resources, and we can use that in whatever way, but we definitely need to take advantage of having social media and that sort of thing.
[00:02:20]  So wait, the question was, a lot of people would describe your generation, what was the term, as what?
[00:02:25]  As entitled.
[00:02:26]  Oh, as entitled.
[00:02:27]  Oh, yes.
[00:02:28]  Now, so of course, we're all thinking, what would we answer?
[00:02:32]  So this is why, among other reasons, because swimsuit would not do well with me, but in all seriousness, if I were in a competition like that, as soon as you asked it, my mind raced and I came up with indoctrinated.
[00:02:53]  That's really what I think this generation has been indoctrinated.
[00:02:56]  But anyway, you don't have to react to that.
[00:02:59]  I'm just thinking what I might have said.
[00:03:01]  So educated is certainly accurate.
[00:03:04]  So this is an alternative to the Miss America contest.
[00:03:08]  Now, so let me get to a question that, you know, sort of the elephant in the room.
[00:03:14]  I want you to know, there's no way you would know this.
[00:03:18]  Though I have not seen a Miss America contest since I lived in my parents' house when I was in college, which was some time ago, my parents watched the Miss America contest every year.
[00:03:30]  And there was always a swimsuit competition.
[00:03:34]  My parents, in my case, were religious Jews.
[00:03:37]  I know you come from a religious Christian home.
[00:03:40]  And it wouldn't even occur to them that there was anything wrong with it.
[00:03:45]  In fact, my father would discuss with my mother why he liked Miss Utah or whatever it might be.
[00:03:52]  And then she'd say, oh, no, no, no.
[00:03:53]  Are you kidding?
[00:03:55]  Did you see Miss Michigan?
[00:03:56]  And it was great.
[00:03:58]  It was so wholesome, so to speak.
[00:04:00]  And they're out there, obviously, in their bathing suits.
[00:04:06]  I completely objected to Miss America contest forcing the women.
[00:04:12]  People for women's choice said you have no choice.
[00:04:16]  There is no swimsuit competition.
[00:04:18]  So your Miss America or Miss Volunteer America competition has kept it in.
[00:04:25]  Yes.
[00:04:26]  So you come from a religious Christian home, correct?
[00:04:30]  Yes.
[00:04:30]  Are you still Christian?
[00:04:32]  Yes.
[00:04:32]  Unfortunately, not every kid who...
[00:04:35]  Raising a Christian home stays Christian, as we well know.
[00:04:38]  Okay, so how do you, if you indeed need to, reconcile the swimsuit competition and your religiosity?
[00:04:49]  I honestly don't think it affects me that much.
[00:04:53]  I look at the swimsuit as something that's so empowering, and it also gives me a chance to make sure that I'm still staying healthy mentally and physically.
[00:05:01]  And so I don't really think it affects...
[00:05:04]  My relationship with God or my religion in any sort of way.
[00:05:09]  Right.
[00:05:09]  Are there other religious women in the competition?
[00:05:12]  Yes.
[00:05:13]  Mine and Miss Tennessee Volunteer, the majority of them were Christian.
[00:05:18]  Right.
[00:05:19]  Look, as I said, I defend it.
[00:05:22]  There's a sexual element.
[00:05:23]  I think it's silly to deny it, obviously.
[00:05:26]  Beautiful women in swimsuits has a sexual connotation.
[00:05:29]  I don't think that's an issue.
[00:05:31]  It's funny, as I've pointed out, you might find this of interest.
[00:05:35]  When America was much more religious, they were completely accepting of the swimsuit competition.
[00:05:42]  Secular America doesn't like the swimsuit competition.
[00:05:46]  That's the irony.
[00:05:47]  Yeah, that is.
[00:05:48]  I think a lot of people assume that it objectifies women, but I think they forget that we have the choice to compete in that, and we are making the choice to do swimsuit, and it's actually something that a lot of us look forward to.
[00:06:01]  I mean, that was one of my favorite aspects of the competition.
[00:06:04]  It's also super glamorous, and it's really fun to strut across the stage in a swimsuit.
[00:06:09]  Good.
[00:06:09]  I'm glad you said it.
[00:06:10]  That's exactly right.
[00:06:11]  Why shouldn't it be?
[00:06:16]  There's something, everything is upside down in the world in which we live.
[00:06:20]  Your reaction is perfectly legit.
[00:06:23]  I'd like people to call in if you think, if you're listening and you think that it objectifies women, by the way, which to a certain extent it does.

=== New Major: Bio-Math (01:57) ===

[00:06:33]  Who isn't objectified?
[00:06:35]  I mean, Aishi, you know what?
[00:06:37]  We should do an hour on the whole issue of objectification.
[00:06:43]  Everybody is objectified in a certain sense.
[00:06:45]  You objectify your doctor.
[00:06:48]  Your doctor has one role, to be a doctor.
[00:06:52]  Everyone is objectified in some way.
[00:06:55]  And if there's an element of sexual objectification, so what?
[00:07:03]  Nobody gives the second sentence, and therefore what?
[00:07:06]  You're not seen as more than that?
[00:07:07]  That's ridiculous.
[00:07:09]  Let's talk about the more than that.
[00:07:11]  You're in math, is that correct?
[00:07:12]  Yes, I'm a bio-math major.
[00:07:15]  Okay, there you go.
[00:07:15]  She's a bio-math major.
[00:07:19]  It's a new major, actually.
[00:07:21]  It's fairly new.
[00:07:22]  Oh yeah, now that you mention it, you're right.
[00:07:24]  There's a new major every week, basically.
[00:07:26]  Half the time I ask a college kid, you know, what are you majoring in, I don't understand the subject.
[00:07:32]  What is Biomath?
[00:07:34]  So it's a combination of biology and mathematics, but we use a lot of math modeling to describe and explain biological phenomena.
[00:07:44]  I haven't gotten super into my major courses because I'm coming up on my junior year, but so far I've done a lot of research with epidemics and kind of modeling how that works with certain populations.
[00:07:57]  But it really covers computer science.
[00:08:01]  Honestly, any type of science and a lot of math as well.
[00:08:04]  All right.
[00:08:05]  We'll be back with Amelia Collins, Miss Tennessee, in the new competition, as it were, out there.
[00:08:12]  If you have any questions or reactions to anything that I have said, 1-8 Prager, 776-877-243-7776.
[00:08:23]  You are listening to the Male Female Hour.
[00:08:27]  This is the second hour of my show every Wednesday.