Miss South Carolina says we need more maps (video)

Miss South Carolina from the Miss Teen USA on the subject of maps.

(Via Mt. Holly Mayor's Office)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

We have found the successor to the throne.!!
cstatman

Filler. Meaningless words.

THIS is what’s chapping my hide lately. Say what you want, in simple, plain terms. DO NOT attempt puffery. I hear it in job interviews, meetings, and in line at the grocers.

C’mon folks, say it simply, then STFU
Anonymous

In Arabic, it is The Iraq. Perhaps she’s secretly multilingual.
Anonymous

Anyone who writes, “I literally felt my brain melt and ooooooooze out my left ear.” (comment 20) is just as friggin’ idiotic as Miss SC.

Really? Your brain physically oozed out your left ear? Learn the difference between “literally” and “metaphorically” before you start throwing stones. You might start here:
http://literally.barelyfitz.com/
Anonymous

dumber than a stick. And yes, she is her own stereotype.
Telecommuting Millionaire, you’re a fool – so why should travel have anything to do with knowing where your country is on the map? I can’t afford to leave the USA just so I can see it from the outside. Education is done in the head. It can be done whether you are poor, rich, traveler or stay at home housewife. Ever hear of libraries? Get a card. Travel in your head.
Anonymous

To better understand this phenomena, check out The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America by Charlotte Iserbyt, a former Cabinet-level educator.
Anonymous

She’s a model who spent her time in high school practicing looking hot in a bikini. And she’s totally hot. So she is definitely a success! So what if she got nervous after being asked a stupid question? Most of you would too. This will be a nice boost to her modeling and “acting” career… I look forward to seeing her in a shampoo commercial or a grade B movie any day now…
Miss Cellania

They threw a random fact (that may not even be true) at a teenager and expected her to immediately and coherently form an opinion on why it may be so. Then she turned it into comedy gold without meaning to. Ha!
The habman

and we wonder what’s happening to this country.
Anonymous

#37 posted by Anonymous , August 30, 2007 10:18 AM:

The woman (If she’s a “girl” then the guy holding the mike would be a “boy”, right?)

If the guy holding the mic was competing in a TEEN beauty pageant then yes, he would legitimately be a “boy”. I hate it when people get arsey about calling women girls; it’s not meant derisively so stop being so damned over-sensitive.

If everyone here was referring to “that skank hoe” then you’d have a right to complain…
Anonymous

Its “sadly” great to see a woman of her ethnicity
remind those of us not of her ethnicity that
we’ve been fooled for years and years: when
calling others ignorant, just look in the mirror.
Blonde, blue eyes, thin, etc.: just open your
mouth and let it all out.
Anonymous

I was wondering if the poll results stated in the question are correct. A Google search pointed to a National Geographic Survey, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/pdf/FINALReport2006GeogLitsurvey.pdf, that says 94% of young Americans(18-24 years), could find US on a world map. Does anyone know what is the poll(s) the question refers to?
romulusnr

She ought to take any prize money and use it to form the Upton Geographic Foundation, providing free maps to children throughout the world, like South Africa and Iraq.
Anonymous

@ WAH

the fact that she can parade in a bikini in front of live tv of millions of viewers shows that she is not afraid of going up and displaying herself, and talking in public. but what she did in that clip was just plain dumb!

i mean.. what the hell was that about helping south africa? jeeez!!!
Anonymous

I like to put myself in other people’s shoes, and you know — the only answer I could think of to this question is “I would require more information before I ventured an opinion on that topic. For example, I’d like to know who the respondents were, how the test was structured, and in what way ‘find the U.S.’ was operationalized. I suspect that the number is inflated through selective polling. Were that not the case, I would also like to see what other skills those children possess; identifying a country on am map, while important, is not as important as analyzing the politics of that country, for example.”

And I am absolutely certain that answer would be wrong, wrong, wrong to the people judging. Plus, I’m 32 and have a hairy chest.
Anonymous

As an Australian I lived in the US for 3 years and was continually amazed by the number of Americans who thought my English was good for a foreigner and asked me to say something in my native tongue. I jokingly asked a woman school teacher if she knew where Australia was. She was adamant that Australia was bordered by Russia. What can you expect from a country where its president (George Bush) whose lies have caused the deaths of more Americans than all the terrorist attacks on Americans combined and its people donâ€™t give a damn.
Anonymous

I was watching this live with my wife — and when Miss South Carolina began to speak, I literally felt my brain melt and ooooooooze out my left ear.

It was some Manchurian Candidate-level s**t there, man… her ramble triggered a deep psychological imprint that I must’ve received when I blacked out in that Roy Rogers parking lot back in ’85.

