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Feminists Protested Miss America as a ‘Cattle Auction’ 50 Years Ago
History ^ | 6/8/2018 | Becky Little

Posted on 09/12/2018 9:35:04 AM PDT by otness_e

This week, the Miss America Organization announced that it’s eliminating the swimsuit competition in an effort to focus less on women’s appearances. It’s not clear what, exactly, the beauty pageant will be about now that it’s trying to deemphasize the “beauty” part. In any case, the decision coincides with the 50th anniversary of a feminist protest that criticized the contest as a sexist “cattle auction.”

The Miss America pageant has courted controversy ever since it began as a 1921 newspaper “bathing beauties” contest and marketing scheme for Atlantic City, New Jersey. In the beginning, the controversy stemmed from conservative critics who thought that women should cover their bodies when they appeared in public.

“Early on, people are critical of this contest because it was not really seen as an acceptable thing to have women stand around in swimsuits and be judged,” says Blain Roberts, a history professor at Fresno State University and author of Pageants, Parlors, and Pretty Women: Race and Beauty in the Twentieth-Century South.

To counter the perception that the contest was just about “bathing beauties,” it added a talent competition in the 1930s and started awarding scholarships to finalists after World War II. Despite this, the point of the pageant was still to crown one woman as the most beautiful. Critics continued to take issue with the pageant into the 1960s. But by that point, the criticism wasn’t coming from conservatives worried about women’s propriety anymore—it was coming from liberal, second-wave feminists who considered the contest demeaning.

(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1968; feminazi; feminism; missamerica
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Honestly, as bad as Gretchen Carlson's messup of Miss America was by gutting the swimsuit competition (which was literally Miss America's starting point) and acting like they should be philosophers, she didn't start the dreck that is going on with Miss America. Actually, if anyone started this mess, it's either the Frankfurt School, or more directly, Robin Morgan and her group of New York Radical Women, especially with the stunt she pulled in 1968 with the protest at Atlantic City where they effectively implied that Miss America was a cattle auction, complete with crowning a sheep Miss America (literally, I should add, as you can see in the article). Beauty's everywhere whether we like it or not, so don't even bother suppressing it, especially when beauty was kind of the entire POINT behind Miss America. And I certainly don't appreciate the implication that simply honoring beauty is the same thing as trying to pick an animal at a country fair.
1 posted on 09/12/2018 9:35:04 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: otness_e

Imagine a “cattle auction” where no cattle were bought or sold, but rather they were just rated for their appearance, and participation was strictly voluntary, and the highest rated were honored and received a prize.


2 posted on 09/12/2018 9:44:21 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy
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To: otness_e

Some enterprising entrepreneur should start a swimsuit only miss America competition...or is there already such? I think the timing would be perfect.


3 posted on 09/12/2018 9:45:32 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: rightwingcrazy

Yes, it’s more like the County Fair. My vote is for Empress of Blandings.


4 posted on 09/12/2018 9:45:54 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: otness_e

Chick-Fil-A ought to do a beauty pageant spoof. :)


5 posted on 09/12/2018 9:48:18 AM PDT by Tell It Right (Offense sells tickets. Defense wins chapmionships.)
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To: rightwingcrazy

Imagine a “cattle auction” where no cattle were bought or sold, but rather they were just rated for their appearance, and participation was strictly voluntary, and the highest rated were honored and received a prize.

__________________

I think that is called 4H at the county fair.


6 posted on 09/12/2018 9:50:27 AM PDT by Chickensoup ( Leftists fascists today plan to commence to commit genocide against conservatives soon)
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To: Chickensoup

“I think that is called 4H at the county fair.”

I imagine, for the cows, that’s a pretty good gig.


7 posted on 09/12/2018 9:56:34 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy
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To: otness_e

But “feminists” dressing up as giant female genitalia or wearing female genitalia hats are not demeaning to women at all. Nope, not one bit.

(Do I really need the sarcasm tag here?)


8 posted on 09/12/2018 9:58:52 AM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: otness_e

9 posted on 09/12/2018 10:08:20 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation has ended!)
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To: V_TWIN
A few year ago, Playboy Magazine announced that they would no longer have pictures of nekid women. That idea lasted about a year. What few customers that they still had went away. Who would have thunk it, men really didn't buy Playboy for the articles.

The Miss America pageant has pretty much the same problem as Playboy. Their audience has gone away. So, like Playboy, they are going to drive away what little audience they had left.

10 posted on 09/12/2018 10:17:33 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation has ended!)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

“Playboy Magazine announced that they would no longer have pictures of nekid women.”

If that’s the case I’d just as soon read Easyrider magazine......and it’s got cool bikes also!


11 posted on 09/12/2018 10:20:52 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: Bubba_Leroy

Got both of mine in your photo. Welcome to the ugly Pacific Northwest.


12 posted on 09/12/2018 10:45:54 AM PDT by beelzepug (The permanent political class that runs this country is...the great(est) danger we face)
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To: Tell It Right

Sounds like a really good idea.


13 posted on 09/12/2018 11:23:11 AM PDT by wally_bert (Terrific! Terrific? Harve Nyquist never ordered any radials.)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

Don’t leave out the part where Playboy put a nude post-op trans in the magazine soon after returning to nudes.


14 posted on 09/12/2018 11:26:49 AM PDT by Rastus
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To: Rastus

I had not heard about that one. The last time I purchased a Playboy Magazine was about 40 years ago, back when I was in their then target demographic: young, single men. I guess their current target demographic is social justice warrior transvestites.


15 posted on 09/12/2018 11:35:06 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation has ended!)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

Ironically, despite the fact that they disposed Playboy magazines into the so-called “Freedom Trash Cans”, the feminists were the reason why Playboy Magazine lasted as long as it did, and were actually among the magazine’s biggest supporters (heck, the National Organization of Women, I kid you not, actually considered its founder, Hugh Hefner, a “defender of women”, and that was DESPITE the content of the magazines).

And personally, I consider playboy to be worse than Miss America. At least Miss America actually HONORED the beauty of women, while Playboy just treated them as interchangeable parts, much less than human.


16 posted on 09/12/2018 11:37:00 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: otness_e

Rush Limbaugh’s Undeniable Truth of Life Number 24: “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of American life.”


17 posted on 09/12/2018 11:41:37 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation has ended!)
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To: Bubba_Leroy

No kidding. The only time feminism was ever actually good and did good for women was with the Suffragette movement, heck, at least the Suffragettes, certainly Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were pro-life and would if anything have been utterly disgusted with the pro-abortion crowd had they been alive today. Certainly, second-wave feminism was established to as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of American life (heck, ANY life for that matter). Just ask Simone de Beauvoir or Betty Friedan.


18 posted on 09/12/2018 11:59:23 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: otness_e
Feminist War On Love & Reason
19 posted on 09/12/2018 12:04:12 PM PDT by Ohioan
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To: otness_e

The only reason we know who Gretchen Carlson today is that she initially received her chance and recognition from being a once crowned Miss America. Now that she has hers. She takes the opportunity away from others. Jealous much Gretchen?


20 posted on 09/12/2018 12:50:44 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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