The Stereotype
The pageant girl—prim, proper, beautiful; “Kaiti Purse has the sash. She has the dresses, the blonde hair, the smiles, and yes, even the crown. She stands on floats and waves all the way down the pageant route. She knows how to stand with one foot at 10 o’clock and the other at 1 o’clock so her body looks optimally streamlined. She attends city events, ribbon cuttings, parades, service projects, and does it with a smile that would put Miss Congeniality to shame.” (Myler)
Breaking The Stereotype?
"The saccharine-sweet image of Miss America contestants could be shattered if this year's Miss Kansas, a tattoo-clad, gun-toting hunter and National Guard member, manages to crush the competition and walk away with the coveted crown."
The following link provides video coverage of a contestant that is determined to break barriers; as well as some background knowledge of a few other contestants that may or may not agree with her stand against the stereotype.
The following link provides video coverage of a contestant that is determined to break barriers; as well as some background knowledge of a few other contestants that may or may not agree with her stand against the stereotype.
Feminism
Some people involved
- New York Radical Women
- Carol Hanisch
- Robin Morgan
- Kathie Sarachild
judging bodies, CONTROLLING thoughts
- New York Radical Women led activists in a protest of the Miss America pageant in September 1968, with a demonstration and a list of criticisms.
- They saw the relentless pressure on women to focus on physical beauty as an enslaving kind of thought control, akin to Big Brother in 1984 by George Orwell. In that dystopian novel, of course, the authoritarian messages end up controlling people as much as the actual authorities do.
- Robin Morgan and other NYRW feminists described Miss America as trying to "sear 'the Image' onto our minds, to further make women oppressed and men oppressors.
- The women's liberation movement's critique of Miss America described the pageant as a continuation of the most stereotypical images of women.
- A beauty contest was a dangerous way of replacing assertiveness, individuality, achievement, education and empowerment with false hopes, consumerism and "high-heeled, low status roles."
- Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. That bestseller rapidly spread the message about media-created "happy housewife" ideals and the "sexual sell" that defined a woman's role in life as serving or pleasing a man. During the late 1960s, feminist theorists and organizations such as the National Organization for Women tackled the issue of images of women, such as with the NOW Task Force on the Image of Women in Mass Media.
- While the corporate product sponsorship, competition, racism and militarism of the pageant were societal grounds for complaint, the idea of "Big Sister watching" was something that reached inside a woman's self. The Miss America pageant and other impossible standards seduced women "to prostitute ourselves before our own oppression," according to the NYRW critique.
- The women who protested on the boardwalk that day cried "No more Miss America!" because they saw how common it was for women to succumb to society's demand that women care about Miss America and all the trappings of beauty and body mystique that went along with it.
The list
- The Degrading Mindless-Boob-Girlie Symbol
Society forced women to take seriously the most ludicrous beauty standards. Beauty contests paraded the women and judged them like animal specimens at a 4-H county fair. - Racism With Roses
In 1968, the Miss America pageant had never had a black finalist. - Miss America as Military Death Mascot
The use of the pageant winner as a "cheerleader" for the military's operations abroad was akin to exploiting her as a "mascot for murder," NYRW said. - The Consumer Con-Game
The entrenched corporate power structure of the U.S. benefited from idealized images of women, including when Miss America endorsed their products. - Competition Rigged and Unrigged
The contest reinforced the hyper-competitive message of supremacy that prevailed in U.S. society. "Win or you're worthless," the protesters called it. - The Woman as Pop Culture Obsolescent Theme
The obsession with youth and beauty tried to make women look younger than they were and soon enough rejected even previous winners as they dared to age normally. - The Unbeatable Madonna-Whore Combination
The Miss America contest paid lip service to wholesome images of womanhood while parading women's bodies in bathing suits. Feminists criticized the insistence that women be both sexual and innocent, and rejected the characterization of women as either up on a pure, motherly pedestal or down in the lustful gutter. - The Irrelevant Crown on the Throne of Mediocrity
The women's liberation movement criticized institutions that silenced women's political voices. In later years, Miss America contestants would speak out more on social and political issues. - Miss America as Dream Equivalent To---?
Why were all little boys told they could grow up to become the president, while girls were told they could aspire to be Miss America? - Miss America as Big Sister Watching You
The relentless emphasis on physical beauty was a kind of enslaving thought control.