Miss South Carolina Causes Stir With Comment About “Mobile Homes”

Despite the attention and controversy surrounding this years crowning of the 2014 Miss America winner, people are still more interested, and somewhat bothered, by Brooke Mosteller’s  “unique” introduction about herself and her “mobile home state” of South Carolina.

On live television in front of millions of viewers, Brook introduced herself as, “From the state where 20 percent of our homes are mobile ’cause that’s how we roll, I’m Brooke Mosteller, Miss South Carolina.” Immediately following her intro, Facebook and Twitter postings were ablaze with comments such as “distasteful” and “ I can’t believe she said it.” One person asked, “Could we have any worse of an introduction?” Another commented “If we can’t represent ourselves better than Miss S.C. did tonight, then don’t be surprised that 49 states laugh at us.”

The Manufactured Housing Institute did not think it was funny, but was not upset about the introduction either. Executive Director Mark Dillard says, “I think our reputation is about 30 years behind the product itself. And actually, cases like this are an opportunity to get the word out to the world and talk about that.”

However clever she was trying to be, Miss South Carolina’s number was off a little;  the number is actually 17.9 percent, but that is the largest percentage in the nation.

With that said, Stephen Colbert is one “proud son of South Carolina” who thinks that Miss South Carolina represented our state admirably.  “That’s right– 20% of our homes are mobile,” Colbert noted, “which means they could leave South Carolina and yet they choose to stay.”

I have written numerous blog articles that are posted on this site regarding the manufactured home and the manufactured housing industry. I have specifically discussed the quality of construction and the many advantages of manufactured homes in comparison to site built homes. Today’s manufactured home bears little similarity to the “mobile home” of yesteryear. The only existing commonality of the mobile home of 30 plus years ago and the modern manufactured home of today is the affordability of America’s dream home.

I would recommend three blog articles on this site, ManufacturedHomes.com that might help debunk the misconceptions regarding manufactured housing, “NOT A MOBILE HOME ANYMORE”   “MANUFACTURED HOMES::MYTH VS. REALITY”  and  “10 REASONS WHY MANUFACTURED HOMES ARE BUILT BETTER THAN SITE BUILT HOMES”