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25/08/2018
WHILE the iconic pageant tries to step into the 21st century, a bitter feud is underway and the reigning Miss America has gone rogue.
Phoebe Loomes
news.com.auAUGUST 25, 20182:08PM
Miss America ends swimsuit competition in effort to evolve
IT’S been a tempestuous eight months for The Miss America pageant.
Now called Miss America 2.0, you might have heard about the abolishment of the swimsuit portion of the contest but that’s the tip of the heaving, hulking, trash island iceberg that has become this historical “bathing beauty revue” from the 1920s.
The company boss and the reigning queen have descended into a bitter online feud, with allegations of systematic bullying, harassment and massive losses of funds among the claims surfacing as the pair swipe at each other in open letters.
Since the end of 2017, the Miss America Organisation has been scrambling to “modernise”. Doing away with their beauty pageant past, Miss America 2.0 was supposed to be a fresh start for the organisation, with all female executives and massive structural reform. The organisation burned its bras and broke apart all the structures that have defined the sexist parade of yore. But as with most revolutions, nothing is stable for long.
The reigning Miss America, Cara Mund, or Miss North Dakota 2018 as I’ll refer to her in this article, has gone rogue, penning an open letter where she says her “voice is not being heard,” saying her female bosses have “systematically silenced me, reduced me, marginalised me, and essentially erased me in my role as Miss America.”
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter on Saturday, she said she’d have “no regrets if she’s stripped of her title before the next coronation on Sept. 9”.
And the main perpetrators are company chairwoman Gretchen Carlson and CEO Regina Hopper. Gretchen and Regina, like in Mean Girls.
Mund (right) has thrown allegations of bullying at Carlson (left), to which Carlson said she was “saddened beyond words”. (AP Photo) Source:AP
Miss America 2.0 wanted a clever, inspirational young woman, and they got it in Miss Dakota — she is, in every way, the perfect Miss America. She is graceful, beautiful, clever and whip smart.
Miss Dakota is the first Ivy League graduate to win the pageant in 64 years (she is an Honours graduate of Brown University). On top of that, she is a natural philanthropist who, at age 13, started raising money for the Make a Wish foundation in North Dakota by creating its only outpost in the state.
Cara Mund is crowned Miss America 2018. Picture: Noah K. Murray Source:AP
Where did it all go wrong?
At the tail end of last year, the then CEO of the Miss America pageant, Sam Haskell, was forced to resign after emails between him and other executives of the pageant were leaked to the press.
The string of emails between four powerful heads of the pageant company revealed weird, seamy, aggressive conversations peppered into work chat, where they joked about the death of one winner, wishing it had been another; called one contestant a “blimp” around thanksgiving parade time; mocked their intelligence; and offered conjecture about former Miss America winners’ sex lives.
After a particularly disturbing and expletive filled exchange, where all the former winners are referred to as c***ts, Haskell replies, “bahahaha”.
The emails revealed a culture of deeply ingrained disrespect for the women the company was supposed to be giving a platform to. A spate of firings, resignations and suspensions followed, but CEO Haskell stood firm on his words.
“I was under stress from a full year of attacks by two Miss Americas, and while I don’t ever want to offer an excuse, I do want to offer context,” said Haskell.
“My mistake is a mistake of words.”
Former CEO of Miss America, Sam Haskell, was caught up in a scandal when a string of emails were leaked. Picture: Ethan Miller Source:AFP
He was recalcitrant as another former CEO of the Miss America Organisation publicly begged for him to stand down. He said the Huffpost article that outed his emails was “unfair and untrue”, citing professional pressure as giving the necessary context for his violent, sexist and inappropriate speech. He refused to resign and the company placed him on suspension.
Why were the bosses of Miss America so appalling?
It’s not surprising Miss America was mired in sick old patriarchy and sexual violence, when you consider its past.
