Stepford Pageant Contestants
Three years after ABC canned the Miss America pageant, the Country Music Television channel doesn’t want it either. I am struck by the fact that, man, the Miss America pageant has institutionalized a contest in which the measure of a girl’s worth is based completely on her beauty. What is more, they have totally gotten away with it in the new millennium. But really, it’s not even her beauty upon which a pageant girl is being judged, is it? It’s just some random contest promoter’s idea of beauty, not America’s.
Although the association stopped collecting height and weight data in 1990 (citing an emphasis on brains over beauty), there is a common scientific urban myth that the BMI for a Miss American winner has been sliding to the side of underfed over the last several years. Interestingly enough, there was another study done and apparently there was a ton of bias in the first study, with lots of rounding down during the data collection for no real reason other than to apparently slant the data (Does no one check facts in these things, Dr. Wade? WTF?) and in actuality, the BMI has remained more or less consistent, along with the waist to hip ratio at .70 (+/- .2).
Of course, they also don’t take into account the weight of silicone.
After researching the size of the typical Miss America contestant’s ass for way longer than was really prudent, I found this tidbit from Russell Shaw on the Huffington Post:
Maybe this view is informed by my life experiences, but some of the most beautiful women I have known have been, well, not “height-weight proportionate.” Teachers, occupational therapists, hospice nurses, social workers, researchers, poets. Petites, not slender. Zaftig, not thin. But all possessed of beauty and abilities at least equal to those who get chosen for Miss America.
Rock on, Russell. Maybe now that even the CMT channel doesn’t want the pageant, they’ll shelf the contest for good. Or send the tiara out on a rotating schedule across the nation so that every woman in America gets to be Miss America for a day. Wouldn’t that be cool? I’ll bet that half of them would manage to keep their shit together when you put that crown on their heads.
Seriously, someone explain to me why Miss America starts crying when she wins every damn year? And also, how does she do it while still remaining pretty? Do they practice? Is it somehow related to their perfect Waist to Hip ratios? These are the things I need to know!
Posted by Weetabix
Email us
Does no one check facts in these things, Dr. Wade? WTF?
I know you were probably asking this as a rhetorical question, but hey, I’ll answer anyway! It looks like those faulty studies were published in textbooks and other books rather than in peer-reviewed journals, so no, they probably weren’t fact-checked in any kind of rigorous way. Although I don’t know that the Journal of Sex Research, in which the refuting study was published, is the most rigorous either.
To address another aspect of the post, though, the Miss America pageant actually does weight non-beauty aspects of the competition relatively highly. According to this, in the preliminary rounds, talent and interview count for 65% of your score, and in the finals they count for a pretty good chunk of the score, too. This is something that has been done in recent years to quell the claims that the pageant is shallow and sexist. In the Miss U.S.A. pageant, in contrast, you’re only judged on “swimsuit” and “evening gown.” Unfortunately, in recent years, Miss U.S.A. has eclipsed Miss America in popularity. I guess appeasing your critics might not be the smartest move if they’re not the kind of people who are ever going to watch a beauty pageant anyway.
This pageant must be incredibly low in the ratings for both ABC and CMT to drop it. I wonder if America is done with watching what someone else deems “beautiful”? If so, I suppose that’s somewhat encouraging.
As for the reason why the newly crowned Miss America always cries, perhaps she finally feels validation in a bizarre way, a la Sally Field: “You REALLY like me!” That’s just kind of sad.
I guess it is because I am a Southern girl (I truly believe we are bred for this stuff), but I haven’t ever really been bothered by beauty pagents. Some of the best nights of my life have been spent in Jackson, MS watching the beauty pageants with girls and gays all wearing our own version of a crown. I admit I do record them so I can fast forward through some stuff – I hate the talent portion, for example.
Now, whenever I think of pageants, I think of Donald Trump. Gross.
What’s disturbing is that Miss America, which puts some emphasis on the interview and talent portions of the pageant (and which, for a long time, did not allow two-piece bathing suits), is off the air while Miss USA is still on (prime time, last I checked). Miss USA is all about looking “good” in a skimpy bikini.