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months she spent study- ing in Paris. She explains that to guys it symbol- izes something unsa- vory. “Don’t Google it!” she tells me with a laugh. I also know that she is hoping the conservative judges don’t ask her opin- ion on Planned Parent- hood because she is a pas- sionate supporter of their programs. She used their services after she was drugged and date-raped in college. I also learn that she is existing on a strict daily diet of one slice of toast, one cup of black coffee, a single grapefruit, a hard-boiled egg, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream during the last five days leading up to the pageant in order to maintain her svelte figure. “I have a four-pack,”


she says, lifting up her shirt to reveal her toned tummy. “I tried for a six- pack but that bottom part of your stomach is so hard to tone.” When I asked Magra-


cia and Roberts if they thought they were going to win the Miss San Diego pageant, both played it safe. Roberts responded, “I’d like to win but every- one is so talented, smart, and beautiful.” Murphy didn’ t


hold back. “Yes, I think I will


win. Whenever I put my mind to something it always happens. I am going to put everything I can, all my heart into this. Whatever happens, happens. But I am going to win.”


***


Back onstage at the dress rehearsal, Murphy is the first to perform her talent. Days ago she told me that she is most concerned over this portion of the competition. Taking on a serious


tone, she says, “I am not a performer, I am an ath- lete. I am doing a jump-


Mallory Murphy


rope routine to Taylor Swift’ ‘Shake It Off.’ I am wearing Tiffany blue because I am supposed to be Taylor Swift and that is her favorite color. Miss Hawaii won her crown doing a jump routine.” Tonight, she appears


onstage in a pair of boy- cut sparkly spandex shorts and matching blue sports bra.


the move flawlessly and follows it up with a back- bend. With her legs and crotch her only visible body parts the audience can see, Inserra halts Murphy’s routine and whispers to her. Murphy nods her head and redoes the move, this time with a more discreet backbend. “Better!” Inserra says. Next up is a baton-


a tight-fitting f loor- length skirt and match- ing midriff-baring top. In a Marilyn Monroe– inspired move, Roberts starts out with her back to the crowd. She sings a karaoke version of Glo- ria Gaynor’s “I Will Sur- vive.” Her performance is followed by a few other dance routines, including a sleepy hula number and a pitchy rendition of Julie Andrews’s “My Favor- ite Things.” Midway through the


talent portion, the prin- cesses pack it up to head home. It’s close to their bedtimes. One of the moms turns to her young daughter and hisses, “I hope tomorrow night you show a little more enthu- siasm on the stage than you did this evening!” The little girl scowls at her mother. The last Miss San


Diego contestant to take the stage is Magracia. A hush falls over the pag- eant moms when she walks onstage in a regal- looking white leotard and matching tutu. The room fills with a deafening silence as she performs a flawlessly on pointe to the “Sugar Plum Fairy” variation from the Nut-


“They asked, ‘If you could change one law, what would it be?’ I didn’t know what to say.”


“Shake It Off ” blares


through the speakers. Murphy jump-ropes along. At times she sashays the rope around as if lassoing an invisible bull. Her feet get tangled in the rope a few times. She does a move during the chorus where she sits on the floor and uses her behind to bounce in a circle, sweeping the rope underneath her with each turn. She executes


twirling number. The contestant, Stivani Athn- niel, wears a kitschy white bedazzled leotard with cutout stomach panels and a whole lot of fringe. Roberts takes the


stage afterward. She wears a golden sparkly gown once belonging to her sister, the former Miss Oregon. It has been tailored to Roberts’s lik- ing. She has transformed it into a two-piece with


cracker. She is the picture of elegance. I overhear one pag-


eant mom say to another mother, “Being on the San Diego Socker girls’ squad gives her an advantage. She really knows how to dance.” The talent continues


with the teen contestants. A lanky young woman does a color-guard rou- tine wearing a black- and-red spandex leotard


20 San Diego Reader January 7, 2016


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