Now, I don’t want to bash Miss America. I love a tradition. It’s human nature to cling to things that remind us of the past. But dragging a lumbering, sexist, racist, dinosaur like the Miss America Pageant through into 2018 and beyond was never going to be easy.
The key to modernising is keeping what’s good and getting rid of what’s bad, what’s hurting others. For example, the racism.
The Miss America has a quintessentially American history, in that it was a strange parade cooked up by a local marketing guru from the Atlantic City boardwalk, who used women in scantily clad outfits to attract hundreds of revellers to the seaside area. Also, it was seriously racist, only allowing white entrants for its first 50 years.
The public were excited by early iteration of the Miss America pageant and encouraged to participate, introducing strange new rules: all the contestants had to be single, and all contestants had to mingle intensively with the public who participated in the voting. The fifties really were the heyday for the pageant — its first public broadcast in 1954 had 27 million viewers.
Modernising Miss America
Following the fallout from the leaked emails, it was time for the Miss America pageant to be dragged into the 21st century. At the start of this year, the Miss America Organisation elected Gretchen Carlson as the new chairwoman. Carlson is a former Fox News anchor, and previously Miss Minnesota — she won Miss America in 1989.
Her appointment marked the first time the company had elected a former winner of Miss America as its chairwoman. Appearing on Good Morning America a few days after her appointment, she was questioned about feminism, swimsuits and beauty pageants’ relevance.
“I plan to make this organisation 100 per cent about empowering women”, she declared. “Changes are coming — potentially big changes.”
Gretchen Carlson, Chairwoman of the Miss America board of directors. Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File.Source:AP
In June, Carlson got her wishes over the line. Rebranding was clearly a focus: the pageant would now be called Miss America 2.0, and it wouldn’t be called a “pageant”, but a “competition”. (It’s unclear to me how redefining Miss America 2.0 as a winner-takes-all battle is semantically better, but I digress.)
These changes might seem minor, but actually they’re quite revolutionary. But here’s the thing about breaking apart systems — once you’ve broken them, they’re gone forever.
The entire linchpin of the pageant is the swimsuit competition, on which the Miss America pageant was founded.
In the twenties, the girls were called sea nymphs and the crown was called the Golden Mermaid Trophy. It’s naughty, it’s nautical. And in 2019, it will be gone, possibly forever.
Do we really need a swimsuit competition anymore? Well, maybe yes
If you’re not a regular viewer of Miss America, you might not like the idea of women parading around in bikinis, and you don’t have to like it. But swimsuits are integral in the DNA of what the Miss America Pageant is.
The 2016 winner, Betty Maxwell, was devastated at the axing of the swimsuit competition. “It doesn’t make sense”, she said. “Network series (like) The Bachelor and The Bachelorette are way more scandalous (than bikinis).”
She went on to add that she found the swimsuit section and Miss America pageant empowered her, helping her resolve body issues she suffered from growing up.
A traditional part of the pageant is the swimsuit segment. While some are happy to see it go, others like 2016 winner, Betty Maxwell were devastated to learn it had been cut. Picture: Mel Evans/APSource:AP
Regina and Gretchen
One thing is clear — according to Regina and Gretchen, swimsuits are not in. CEO Regina Hopper, herself a former winner of the pageant, has continually criticised defenders of the swimsuit competition.
The conflict with the state competitions is one she categorised as a “growing pain”, her sentiments supported by Carlson, who dismissed the critics as a “vocal minority”.
Despite its problematic history, the former winners are passionate and protective of the brand. As Carlson has systematically dismantled the brand and denigrated the reigning queen, the girls that launched their careers from it have penned impassioned group letters and petitions in various attempts to regain control.
But Miss America is not behaving
Despite Gretchen Carlson’s best efforts to have a happy girl gang, Miss Dakota is not happy and is talking about it. The reigning queen wrote in a letter of systematic bullying, being mocked for her appearance and clothing, of being micromanaged, harassed and reprimanded by Regina and Gretchen.
