They Drink, They Make Out, They Flash: They're Called Role Models

Dec. 22, 2006 — -- For an industry that's built on the concept of beauty, things have gotten pretty ugly.

First, Miss USA co-owner Donald Trump chastised Tara Conner, the wayward Miss USA who was partying hard and allegedly doing cocaine in New York City clubs. Then, Mothers Against Drunk Driving dumped Conner's roommate and purported make-out partner, Miss Teen USA Katie Blair, following reports of her underage drinking.

And on Thursday, Trump axed Miss Nevada Katie Rees after pictures of her in compromising positions -- some without her shirt, let alone her crown and sash -- spread across the Internet.

Pageant heads and pageant winners have long held that gracious and elegant beauty queens are the creme de la creme and should be held up as an exemplar of virtue. But considering the recent antics of a few of them, what kind of role models -- realistically -- do beauty queens make?

According to reality-TV star and former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, winning a crown turns a pretty face into a role model for young women.

"Absolutely, I was looked at as a role model," Moakler said. "There does come a responsibility with having the title."

Moakler was named Miss USA in 1995. Though she was only 19 years old -- younger than Conner, who just turned 21 -- she "took that crown and that title seriously," and she's not happy that Conner has sullied Miss USA's reputation.

"I think it's really sad because there are a thousand women out there who would've taken the crown much more seriously and treated it with some respect," Moakler said.

"I think it's fine to go out and have a couple drinks like a college student but when you're making out with Miss Teen USA -- that's just complete disrespect to what thousands and thousands of women compete for," she said.

While Moakler supports Trump's decision to give Conner another chance to redeem herself, she's afraid that the recent scandals involving beauty queens will be bad for an American tradition she loves.

"I look at pageants as a really wonderful thing to women. I think it helps a lot of women. It gives them opportunity. It helps them better themselves. But when you make the crown look like what Tara Conner did, you take away from all those strides. Pageants get such a bad rap as it is and now everyone looks at them like they're a joke," she said.