High School 'Hotness Tournament' Enourages Girls To 'Look Their Finest,' Causes Outrage Among Students And Parents [VIDEO]

A high school "hotness tournament" nicknamed "May Madness" by students, is underway at Issaquah High School in Washington this month. The 'hotness tournament' has outraged the students, some involved against their will, and their parents. The yearly contest pits high school girls against one another in a tournament to determine who is the most attractive as voted on by their male counterparts in an online tally similar to the NCAA tournament's March Madness.

Girls are encouraged to "look their finest," reports King 5 News, and its misogynistic tone equates attractiveness with worth for a demographic--young high school girls--notoriously insecure about their appearance in their adolscence. It’s come under heavy criticism, obviously.

Said sophomore, Devin Keller, to King 5, “This kind of thing is sexualizing us girls like we're some sort of trophy.”

The student-led tournament has been going on for the last five years, but because it’s held off school grounds, administrators and parents are powerless to stop the degrading contest, ostensibly modeled after a local sports radio station that ranks models and celebrities.

Another female student, Tristan Robinson said, “Almost every teenage girl has self-esteem issues. And doing something like that is absolutely ridiculous.”

The Washington district’s spokeswoman, Sarah Niegowski, told King 5 the tournament “is hard” and “doesn't feel good” to anyone.

Last year the tournament was briefly shut down when parents went to the local authorities, who then threatened the organizers with arrest due to the vulgar and profane comment under other people’s identities, which is a crime in Washington state.

However, this year the website’s operators have restricted outside access, making it harder for authorities to track potentially harmful situations. Situations, it might be added, that are ongoing.

Says Neigowski, “These are pretty smart folks behind this. They know their First Amendment rights. They're very quiet about who it is and the group behind it.”

School officials continue to monitor the site, but they’re unable to do anything more about it. A male student, David Mahoney told King 5, “People who might already have depression might take it further and there's no way to know what's going on.”

Despite their monitoring of the site, both the school and the police are unable to do anything about the yearly tournament unless there’s an overt threat, something illegal, vulgar, or offensive, they’re powerless to stop it’s existence.

But it’s tough to tell that to the poor high school girls currently being ranked by their male peers right now.

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