Via CNBC, Mund said: “Let me be blunt: I strongly believe that my voice is not heard nor wanted by our current leadership; nor do they have any interest in knowing who I am and how my experiences relate to positioning the organisation for the future.
“Our chair and CEO have systematically silenced me, reduced me, marginalised me, and essentially erased me in my role as Miss America in subtle and not-so-subtle ways on a daily basis. After a while, the patterns have clearly emerged, and the sheer accumulation of the disrespect, passive-aggressive behaviour, belittlement, and outright exclusion has taken a serious toll.
Miss America, Cara Mund, has used her position to speak out about the Miss America Organisation. Picture: Michael Loccisano Source:Getty Images
“Right away, the new leadership delivered an important message: There will be only one Miss America at a time, and she isn’t me.”
The letter goes on to assert that Miss America was restricted to three talking points when she was allowed to appear on TV: “Miss America is relevant. The #MeToo movement started with a Miss America, Gretchen Carlson. Gretchen Carlson went to Stanford.”
Wait, what? The Chairwoman of Miss America started the #MeToo movement?
Scripting the current Miss America to talking points around #MeToo and Gretchen Carlson seems an odd choice — Miss Dakota’s own interests were actually to inspire more women to enrol for public office. Miss Dakota is 23 and has never spoken publicly about her own experiences of sexual harassment.
Carlson’s own narrative of sexual harassment predates the 2017 #MeToo movement. She sued her former employer Fox News, settling out of court for a reported $20 million.
The consensus around the conception of #MeToo movement is that it is begun with Tarana Burke in 2006; its volcanic eruption in 2017 was after tweets by Alyssa Milano urging others to share their stories of sexual harassment.
Although the organisation says they support Cara Mund, she will get limited screentime at the next pageant. Picture: Jon Kopaloff Source:Getty Images
A revolution is not a bed of roses
Gretchen has no interest in Miss Dakota’s hurt feelings. She released a damning public response letter to Mund, denying all allegations of bullying.
“I so wished Cara had picked up the phone and discussed her concerns with me directly, before going to the media with allegations of bullying … I also want to be clear that I have never bullied or silenced you.”
Carlson goes on to reprimand Mund for speaking out, alleging a direct loss of funds to the organisation to the effect of $US75,000. “The impact won’t stop there”, she continues, “We are already seeing a negative ripple effect across the entire organisation.”
Carlson’s response mirrors those from her deposed predecessor Sam Haskell. She remains staunch, saying blithely in a recent interview that “change is difficult”.
Girl power in numbers
Eleven former Miss Americas, distressed by Miss Dakota’s treatment at the hands of Gretchen and Regina, released a joint statement calling for their resignation. It is addressed to stakeholders, volunteers and Miss Dakota herself.
“Miss America 2.0’ is simply a title for the same old tactics of obfuscation and fear-based governance,” the statement read. “We want to apologise to you for the hardships you have had to endure as a result of our chairwoman’s and CEO’s unsupportive decisions.
“We do not accept the inaccurate words about the sponsors and swimsuit competition. We insist that our current chairwoman and CEO resign now.”
The rot set in with the swimsuit decision according to 2016 winner Betty Maxwell. The insinuation is that Miss America has abandoned its audience, and its contestants in an attempt to modernise.
Many have criticised Carlson for using the Miss America Organisation to leverage her own interests, be they furthering a personal PR campaign based around #MeToo, or a larger campaign to eventually run for office (something Carlson recently denied).
Speaking to NJ.com, she said if a larger portion of the pageant watching community had been polled about axing the swimsuit section, “they would have gotten a resounding no”.
Miss Dakota will be Miss America for two more weeks. Publicly the organisation has said that it supports Mund, but they have limited her screen time at the next pageant to 30 seconds. “It’s been a tough year,” she said in a recent interview, which the organisation later penalised her for taking part in.
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