
Of all the reasons to scrap a pageant dress, Miss Mexico ditched her outfit for the Miss Universe competition because
it was too violent.
Designers were trying to create something that represented the nation's culture and history, but apparently they're a little cynical. They made a dress accented by sketches of hangings, coupled with a belt made of bullets.
Understandably, the Mexican people were outraged.
However, even though the dress was in a poor taste, it was
technically accurate, and indeed a part of Mexico's history. It showed scenes from the 1926-29 Cristero war, in which Roman Catholic rebels rose up against the country's secular government -- a conflict which resulted in tens of thousands of casualties.
But to put it in perspective, one columnist wrote: "It would be like Miss USA wearing a dress showing images of the Ku Klux Klan in the Deep South, with their hoods, their burning crosses and beer cans."
Wow. Just when you thought pageants couldn't get any more ridiculous.