OPINION:
Aside from men and lesbians, there really aren’t going to be that many beauty pageant watchers who miss the swimsuit portion of Miss America.
Seriously. The whole ogle-fest is just that — an antiquated means of determining, for all the world to see, which woman among a crowd of women has the best body. It’s good that Miss America is giving it the boot.
Selling it as just another facet in measuring a woman’s complete package of beauty, the inner and the outer, may be what the pageant advocates say. But it’s not really true. Everybody knows the reason beauty pageants have lasted this long is because of the swimsuit segment.
Ogling is part of the beauty pageant culture. Ogling, and the chance for organizers and advertisers to make big bucks.
“The Miss America pageant was first held in 1921 in Atlantic City,” Smithsonian Magazine reports. “And yet the beauty of this beauty pageant was secondary to commercial interests.”
The commercial interest at that time was for Atlantic City to promote its tourist attractions.
“Ever since,” Smithsonian went on, “the bathing suit competition has remained an integral part — or, let’s face it — the integral part — of most beauty pageants. (Even after the talent categories were introduced, and the contestants started talking …) Here’s a more interesting reel: a 1935 Texas pageant where the idea of beauty was so rigidly defined, in such a literal sense, that contestants tried to fit into wooden cutouts of the ideal female figure while in their bathing suits.”
At least today’s beauty pageants only see women trying to stuff into bikinis.
But therein sits the elephant in the room.
Beauty pageant supporters would have it believed that the whole beauty pageant experience is aimed at judging a woman’s total package of beauty, her inner and outer, her intellect, her poise, her fitness, her demeanor, her talents — and all to her benefit, in order to reward her with money for school and opportunities for career placement and advancement. But it’s a contest heavy on the outward. Fact is, once the Q&A segment gives way to the swimsuit and gown portions of the program, it’s clear: The judging is all about the bod.
How much fat on those legs? How much jiggle to those arms? What’s the breast-to-waist-to-hip ratio on that one, versus this one? Judges, mark your beauty cards. Maybe one’ll trip during the evening gown walk and make the judging all the easier.
It’s all a bit stupid, really, particularly when there’s that whole “women can do anything a man can do” line of argument the feminists fought so long to bring to the public consciousness.
Yes, women have the right to do with their bodies as they please — at least, for the most part. Yes, pageant owners have the right to set their own judging criteria — again, for the most part.
But let’s infuse the process with a bit more honesty, please.
Let’s quit selling and seeing bikini contests as if they’re something more than they are — as a means of separating the “7s” from the “9s” and “10s.” Let’s quit selling and seeing beauty pageants as if they’re scholarship opportunities that reward the best and brightest in the world of women.
If best and brightest and most talented is what we’re really after here, it wouldn’t be hard to sub in contests that reward just that.
How about a Miss Science America, for example, or a Miss Math, for above-and-beyond scholastic and scholarly achievements in these two fields of learning? Or, a Miss Charity America, or a Miss Altruism contest, for recognition of outward evidences of inner beauty? The list can go on.
And really, the trick isn’t to simply abolish all pageantry, or kill off all that could be good or even worthwhile about Miss America. The trick is to see existing pageantry through truthful eyes, and then try to improve it with adaptations that better fit into modern society.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @ckchumley.
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