Imagine a world where we never cared to attach faces to names, to stories, to accomplishments. Where an obsessive need for physical satisfaction wasn’t prominent. In 1985 cultural critic Neil Postman warned his readers that our society was simply, “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, a claim that warranted an entire book. As a culture we’ve silently agreed that ideologies are subordinate to appearances, leaving us to hold “good showmanship” as more important than anything else. Postman argued that entertainment infiltrates all areas of life, and the Miss America pageant is no exception.
The nature of the beauty pageant as an institution forces viewers to draw immense focus on physical appearances (it quite literally is right in the name). In an effort to fight against this seemingly inevitable nature, the Miss America pageant has taken recent measures to revamp the organization. Recently the entire board that runs the competition has been replaced, but a more dramatic change stands out.
After nearly a century, Miss America will continue on with the swimsuit competition in its past.
In an era that’s becoming rapidly defined by female empowerment and gender equality, Gretchen Carlson, the organization’s new chairwoman, has spoken out about this change. She claims that this decision is part of the board’s desire to shift the focus onto contestants’ intelligence and talents, and simultaneously away from their bodies. Carlson herself is an active feminist, made clear by her involvement against workplace sexual harassment a few years back.
So here we have a board made up of mostly women, a chairwoman who’s a passionate advocate for women’s rights, both of which control a pageant that is built on judging women.
Interesting.
I’ll admit, removing the swimsuit competition from the Miss America pageant does make a statement. Without this showcasing of women’s bodies, we have one less component to judge them on. But the problem with these pageant lies beyond what we judge these women on. It’s a matter of judging them at all.
It’s clear that the organization behind Miss America is looking to send a message along the lines of “women are more than their bodies”, urging the public to look beyond the contestants’ appearances. The practice of judging women by their bodies is being brought to light as an issue because as a society, we’re beginning to realize that it’s unfair to form judgements about other people without knowing them first. Sound familiar? Swimsuit competition or not, the pageant as a concept becomes a field day for prejudice. We tend to dismiss this practice, wrapping it up with our history notes about the Civil Rights Movement and going on with our day. But at the end of the day, even if it doesn’t involve the contestants strutting around in swimwear, we’re judging them on other factors.
Some will argue that these judgments are valid because they are based on information the contestants can control. We’re not judging them based on their bodies but rather their intelligence and charisma, qualities they express to us and have influence over. Doesn’t that make our judgments fair?
The real question is, why do we need to judge these women, or anybody, at all? Why does it warrant an entire spectacle, a show, and for some women, devoting their entire lives to perfecting the “art” of pageantry?
Miss America as a beauty pageant contradicts the pursuit to lift women up. For one, we’re a society that’s been cultured to place heightened focus on appearances. No matter how much we agree with someone’s ideology, regardless of how talented we find someone to be, it’s very difficult for us to not take appearances into account. Removing the swimsuit competition takes away the obvious chance for us to do this, but as humans we’re likely to do it subconsciously without prompting. That being said, the swimsuit competition removal is a positive step but only to an extent.
Secondly, these women are well aware that they’re being judged by millions of people. They’re going to curate their appearances, responses, behaviors, body language, etc. to fall in line with what our society holds to be the highest standard. How is this uplifting, empowering? We give these women a platform that we claim is one they can use to vocalize ideas, bring awareness to issues they care about, foster support for a talent or passion they have. The fault with this is that the platform is a pageant, a display, and as an audience we’re just looking for is to be entertained. All we want is to live vicariously through a life that we don’t lead and then we move on.
The pageant doesn’t serve us as viewers or the contestants. Watching Miss America just forces us to engage in prejudice, and how healthy of a practice is that? For the contestants, even the most genuine one is still altering her presence to some degree to please the world.
At this point in time, removing the swimsuit portion isn’t enough. Elimination of the Miss America pageant altogether is a stronger political statement than altering its structure. If you’re sick, you treat the root cause of your illness, not just the symptoms. By treating the symptoms in isolation you can’t realistically believe that the illness, at its root, will be treated.
The illness here is forming judgments of other people based on what we can see and what we’re told is true. Taking away the swimsuit portion can help us, as a society, feel better, but its’s just a symptom. After nearly a decade, I think it’s time we sought proper treatment for ourselves. The only way we can do that is getting down to the root cause. And here, that means ending Miss America entirely.
