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10/07/2018
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Over 4,000 beauty queens have worn swimsuits on the Miss America stage, but from this September onwards, there'll be no more bikinis, Miss America Organization CEO Gretchen Carlson has confirmed. How do the pageant's alumnae feel about that?
by AMANDA COYNE
JUL 9, 2018
Contestants (including that year's pageant winner Caressa Cameron, center) participating in the 2010 Miss America swimsuit competition.
GETTY IMAGES
Since its beginnings as "a bathing beauty pageant" 97 years ago, more than 4,000 women have worn swimwear on the Miss America stage. Over time, the swimsuit competition has proved increasingly controversial; to some it's empowering, to many others it's retrogressive. (To others still, it's both!) And any former contestants have had — and still have — complicated relationships with swimsuit themselves, so when the Miss America Organization's newly-installed CEO Gretchen Carlson announced in June that the 2019 competition would be scrapping its swimwear round, there was both celebrations and mourning amid the pageant's alumnae. (Also, it's being reported, a fair amount of drama behind the scenes on the MAO board.)
Here, 8 former Miss America contestants told us how they felt on stage in swimmies, the competition's impact on their post-pageant lives, and what they think about the decision to say “bye, bye, bikini.”
JANE JENKINS HERLONG, MISS SOUTH CAROLINA 1979
"The first thing I thought when I heard [Carlson's announcement] was, 'This pageant’s in trouble.'"
COURTESY OF JANE JENKINS HERLONG
Iwore a one-piece, thank God. I was scared to death of [swimsuit]. It was the biggest challenge. I knew I could interview, I knew I could sing, but I tell people, "that swimsuit about did me in!" But I don’t think you learn who you are until you put yourself in uncomfortable and challenging environments. And you know what I’m seeing? It's the contestants who really struggled to get their swimsuit figure for stage, they’re the ones who are saying “What? Why?!” It was kind of like we climbed Mt. Vesuvius, and we were like “Yay, we did it!” and suddenly it’s not important.
We would walk out [on stage], get in our pageant stance — which I had worked on in a funeral home in Sumter, South Carolina, go figure — and do our turns, and then we would leave. The walk was very important: gently swinging your arms, fingertips brushing the sides of your legs. Now, [contestants] just do their funky thing out there; their bodies are incredibly sculpted now, and the swimsuits are a lot less material. I don’t love that, but I do love watching those young women hit the stage and having confidence knowing they are being watched by hundreds, thousands, millions. I’m amazed at how they pull it off.
The first thing I thought when I heard [Carlson's announcement] was, “this pageant’s in trouble.” It made me sad, it really did. There are a lot of people out there, people who have been a part of the organization, who are not thrilled about all of this — I know people within Miss South Carolina who are concerned, [as well as] a good friend of mine at the national level. They don’t want to see Miss America completely changed. Today's [Miss America] is becoming so different to the pageant that I knew and loved.
BREE BOYCE MARSH, MISS SOUTH CAROLINA 2011
"Then came social media with, 'Oh, she looks old,' and 'She needs to lose a little more weight.' Ultimately, I developed an eating disorder."
A lot of people, when they hear about my story, they ask, "you didn’t lose weight to compete for Miss America?!" I say, "No, I had no intentions of competing in a pageant!" I was 17 when I started my weight loss journey, because of my health. I struggled with knee pain and I was at a high risk for heart disease and diabetes. Over the course of three years, I lost about 75 lbs. And then people ask me, "well what’s the secret?" Well, there is no secret. It’s just hard work. I have to work every single day, and I will for the rest of my life.
COURTESY OF BREE BOYCE MARSH
[After I had lost weight], I had a friend suggest, "hey, I think you should do a pageant." I looked at them like they were crazy; I was like, "I am not getting in a swimsuit." I had zero self-confidence. But I thought about it more and decided, "what the heck, I should be proud of myself." So I signed up for a local pageant. I was the biggest girl on the stage, and I won. It felt good! So I went to Miss South Carolina with the same mindset, and I ended up making the top 10 — I shocked myself and I think I shocked a lot of other people too.
After the pageant, though, a judge came up to me and said, “If you got plastic surgery, you might be able to win next year.” I had worked so hard to get to the place where I was, and for somebody to say, “You could win Miss South Carolina, you could win Miss America... but you need to have lipo first,” it was very disheartening. I cried over it.
A JUDGE CAME UP TO ME AND SAID, 'IF YOU GOT PLASTIC SURGERY, YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO WIN NEXT YEAR.'
But it made me even more determined to win [on my own terms]. The next day I woke up and I told my mom, “I want to be Miss South Carolina next year, and I am going to work every single day to become Miss South Carolina.”
