Miss America 2.0: Wisconsin pageant leaders, contestants react to changes, end of swimsuit

Caitlin Shuda, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune Published 6:02 a.m. CT Aug. 1, 2018

Local title holders speak about their experiences competing in local Miss America organization pageants in Wisconsin. Alexandra Wimley/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

(Photo: Jeannette Merten/For USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Sweeping changes to the 2019 Miss America contest, known as "Miss America 2.0," are being felt on the local level as pageants across Wisconsin and the nation prepare for the new season. The elimination of the swimsuit competition — a pageant staple since Miss America's beginning in 1921 — is the most controversial. But it's not the only recent move by the national organization to be felt in Wisconsin.

Representatives of 22 state pageants, including Wisconsin's, last month signed a petition calling for the resignation of the new Miss America board, including chairwoman Gretchen Carlson and president and CEO Regina Hopper.

The controversy highlights the complexity behind the rollout of Miss America 2.0, as the organization includes hundreds of state and local programs that empower and encourage women to respectfully voice their opinions on a variety of issues. And as local organizations begin work on a new round of competitions, it threatens to overshadow what many participants say is an empowering, positive experience for young women.

Tianna Vanderhei, a Wisconsin Rapids native, laughs as Anna Gilman, 5, asks Vanderhei "Is 2018 how old you are?" referring to Vanderhei's title of Miss Wisconsin 2018. Vanderhei signed autographs and met community members during a meet and greet event at Local on 1st in Wisconsin Rapids Thursday, July 5, 2018. (Photo: Tori Schneider/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, Tori Schneider/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

A vote of no confidence
Jeanne Schmal, executive director of the Miss Wisconsin Scholarship Organization, is one of the state leaders who expressed a vote of no confidence in the Miss America Organization’s board of trustees earlier this summer.

Schmal said the move was not about elimination of the swimsuit competition, but rather about the lack of communication between leadership and the volunteers, directors and contestants at all levels of competition.

Schmal said some state leaders also are afraid their license agreements could be revoked at any time. An agreement revised in January says the national organization can revoke a state pageant's license with or without cause, which makes it hard for anyone involved to speak up about dysfunction or problems in the organization, she said.

“I’m on record saying maybe it’s time that swimsuit be eliminated," Schmal said. "We have been supportive of the decision all along, until some of these things came to light."

Schmal said the vote of "no confidence" was not a reflection of the changes themselves, but rather the way they were presented.

"We’ve registered our dissatisfaction with the Miss America Organization board. Now, we want to just get back to the business of running our pageants.”

Some title holders in central Wisconsin said they also have been surprised at the lack of communication within the scholarship organization.

“The Miss America Organization has not communicated the changes as effectively or as well as they should have,” said Miss Northern Lights Ryann Swanson, who also served as Miss Wisconsin Rapids Area 2017. “They have promised transparency.”

https://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/story/news/2018/08/01/miss-america-2-0-wisconsin-women-react-pageant-changes/818044002/