Miss Teen USA slip-up a big deal?

Miss Teen USA South Carolina Contestant Caitlin Upton, 18, embarrasses herself on Aug. 24 on national television with a confusing and unintelligible answer to the question, why a fifth of Americans are unable to locate the Unites States on a map.

This was a surprising headline to see on msnbc.com, which gives Upton a chance to redeem herself from the humiliation. During the Q&A part of the Miss Teen USA competition, Upton does not entirely answer the question to why some Americans couldn’t locate the U.S. on a map. Instead, she says that she believes that some Americans do not own maps and awkwardly mentions South Africa, Iraq and Asian countries in her answer that completely made no sense.

This probably would have not been news if it wasn’t so popular at youtube.com, where Upton is mocked by many users. Rude comments about being a “dumb blonde” are posted underneath the video of her stammering on her answer. This is probably why MSNBC had her featured on Aug. 28 at the Today Show segment with Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. During the show, Lauer and Curry sympathize with Upton about not knowing what to say when one is overwhelmed on national television. Upton is then given a second chance to answer the question which sounds a whole lot better than the first one.

It’s almost hard to believe that Upton’s mistake has had some type of impact on the news. Everyone makes mistakes and it wasn’t like Upton committed a crime that would doom her reputation, although it is somehow tainted. She happened to have a silly slip-up that everyone has nightmares about like walking around school or work naked. It just so happens that her embarrassing moment was caught on national television. It maybe because Miss Teen USA contestant are presented as almost perfect on the show with their gleaming smiles, competitive GPAs and leadership attitude that when someone like Upton messes up, it makes people feel some type of reassurance that we are only human.

Maybe another reason for Upton’s media attention is that Miss Teen USA contestants are expected to be good role models and when someone provides an unintelligent answer to a question, it influences children that even the not-so-brightest people have a chance in winning numerous prizes, including a scholarship worth up to $100,000, in a well-known, televised pageant. This is probably not the best idea to teach children. The only good that may come out of this humiliating situation is that it may encourage more Americans to take a break from their GPS systems and actually look at a world map.