Pageants and sororities?

[kddani]

A very large part of Miss America is about beauty. Swimsuit, evening gown, etc. Yes, they do call swimsuit the fitness and lifestyle category, but what's judge is purely aesthetic-based. It has nothing to do with how physically active they are, it's about what their body looks like.
Miss America is definately better than some of it's counterparts in that the girls do need a little something else to go on. The platform issue is a great idea, I do like that. But the quiz part was pretty sad, and some of the so-called "talent" was bad (there were a few that were quite talented). Anyway, that's an endless argument.
It's also definately gotten better since it's inception. One of the bigger research papers that I had to write senior year was on Miss America. There's some very interesting books and research on the subject.

Anyway, the thread's not really about arguing about the merits of Miss America.
I think it would be great to have the chance to brag such as you did in that situation, because you had a personal basis on it. But when we say, oh, ____ ______, the winner of ____ ______ pageant was a member of our XYZ sorority, does it really mean anything?