Major kudos to the Miss America Pageant for having the courage to say that it’s not a contest based on looks and then to scrap the swimsuit competition in order to prove it. New York Times:
Now under mostly female leadership, the Miss America Organization said Tuesday that it was scrapping the swimsuit competition, starting at the national contest in September, in a sweeping change that will also reshape local and state contests.
Ms. [Gretchen] Carlson, who assumed a prominent voice for women’s rights in the workplace after filing a harassment lawsuit in 2016 against the former Fox chairman Roger Ailes, said the competition would focus more on the contestants’ talents, intelligence and ideas.
“We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance,” Ms. Carlson, who was Miss America in 1989, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday. “We are moving it forward and evolving it in this cultural revolution.”
This is indeed a revolutionary change. The Miss America Pageant always came across as disingenuous at best with all its protestations of the emphasis being on talent, poise, the “personal question” and then of course all the women came pouring down the runway in bathing suits and high heels and knocked those high sounding ideas out of the box. Make no mistake that this was a beauty contest. Writer William Goldman was a judge one year and he wrote a book ”Hype and Glory” wherein he describes the instructions judges were given in assessing beauty. Shoulder blades had to lie flat, fingerips had to taper, and failure in these small details meant crucial points off. Heaven forfend America’s Ideal would have the face of an angel and pudgy fingertips. This change in focus away from appearance should attract young women with a bit more gravitas and it really will be a talent contest. This is a positive sign. I wish them the best of luck.