Give Up Blog

Thursday, December 21, 2006

MADD sucks

I think I agree with Modern Drunkard that MADD has become a modern prohibitionist (and generally puritanical) movement.

The latest proof? MADD has severed ties with Ms. Teen USA because she was hanging out (and kissing) Ms. USA

Mothers Against Drunk Driving said Wednesday it was severing ties with Miss Teen USA Katie Blair because it was "disappointed" by news reports that she had partied with Miss USA Tara Conner.

The day before, Conner had tearfully admitted drinking as a minor at New York nightclubs. She turned 21 on Monday.

"In the past, MADD has teamed with Miss Teen USA to raise awareness about the serious and often deadly consequences of underage drinking," said Heidi Castle, a spokeswoman for MADD, in a statement. "However, we do not feel, at this time, that Ms. Blair can be an effective spokesperson on underage drinking and will not ask her to represent MADD in future initiatives."

I was enjoying the stories about how Miss USA and Miss Teen USA were hooking up at a club. That's fine by me, and hell, what do people think teenagers do with their free time? This puritanical shit has got to stop. Miss USA had to tearfully apologize for hanging out at a club and drinking underage? In what other country in the world would it be the expected thing to do to send a 20-year-old girl to rehab because she went out to a club got drunk and kissed another hot girl? How stodgy can we possibly get as a society?

And then MADD shows up to further scold them for their misbehavior that didn't even involve driving. How can they say they're anything but a prohibitionist movement? It's not about the drinking and driving with this lot, it's just about the drinking.

We're being overrun by the neo-puritans. Just check out this article about a 17-year-old in Georgia being put in jail for receiving consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old. We've gone absolutely crazy in this country over sex and drinking and it's getting way tiresome. Sex is not a crime, drinking is not a crime, hot beauty-pageant winners kissing definitely is not a crime, let's all take a deep breath and remember that 95% of us get laid before marriage in this country. We should all report to prison or just admit that our sexual hypocrisy is out of control.

Labels: MADD, miss teen usa, miss usa, prohibition

6 Comments:

Buck Mulligan said...

Two things:

1. I'm happy that Miss USA is actually hot. She's usually a little bizarre looking. I mean, check this out: http://thesuperficial.com/2006/12/miss_usa_is_out_of_control.html

2. The pageant people want you to be really boring and uncontroversial. I wonder whether in doing this, MADD has poisoned Ms. Teen USA's future in pageantry. Won't this cast a black cloud over her career?

10:31 AM, December 21, 2006

Anonymous said...

1. this was just a thinly veiled excuse to write about hot girls kissing each other, wasn't it?
;-)

2. i don't think that MADD severing ties with a spokeswoman who drinks underage in public is odd. "tearful apologies" are odd perhaps but MADD's whole game is to discourage alcohol abuse. so it seems consistent with their message. at least they're consistent.

3. i think it's dangerous to conflate organizations like MADD with Prohibitionists. Things like drunk driving and alcoholism are serious problems, and although they are social problems it's not unreasonable to conflate them with the beverage itself (just as we blame gun crimes on guns). it's not just that people die in drunk driving accidents but that people are hurt, raped, scarred, beaten, and otherwise traumatized every day by people who act irresponsibly under the influence of alcohol. It's not that MADD wants to end sales of alcohol altogether but that they would rather people didn't kill each other while drunk.

The logical fallacy MADD makes here, perhaps, is that the two beauty contestants wouldn't have been making out unless they were under the influence of alcohol, and that they should be ashamed of acting that way. But the act of severing ties with someone who gets drunk while legally unallowed to drink seems reasonable. These seem like two separate issues.

2:59 PM, December 21, 2006

Ted said...

I don't get it. So MADD doesn't give the seal of approval. What matters is that Uncle Purvy, er, I mean, The Donald is OK with it. Absolutely, alcohol remains necessary for hot chicks to loosen up and hook up with ugly guys. Money helps too I suppose...

He and his organization got a HUGE amount of press for this. Usually I don't even watch this tripe on TV, but now that all the channels have been showing me this Miss USA in a bikini I see that I've been missing out. Hell, he should select hot, skanky girls EVERY year -- I mean, American girls are known for being easy the world over (or at least predisposed to hummers) so it's time our Miss USA represented.

If this girl makes porn, I'm buying it.

3:21 PM, December 21, 2006

Rev. Dr. said...

Wait, why is it that mothers against drunk driving have become mothers against all drinking.

That's not cool. It's why Candy Lightner left the organization. It became about teetotalling, not prevention of drinking and driving.

Who gives a shit if 20-year-olds drink? Everyone does it, these girls were probably being responsible (if only because driving in NYC is impossible), they weren't committing any real crime like drinking and driving. Who gives a shit if they want to have fun?

MADD apparently. And whoever the freaks are that made Donald Trump (oh the irony) forgive her for her sins. It's just so silly. Rehab? For clubbing? She didn't do anything wrong!

4:45 PM, December 21, 2006

Jessica Smith said...

"Who gives a shit if 20-year-olds drink? Everyone does it, these girls were probably being responsible (if only because driving in NYC is impossible), they weren't committing any real crime"

They were actually committing a real crime. Drinking underage is illegal. Thus, real crime. If you want to address why our drinking age is so high, that's a different issue, but you can't argue that it's not a crime for 20-yr olds to go out drinking.

"Rehab? For clubbing? She didn't do anything wrong!"

Again, although MADD's message may be a little teetotaling on this occasion, she *did*
a. do something wrong, because it's illegal to drink under the age of 21
b. in doing this (drinking underage) became not the most brilliant rep for MADD.

MADD came to our high school and gave long sob-stories about drinking and driving while we made shadowpuppets on the wall behind them. I'm not necessarily on MADD's side, but I do think it's reasonable that they choose a different spokesperson. And I think there should be organizations like MADD to warn of the dangers of alcohol, although perhaps they could do it differently.

Also, I started drinking at 1:30 today, so I will not be running for the position of MADD spokesperson.

5:44 PM, December 21, 2006

Rev. Dr. said...

Jess,
It's not a real crime if 90% of people do it. When you criminalize normal behavior all you generate is contempt for the law (which I definitely have in this case).

Also, my argument is that if MADD wants to be about teetotaling they should change their name to Mothers against Drinking, it's false advertisement if they're going to start being scolds towards girls just hanging out in NYC and having fun. Besides, it's not even clear Miss Teen Usa was even drinking, she just kissed a drunk girl as far as I can tell.

10:47 AM, December 22, 2006