When I went back to [the state pageant] the next year, I was back in a great mindset. I won the swimsuit award during preliminaries that week — it was the proudest moment of my life. And I won Miss South Carolina that year, and I got to share my [weight loss] story with people all across the United States and even the world. I was able to go into schools and speak to kids about having self-confidence and loving themselves. But then came social media with, "oh, she looks old" and, "she needs to lose a little more weight in her thighs." Ultimately, I developed an eating disorder — I went from being a kid who overate to an adult who was calorie restricting, and working out four hours a day. When I got to Miss America, I was at my lowest weight. I was struggling to even keep the stamina that [the pageant requires].
Boyce Marsh at the Miss America pageant.
GETTY IMAGES
So after Miss America, I came home, got help, and focused on taking care of myself — and on taking care of my body. I had to learn to live life in moderation. To eat in moderation, and to exercise in moderation. Today I am by no means the size that I was as Miss South Carolina, but I’m probably the healthiest I’ve ever been.
I think the Miss America Organization could have done something a little bit different [with swimsuit] and embraced people of all shapes and sizes. To me, taking it away completely says, "OK, we weren’t getting girls involved because they didn’t feel like they could fit the mold of being a size 4 or less in swimsuit." It says, "if you’re not that size, you don’t belong in a swimsuit." We have to change people's mindsets and let them know women are beautiful at all shapes and sizes..
ROSIE SAUVAGEAU NESTINGEN, MISS NORTH DAKOTA 2012
"Every time before walking on stage for swimsuit, I remember thinking, 'It’s 20 seconds of your life. This is worth a scholarship.'"
COURTESY OF ROSIE SAUVAGEAU NESTINGEN
I’m a pianist first and vocalist second — I was not drawn to [Miss America] because of swimsuit. I wanted to perform on the Miss America stage. But I knew that, in order to perform my talent and talk about the platform that I was so passionate about, I'd also have to deal with [the swimsuit competition]. Every time before walking on stage for swimsuit, I remember thinking, "it’s 20 seconds of your life. This is worth a scholarship." And at the end of the day, that scholarship money paid for my college tuition. It was worth it!
I feel like Miss America is taking this opportunity to really help redefine the meaning of beauty. I would love to see a woman in a hijab on the Miss America stage, I would love to see African-American women with natural bushy hair.
And I would love to see more socioeconomic diversity in the program — there’s no way to go about competing in a state pageant or the national pageant for free. I consider myself to be a master shopper in that I love to thrift shop, and I actually found my interview dress for Miss America at a thrift store. So I think opening Miss America up to diversity of size, but also diversity of background, culture, diversity of socioeconomic status is a real gift.
TRELYNDA KERR, MISS OKLAHOMA 1983
"The point is to make Miss America so that anybody, and everybody, feels welcome."
I feel like I’ve spent the last 30 years defending Miss America when it comes to swimsuit. [As an organization], we’ve been battling this issue forever! But I will tell you, I totally support Carlson's decision. I was not a fan of swimsuit myself. Not because I thought it was degrading, but just because I was 5'4. I was a cheerleader, I had bigger thighs; I was never going to win swimsuit. But it was part of the competition, so I did it.
COURTESY OF TRELYNDA KERR
Swimsuit gave a lot of girls confidence. It gave a lot of girls discipline. But at the same time, there are some for whom it was not healthy. I think that [by removing the swimsuit competition] we're giving women the chance to focus on everything else — which doesn’t mean they’re not focusing on their health and their fitness too. And it will bring [Miss America] to a much more positive place. The main thing to take from this is that we’re looking at what’s coming out of the contestants' mouths, and what they’re made of.
The point is to make Miss America so that anybody, and everybody, feels welcome — big girls, gay girls, girls who would never have thought that a pageant was a place they would have been accepted, or that they would feel comfortable in. That's the change I hope to see going forward..
LIZZI JACKSON, MISS WASHINGTON 2015
"When I saw the swimsuit competition get taken away, I felt it was, for lack of a better term, a cop-out."
My fitness journey started when I was probably about 12 or 13 — but from a place of, "I need to work out to look good." I was constantly comparing myself to models [and celebrities] in magazines, thinking, "well, I don’t look like that."
[My mindset] shifted when I started competing in the Miss America Organization, which was when I was 19 years old. Through working with a trainer, and a nutritionist, I learned so much more about how fitness, and how a healthy lifestyle looks, how it's sustainable — and that my time on stage in a swimsuit was just that, my time on stage. I always thought of myself as the bigger girl, but I realized, "No, I’m a healthy girl. This is how health looks on me." The knowledge that I’ve acquired is what lasts beyond the pageant.
I knew I wanted to do a bikini fitness competition after Miss America, because when you succeed at something, you think, "OK, what else can I do?" All of a sudden, doors open. I’ve done a few bikini competitions; just being aware of your body and having awareness of what your body needs, that brings so much empowerment in itself. And now I’ve begun moving into the fitness space and helping other young women.