It was just so sad and horrifying and ultimately baffling. Come to think of it, I reached Enlightenment that evening.
Anonymous

The woman (If she’s a “girl” then the guy holding the mike would be a “boy”, right?)is obviously very pretty, but may have an IQ score slightly lower than her bra size.

But, folks, this is a so-called “beauty pageant”– not the runoffs for Fullbright scholarships.

People usually don’t get PhD’s based on how they look in a bikini, and they usually don’t get to wear a beauty queen crown based on their brainpower. (It sometimes happens that you get it all in one package, but the stars have to be lined up JUST right.)

On the ther hand, she’s likely no dumber than the “decider.”
Dillenger69

GW asked “Is our children learning?”
I’d say the answer is a hearty “they is!”
pmicka

I’m just glad I didn’t hear “end world hunger” or “world peace” in there anywhere.
drift marlo

Who can argue against more maps? Unfortunately, Miss SoCarolina needed a hell of a lot more than that. I saw this on Jay Leno, and I cringed and felt sorry for this poor girl, then I felt sorry for South Carolina and eventually, I felt sorry for our awesome edjumacation system. Then I went to a bar and killed thousands of brain cells and still made more sense than this girl. This should be a wake up call…. It’s not cool to be stupid anymore, unless you want to be prezident.
Anonymous

So, she won. . . right?
pandaterror

I live in South Africa and must admit my patriotic alarm went off when I heard her talking about our “lack” of education. Even though our public education is not the best in the world, it seems to be doing a fairly better than the US system :p hehe. But thanks for the plug anyway Miss Carolina!!! “Bokke!!!”
Anonymous

Why can’t Americans pronounce the word ‘else’ without throwing a T in there? It’s weird.
Anonymous

One word to describe her: DUH!!!
someToast

She commented on how she did here:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20053504,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

According to the article, it sounds like she’s sticking to the random-collection-of-short-statements form.

“everything did come at me at once.” “I was overwhelmed” “I made a mistake” “I’m human” “I was in complete shock” “I drew a blank” “I misunderstood”.
Anonymous

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry on this one.
Theo

I weep for my state. Even her “redo” on the Today Show still makes me wonder why our education system fails our children so badly.
Anonymous

Cool! South Africa gets a free plug alongside “The Iraq” as a place that needs maps… or assistance with maps… or was it education? I was trying to locate South Carolina on a map today and it took some time, so maybe we need the help.
Anonymous

thats why im not installing windows on my future stepford wife , always a bsod at the worst possible time.
Telecommuting Millionaire

It is an unintended genius â€” at this very moment she is the most well-known MISS in the whole pageant. I mean do you know who actually WON this competition? No, but we DO know Miss South Carolina.

Dare I say that she IS Miss America? Just from the publicity sheâ€™s gotten, we would recognize her faster than the actually crowned girl.

And also, what do you expect for a 17 or 18 year old girl? If she told the truth . . . â€œ1 out of 5 Americanâ€™s canâ€™t recognize the U.S. on a map because:

(1) they donâ€™t pay attention in class and why should they when silly people like Paris Hilton run Hollywood (not literally so please donâ€™t make stupid comments about this) and we all know she barely made it out of High School.

(2) The educational system in this country is shot to hell and frankly 1 out of 5 kids probably didnâ€™t get a geography lesson (never less a geography class) in all the 13 years of schooling the US provided.

(3) 25% of Americans donâ€™t care, â€™cause they arenâ€™t traveling out of the US anyway â€” have you seen the statistics for how many US citizens have passports?

Now, if she had said all that (which is the TRUTH) do you think she would have had a chance of winning? They would have been totally upset if she sprouted the truth.

And then, you have to think, “how ironic,” they probably asked the 1 out of 5 that canâ€™t find the US on the map. And she canâ€™t find it all because of the reasons stated above.
Anonymous

Dear Miss South Carolina

Come join us at OpenStreetMap.org

We’re actively mapping Iraq and South Africa… in fact, we’re even mapping the U S of A
Anonymous

She is just raising awareness.. amazing theatrics .. her movements and voice are so lifelike :-)

technology today is increasable!!
Anonymous

The answered was obvious: Because they don’t give a rat’s ass about its location, they are too self centered to care about anything outside their narrow interests, that’s why they can’t locate their own country in a map.
Yaotl

She commented on how she did here:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20053504,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines
Anonymous

she should have just said “because one fifth of Americans are terminally stupid.”

