But, those are "scholarship" pageants, right? Not beauty contests...

[Katherine Brengle]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/us/24pageant.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

[ThomCat]

1. No surprise. They promised scholarships primarily as PR,

and secondarily to attract more girls.

Especially now that they don't get nearly as much media coverage, they're not bringing in the cash, so they're going to use those girls as much as they can to attract the sponsorship and advertising money. And just as importantly, they're not going to share it with all of those girls.

I use the term Girls instead of Women because of the young age at which most of them are involved in these pageants.

[Katherine Brengle]

2. Indeed, it's exploitation plain and simple.