So when I saw the swimsuit competition get taken away, I felt it was, for lack of a better term, a cop-out. Let’s morph it into something that focuses more on physical fitness, not aesthetics. At Miss World, another pageant system, they do an actual physical fitness section.
Or we could have a cool workout routine like the teens do [Editor's Note: in Miss America’s Outstanding Teen, Miss America's teen counterpart, as shown in the video above]. Something to celebrate and say, "Yeah, we’re freaking strong too! And yes we’re smart! And yes we’re beautiful!" They’re not mutually exclusive, and they all encompass what Miss America is.
SANDRA GRAY, MISS TEXAS 1978
"Somebody actually threw a piece of raw meat, a steak, on the stage at us. They said 'You’re parading around like meat, so here’s a piece of meat for you.'"
COURTESY OF SANDRA GRAY
For every girl who had a bad experience in swimsuit, there’s a girl who had a good one. If you have an issue with [swimsuit], then you find something else to put your time and your money and your effort into. It was by far my weakest point, because I was skinny! I worked very, very hard to try and get some kind of muscle tone. Back in the olden days, we had to have our legs touch in 3 spots — we were supposed to have these diamonds with our legs straight together. I worked really hard to get my legs to touch.
At the Miss Dallas pageant in 1977, there were protestors outside calling it 'Myth America.' [The protesters] got inside during the swimsuit competition when we were all lined up on stage — in the old days we would model individually and then line up on stage as a group — and somebody actually threw a piece of raw meat, a steak, on the stage at us. They said, "you’re parading around like meat, so here’s a piece of meat for you."
IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH IT, THEN YOU FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO PUT YOUR TIME AND YOUR MONEY AND YOUR EFFORT INTO.
In that moment, I thought, "am I doing something wrong? Should I be ashamed of myself?" And I was in a one-piece swimsuit, it was very conservative back in those days. But then someone told [the protesters] off, and everyone in the audience stood up and gave us a standing ovation. So I stood up a little bit taller. I thought, "God gave me this body and I’m proud of what I’ve got."
We’ve heard those criticisms over and over and over, and I think no matter what the Miss America Organization does, we can’t go chasing groups of people saying, "please approve of us!" because that’s never going to happen. These people who are so quick to criticize, they don’t know [the pageant's impact]. They don’t see these young ladies going out and getting involved in the community, putting their volunteer time in — hours and hours and hours. The money that they raise, the advocacy programs, they don’t see that.
ALYSSA MURRAY, MISS DELAWARE 2012
"I truly loved my body — every inch of it — for the first time when I was at Miss America."
I know a lot of girls who had really unhealthy experiences with the swimsuit competition, but it was really the best thing for my mental health in my early 20s. It gave me confidence in myself. I’m actually leaving teaching to become a personal trainer now, and I would have never found how much I love working out if it wasn’t for the swimsuit competition.
It was through [training for Miss America] that I learned I loved to lift weights. I was flipping tractor tires and sprinting and squatting way over my body weight! I truly loved my body — every inch of it — for the first time when I was at Miss America. I have never been healthier or happier.
I don’t want people to have this impression that everybody’s mental health suffers from swimsuit because it’s not true. I understand why Miss America had to make a big change — the problem with swimsuit is that [it's often] more about aesthetics than fitness; you can look at someone and say, "oh, she's crash dieted for a few weeks" — but I just hope it doesn’t deter the same kind of love for health and self-love that I got out of it.
LEAH LASKER SUMMERS, MISS WEST VIRGINIA 1991
"The response I’ve had from the contestants in our program has been overwhelmingly in favor of swimsuit going away."
COURTESY OF LEAH LASKER SUMMERS
Honestly, my first reaction when I heard the news was, "Oh no!" I felt like the swimsuit competition was this traditional, foundational piece [of the pageant], and that taking it away was going to change Miss America. That lasted about five seconds, before I really started to consider what it all means.
Now I'm at a place of thinking that, yes, swimsuit can go away, and not only will it not damage the program but it will have a strong likelihood of improving it — by attracting more contestants and more scholarship dollars. If you don’t change and evolve, odds are you’re going to become obsolete, and I hope this change will allow us to continue to make a difference in women’s lives for years to come. And the response I’ve had from the contestants in our program has been overwhelmingly in favor of swimsuit going away.
IF YOU DON’T CHANGE AND EVOLVE, ODDS ARE YOU’RE GOING TO BECOME OBSOLETE
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I do think there should have been a little more clarity in the announcement. It would have led to less confusion. I think some of the negativity has come from contestants who've thought saying we were doing away with the swimsuit is a comment on their worth [in retrospect] — I don’t want to diminish its history. There are thousands of incredible young women who have been Miss State or Miss America and have continued to do great things for Miss America and for their families, their communities, their businesses. Every single one of those wore a swimsuit on stage! I don’t want there to be a feeling that we’re doing away with swimsuit because everyone who wore one was somehow less accomplished or articulate or talented.
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