Miss America at the Aladdin, Katie Rees Was Robbed

The Miss America Pageant is currently underway at the Aladdin Resort and Casino (being remodeled and soon to be Planet Hollywood Las Vegas.) This has me thinking about beauty pageants in light of the recent “scandals” involving pageant organizations and their participants.

It’s been yet another controversial year for the Donald Trump-owned beauty pageant, with The Donald getting hated on (even called a “pimp” by Rosie O’Donnell) for removing the tiaras of a couple of contest winners, including Nevada’s own Katie Rees, and his ownership and style of managing his pageants.

Miss Rees’ crown was revoked when some photos (link below) were posted on the Internet predating her competition in the Miss Nevada-USA Pageant, the state championship that sends its winner to the Miss USA competition. She was photographed in some naughty situations while playing and partying with some friends in Florida. During the time of the competitions she was being a good little Nevada girl and staying out of the camera, as far as this sort of thing goes.

She won Miss Nevada and was on her way to compete for the Miss USA title but then some time later she had her title yanked from her based on things in her past. If your past counts against you it sure seems like they ought to do some screening and stress to these ladies that all their time and money might be for nothing – but why would they truly discourage these girls and their families from spending tens of thousands of dollars to compete? These pageants exist to make money… lots of money. Ultimately, the pageant owners are the real “winners.”

I personally think it’s all so ridiculous. Katie Rees seems like she’d be a lot of fun as a person – she’s a real American girl that likes to have a good time – okay maybe a little too good of a time occasionally – just like me. Real people want to root for real people. She’s not a Barbie Doll with a false set of pretensions who live to hide their real selves from cameras in an effort to secure their “victory.” Only a small number of people in our age group even watch these things and take it seriously now because it’s an archaic institution trying to impose it’s old values on modern individuals with real lives. Guess what? Katie Rees’ career is taking off like a rocket. Good for you, Katie! I think you were robbed..

Here’s a link to some of the photos.

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