Things Only Adults Notice In Miss Congeniality

Released in 2000, "Miss Congeniality" centers on tomboy FBI agent Gracie Hart (played by Sandra Bullock), who must go undercover as a beauty queen in order to prevent an attack at the Miss United States pageant. The film has something for everyone. There's comedy, romance, action, and even a couple of musical performances. How could you not love it? 

While the film received mixed reviews from critics, "Miss Congeniality" holds a respectable audience score of 69% on Rotten Tomatoes. As Den of Geek puts it, "This is peak Bullock in a film you'd have to be something of a monster not to like."

A lot of things have changed in the decades since "Miss Congeniality" was released, though — and if it's been a number of years since you've seen it, you might be in for a bit of a surprise. The movie is still as iconic as ever, and Sandra Bullock never disappoints, but there's a big difference between watching a film as a kid and watching it as an adult. There are a lot of things about "Miss Congeniality" that jump out to the adult viewer.

In the first "Miss Congeniality" scene in which we see the adult Gracie, she's undercover at a restaurant as part of a sting operation. She's sitting in a booth pretending to read a book that actually has a video camera hidden in it. There's a small screen showing everything being recorded.

While Gracie blends into the crowd, we have to question if this is really the best equipment the FBI has to offer. As far as hidden cameras go, it's not exactly well hidden. Couldn't she have some sort of spy camera eyeglasses? Maybe a pen? This book setup looks like something a teenager could pick up at the local Radio Shack. All someone has to do is peek over Gracie's shoulder to see that she's up to something. She's lucky the server didn't notice what she was really up to, or things could have ended very badly for Gracie and the entire operation.

FBI Agent Eric Matthews is played to perfection by the devastatingly handsome Benjamin Bratt. He's so attractive that it's tempting to forgive some of his macho behavior at first, but he just gets sleazier and sleazier as the film progresses. He's clearly a player, bragging about having dated a pageant queen he refers to by her title rather than her name. 

More disturbing is him using his position as an FBI agent to take out a college student who is writing a paper on law enforcement. While we don't learn Eric's age in the film, the minimum age to be an FBI agent is 23 and we know Eric has been with them for several years, so he's likely in his late 20s at the youngest, and taking advantage of his position to date a college student who could be a decade or more younger than him. While it may be legal, there's a clear power imbalance here, and even Gracie seems disturbed by the relationship. 

It gets worse, though. We see Eric repeatedly objectify women, notably sexually harassing Gracie by slapping her on the rear multiple times as he informs her that no one really sees her as a woman. This is worrisome behavior, especially because we're supposed to see him as a handsome leading man.

Per the website for the Miss United States pageant, the pageant is open to women from "50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories." Despite this, the Miss United States pageant depicted in "Miss Congeniality" only has 50 contestants, one from each state. What happened to the rest of the competition?

While this is a detail that kids probably won't notice in the film, as an adult it's hard not to see the injustice of it all. Limiting contestants to the 50 states means little girls growing up in Washington, D.C. or an American territory would not be able to realize their dreams of representing their home in the pageant. Of course, this is good news for Gracie, as it means less competition as she fumbles her way through the pageant.

Even more interesting is that the film didn't even cast one woman for each state, hiring around 40 women to portray the contestants. Director Donald Petrie explained this to E! News, saying, "In a wide shot, who is going to go, 'Hey, there aren't enough girls up there!'"

When you're an adult watching "Miss Congeniality," you can't help but notice just how trauma-inducing Cheryl's life has been. The Miss Rhode Island beauty queen comes from an incredibly sheltered upbringing in which she was raised to look at something as innocent as a pair of red panties as sinful. It's no wonder that she's constantly apologizing for everything and in need of validation.

There's also the fact that her professor assaulted her in college, something that she believes is so common that it's not worth reporting. Then, there is the more recent trauma of nearly being murdered at the Miss United States pageant.

Hopefully, winning the pageant gives her a confidence boost, but Cheryl still has some major healing to do. Her life after winning the crown will also become a lot more stressful, and she could really benefit from going to therapy and working through all of those emotions.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

If "Miss Congeniality" had been made in the 2020s, we imagine it would be a very different film. As classic as the original is, there are some frustrating elements. For example, Gracie is a talented FBI agent who keeps her cool in dangerous situations. She's also a highly trained fighter and showed she can hold her own against her male colleagues when she and Eric Matthews go fist-to-fist in a sparring match.

Gracie is an incredibly skilled athlete — and yet, in an effort to show that she's not a girly girl, is also somehow clumsy, tripping over her own feet and even falling flat on her face on stage during the pageant. The clumsy scenes are played for laughs, but it's honestly just silly to imagine that someone who can knock down opponents much larger and heavier than her can't walk in high heels or even maneuver around her apartment without running into something.

Adding to the problematic portrayal is the fact that Gracie is shown to lack even basic table etiquette before being trained to be a pageant queen. The message seems to be that before Gracie becomes a beauty queen, she doesn't even have manners, as if tomboys are so boorish that they can't chew with their mouths closed.

"Miss Congeniality" is all about girl power, so we were super excited to see Cheryl whip out those fire batons as she competes in the finals of the Miss United States pageant. It's a bonding moment for her and Gracie, who gives her the batons — and also a full-circle moment, as Cheryl's parents had never allowed her to use fire batons before. That being said, the fact that she's trying them out for the first time ever on stage is a fire hazard. Cheryl clearly knows how to handle her batons, but playing with fire is pretty risky, and things could have gone quite badly. Just one wrong move could have set the stage on fire or seriously injured someone.

There's a reason that fire batons come with a warning, like one on the website of Star Line Baton Co. Inc. that cautions people not to use fire batons unless they are "at the appropriate skill level, have proper training in use of fire batons, and understand the risk to the performer and property." The site also cautions against using fire batons indoors "unless approved by the local fire marshall in accordance to local codes."

Using fire batons also seems like something Cheryl would have had to clear with the people running the pageant for insurance and safety purposes. Or, at the very least, they would have been prepared with plenty of fire extinguishers backstage.