After much controversy, the Miss America pageant is defining its role in an era of female empowerment and gender equality by scrapping it’s swimsuit competition.
This change is due to the new chairwoman and previous contestant, Gretchen Carlson, who once sued Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes for sexual harassment in 2016. She became one of the most outspoken advocates for victims during the #MeToo era.
It was announced that the competition would cut the swimsuit and evening gown parts of the contest and replace them with a “live interaction session with the judges” where the contestant “will highlight her achievements and goals in life.”
The Miss America competition began in Atlantic City in 1921 – one year after women gained the right to vote in the United States. It first launched as a swimsuit pageant to promote Atlantic City beaches. As the years went on, the winner of the swimsuit competition became a good indicator of who was likely to overall.
I believe that Miss America needs to be modernised and relate to young women. They should focus on the career achievements of past winners and the swimsuit competition could be a distraction from that message.
According to pageant coach Valerie Hayes, Miss America executives have had discussions about eliminating the segment for many years, and the introduction of new leadership provided the perfect opportunity – mainly because the nine members of the board of directors, seven which are women united and approved the change in March.
These women understand the pressure of appearing on television in a bikini. Pageant enrolment numbers dropped in recent years, as many young women are hesitance to wear a swimsuit onstage in the social media era, when the image will be immediately circulated and judged and where there's a lot of pressure on body image to be a particular way.
The financial aspect for the organisation may improve as some sponsors didn’t want to associate with a pageant that featured a degrading swimsuit competition. Its one of many remarkable changes that has been repeated through Hollywood, politics and workplaces around the world. It broadened the conversation from sexual harassment to the way that women’s bodies are viewed.
It seems that #MeToo has done what a protest could not: eliminate one of the most ridicule aspects of the competition.The swimsuit competition will not be missed and Miss America is a small step to help lead the way. More women may participate, even if they don’t fit the stereotypical image of a size-zero pageant winner as it’s now a leadership and academic achievement program.
On social media, the organisation already has a new hashtag for the occasion: #byebyebikini. Their new motto is “To prepare great women for the world, and to prepare the world for great women.” And its website indicated a broad rebranding effort: “Miss America 2.0. Coming soon: New website. New show. New experience.”
Although women should be comfortable in their own bodies whatever their shape or size,I don’t think that's what the competition embraced. Now, they’re no longer judging women on their clothes or their irrelevant talents. They’re going to judge them on what they say and their social impact initiatives.
Miss America both state and national competitions were the largest source of scholarship money for women in the U.S., yet the necessary requirements were physical, not intellectual. In 1968, the Miss America pageant was confronted with a protest on the Atlantic City boardwalk: 100 feminists threw bras, girdles, curling irons, false eyelashes and other “instruments of female torture” into a trash can labelled “Freedom.”
Until 1940, it was written in the guidelines that contestants must be “of good health and of the white race.” The organisation would not have its first African-American winner until Vanessa Williams earned the 1984 crown. Old fashioned pageantry is dying off and the people who enjoy it aren’t developing along with our modern day world.
Like most things, pageants need to grow with the times. It’s a small step towards a cultural revolution. The people at home want a well-rounded, relatable human being as their winner, they want a role-model, someone they can aspire to be.
Antonia Okafor said “I didn't mind the swimsuit competition when I was in pageants. But it was used to body shame us. I used to shrug off the feminists who made a big deal about the swimsuit competition in pageants being sexist; I believed my mentors in the pageant world that, like in bodybuilding competitions, swimsuits just allowed contestants to show off their inner confidence and judges to assess our physical fitness.
'But after participating in pageants, I’ve realised that the idea that the swimsuit segment is just about fitness is completely false: It’s about whether or not you fit a certain, antiquated ideal of the “perfect woman.”
Both Miss World and Miss International don’t include swimsuits in their competitions, instead they focus on fitness wear or sports to see how athletic a contestant really is rather than making the contestants reveal their bodies. Feminism and femininity can go hand in hand, but neither suggests that you have to look "good" in a swimsuit. It’s outdated and degrading.
Miss America have produced two candidates, Erika Harold and Mallory Hagan, who are both currently running for public office. It will continue to produce educated, brave, confident young women who set goals and achieve them, and women who encourage other women instead of tearing them down. And it will set the stage for other systems to make the necessary changes they need but are too afraid to implement.
“Speaking for myself, when I competed 20 years ago, I found the swimsuit competition oddly empowering, because once I could walk across the stage in a two-piece swimsuit and high heels I could do just about anything,” said Kate Shindle, the 1998 Miss America who is now a board member of the organisation.
“But I also don’t think I processed everything at the time. It’s strange — it gives strangers a kind of ownership over your body that you don’t quite anticipate.” Some former contestants have spoken out against the swimsuit competition, saying it led to serious physical and mental problems.
Although women should be proud of their body, the competition objectifies women more than it empowers them.
A woman’s goals and aspirations are far more important than how she looks in a swimsuit.
