Pageant People Are Still Arguing Over Whether Miss America Should Be Judged By Her Swimsuit Body

By CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI

JULY 09, 20186:24 PM

Miss America contestants participate in the 2017 swimsuit competition.
The 2017 Miss America swimsuit competition, the last of its kind.
Donald Kravitz/Getty Images for Dick Clark Productions

When Miss America announced in June that it would no longer include swimsuit and evening gown competitions in its annual pageant, the organization’s leaders promoted the decision as a sign of progress. New chairwoman of the board Gretchen Carlson, a former Miss America titleholder and Fox News host who got a major pre-#MeToo settlement from the network after suing then-chairman Roger Ailes for sexual harassment, said the pageant would now be open to women of “all shapes and sizes” who would “be empowered” and “learn leadership skills” without being judged on their body types. An advertisement for what was framed as “Miss America 2.0” showed a bikini disappearing in a puff of smoke, accompanied by text that said the pageant was “changing out of our swimsuits and into a whole new era.”

The ad did not specify exactly which era the pageant had entered, nor which era it had been inhabiting for the past century. Enlisting a panel of judges to rank women based in part on the aesthetic qualities of their half-naked bodies has not been family-friendly television in any era of Miss America’s existence. But, according to one state pageant director who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, the organization’s new CEO blamed the end of the swimsuit competition on what the Journal called “the sensitivities of the #MeToo era.” Apparently, giving women college scholarships for their lack of body fat was era-appropriate until a movement against workplace sexual harassment jeopardized a nonprofit built on ritualized ogling.

Though the pageant’s television deal with ABC was signed months before the board voted to axe the swimsuit competition, one Miss America board member told a state director that the organization couldn’t find “any production company or television partner that is open to continuing swimsuit.” This put Miss America, which was in the red as of 2016, in a pickle: The pageant presumably attracts much of its viewership with the promise of 51 women prancing around in bikinis and high heels. But circa 2018, there aren’t many elite corporate partners willing to slap their logos on 51 women prancing around in bikinis and high heels, what with the advent of this “era” of slightly heightened scrutiny of sexual harassers.

Now, some former Miss Americas and state pageant winners are questioning whether the organization made the right choice. While 29 Miss America winners signed a statement in support of the changes Carlson and her leadership team are making, many others have remained silent, and two board members quit after the swimsuit decision was announced. Two other board members said they were forced to resign, and the Wall Street Journal reports that 22 state pageant heads are trying to kick Carlson out because they don’t like where she’s taking the organization. At a recent Miss Massachusetts pageant, the host made light of the #MeToo movement in a skit, prompting one participant, a survivor of sexual violence, to turn in her crown.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/07/pageant-people-are-still-arguing-over-whether-miss-america-needs-to-have-a-rockin-swimsuit-bod.html