It's a Scholarship Program

Italy has recently relaxed its gambling regulations. Among other things, it is now legal to bet on the annual Miss Italy pageant. This has not played well among hard-core pageant fans. Aspiring Miss Italies are shocked--shocked--at the idea of being paraded around and objectified:

"We're people, not objects or, worse, animals," complained Anna Prete, the "Miss Calabria" from the southern region of the same name and one of the many finalists unhappy with the government-sponsored scheme….

Miss Italy purists are appalled at what they see is the vulgarization of a 66-year-old national institution and the competition's founder, Enzo Mirigliani wrote to the government to complain.

Allowing bets "damages the girls' dignity, bringing them down to the level of champion racehorses," he wrote, according to Il Messaggero.

Finalist Questions: Why is it more degrading to bet on beauty pageants than on prizefighting? Is beauty pageanting a sport? And why is being an animal worse than being an object?

Hat tip: feministing.