I mean, who the hell can’t find the US on a map? Is the map of a different country? Are these elementary school children who haven’t taken any geography in school yet?
Purly

OMG, my head. Did she really just say that? Hi, ever heard of GOOGLE? Honestly, people competing on appearances should at least be capable of speaking in public without saying “uhh”.
Anonymous

#9 & #27:
Apparently it is scripted. So she had time ahead to formulate and rehearse her response. Lawls.

In my high school, “world area studies” was required to graduate. On a blank outline map, we would label each country in the continent we were currently studying. After 4 practice tests, the last test actually counted for 50% of your grade on the unit. Europe and Africa were fun. That’s 100 countries’ locations memorized right there.
Something is very, very wrong if you are in high school and can’t locate South Africa on a map.
Anonymous

I like how she tried to fit Iraq in there. *Sigh* yet another exposed mole for the Bush administration.
Andrew Denny

I think y’all bein’ mean.

A sweet-looking girl, she’s simply trying hard. She was asked a pretty open-ended question that would have floored me. Was she standing for office? When was the last time you saw a political candidate with a beauty queen sash?

I’m looking forward to seeing Hillary Clinton asked about her cellulite and dress sense.
Anonymous

I saw on the Today show this morning that she is coming to ASU to go to college! I am from Boone NC, where ASU is located, and now am convinced that I did the right thing going to school elsewhere! They have a heck of a football team though! Maybe she can make public appearances! Whoo-hoo!!
Anonymous

she obviously was listening to a earpiece and something went wrong. It is distinguishable when she says “… our education — over here!”, clearly trying to catch up with a suggestion difficult to hear.
Anonymous

Big up to Mario for not laffing on camera.
Anonymous

And most of you still want to bang her – why do you waste your time on Miss competitions anyway? Help the poor girl instead of flaming her.
Anonymous

Who cares? She’s friggin’ hot.

I guess the obvious answer would be “some parts of the country’s education priorities are in the wrong place.”

Handwriting, *that’s* what’s important.
Anonymous

Even with a second try, she still didn’t answer the question as to WHY. FAIL

“It’s cool scro my wife’s tard and now she’s a pilot!”
Anonymous

Coming from South Africa I found that clip intriguing: From within a country with a notorious education system, sympathizing with SA, which historically had a respected education system (though much diminished now). But send the maps, the poor need firewood.

I think her choice of referring to South Africa was probably because its a place whose location she knows on a map. This is highly respectable as many american teens cant work that out either.

In fairness, she is only a teen and not a politician.

Secondly beauty contests are about flaunting assets your were lucky to be born with and not knowledge and wisdom you have gained through hard work.

LW
wah

I recently was videotaped for a 5 minute, fairly ad-hoc speech about a particular topic. So did 20 or so other people, all accredited professionals. Very sharp people, all of them. It was a training class on how to give more effective speeches.

At least 2 stumbled nearly this badly, and that’s with an audience of only 19 other people.

It’s a learning experience, and a tough one. The fact that she didn’t throw up her hands, and go **bleaha** and start over, is a credit to her.

She did learn a new trick for these situations thought, and that’s to ask, “can you repeat the question” when you are thinking of an answer. Works for genius and fool alike.

Anyway, this has become a pretty tough coming out party for the girl. Welcome to the New Media.
Anonymous

MOAR MAPS
Anonymous

Thank God topless dancing and prostitution are still viable moneymaking options for girls who are too busy buying clothing at the mall to find out what is wrong with the world, too busy painting their toenails to learn where the USA is located on a map, and too busy being riveted to the latest gossip about Branjelina to learn how to form a coherent sentence.
Anonymous

I’m struck that she doesn’t say “Iraq”, but “THE Iraq.” Repeatedly. I wonder if thats a regional linguistic thing, or maybe a migration from military slang like “the sandbox.”
Anonymous

I just want to be her.
How simple and sexy life would be. Care-free.
Kyle Goetz

Couple of things. #1 is that, despite this tremendous gaffe, she still placed high enough to have the highest placement of any Miss SC since 1998 I think.

#2 – I have a feeling that her coach (as all these pageant girls have) told her to make sure to mention Iraq and Afghanistan in her answers to sound relevant. No idea where the hell “South Africa” came from, though.
Anonymous

….but I bet she can suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.
Anonymous

Lord, help us!

In less than a minute this lovely creature managed to reinforce several negative stereotypes: dumb blonde, dumb beauty pageant contestant, ditzy teenage girl, ill-informed American, and undereducated southerner. (Did I miss any?)

Not to worry, though. She’ll end up being some multi-millionaire’s trophy wife where her greatest challenge each day will be selecting the right shade of eye shadow.