By Bruce Hotchkiss

Senior Editor The Delmarva Farmer

Political correctness aside, long live the ‘queen’!

The web of political correctness continues to imprison us.
The socio-cultural debate over what we call the young ladies picked to represent Maryland agriculture remains without agreement — at least in the public vernacular and conscience.
The debate has been caught up in all sorts of considerations where it has no reason to be, such as why young men are not involved.
At one point, there was some thought the debate might have reached a conclusion, that the differences of opinion might have been resolved.
Not so.
We used to call them royalty, but that is no longer appropriate. We lament that.
The young ladies elected within their farm communities in appropriate pageants of some sort, used to be known as “queens.”
They have been formally stripped of their royalty.
We do not adorn them with tiaras. At the pageants they do not appear in gowns. As we walk through the county or state fairgrounds, we know them only by a sash.
Many of these beautiful, accomplished young ladies will confess to you that they wanted to be “queens.” The tiara afforded them instant recognition, thus easing their mission of promoting Maryland agriculture. Young girls looked up to the queens. They, too, the little girls thought, could don that tiara some day.
The last Farm Queen in Maryland was selected at the 2002 State Fair. In 2003, the sense of royalty was replaced by candidates in business-like blazers, seeking the title of Maryland Agriculture Ambassador.
(That might have been in response to the anguished cry of the politically correct who lamented that the queen pageant, by its very nature, denied male participation. There is no record, however, that we know of, of any young man showing up as a candidate for Maryland Agriculture Ambassador.)
The ‘ambassador’ decision, to say the least, was not a hit, and state Farm Bureau directors — who are the presidents of their county Farm Bureaus — took the heat. It didn’t take long for them to decide, by a rather substantial margin, to return to the Farm Queen contest.
Now, the State Fair not only hosts the pageant, by whatever name, but also funds it. No way, the State Fair directors said. Farm queens are old hat and we’re not prepared to go backward.
Both camps sought a middle ground. And thus emerged the Miss Maryland Agriculture pageant.
The counties have a slightly different format. They name their representatives to the state pageant as Miss (County) Farm Bureau, as in Miss Montgomery County Farm Bureau or Miss Queen Anne’s County Farm Bureau.
All of that has yet to sink into the public conscience.
We received a call from Queen Anne’s County: “We will have the Farm Bureau queens from five Eastern Shore counties at the fair. How about a picture?”
We received one. A lovely shot. We ran it on the front page. We called the young ladies “queens” in the photo caption.
Got another call.
“They’re not queens. They are Farm Bureau Ambassadors.”
We printed a correction.
We were careful not to say that they should have been called county Farm Bureau Ambassadors. We knew better. We avoided further controversy simply by saying they were not queens.
So, at the 2007 Maryland State Fair, there were no tiaras. There were no gowns. No blazers either. The young ladies presented themselves in business-like, but charming, feminine garb.
There was no way, however, to dress comfortably and properly for the evening.
It was blistering hot in the Cow Palace and at least one contestant required emergency attention, although she continued. She was judged second runner-up.
Elsewhere on the fairground, royalty was much in evidence. Many of the dairy and breed associations elect “queens” who were often busily engaged in handing out ribbons in the various show rings.
Indeed, the granddaughter of The Delmarva Farmer’s correspondent own Caryl Velisek is this year’s Angus Association queen.
The photograph of this year’s Miss Maryland Agriculture, which appears above, is very regal with Miss Jamie Beckley of Washington County, seated on her “throne” flanked by her “court.”
Bottom line of this rambling discussion: The bouquet of flowers and the title, which accompany this State Fair competition each year, continue to be eagerly sought. But the “crown” is missing.
From this vantage point, there was no valid reason to lift it. Let’s put it back.