If she is not pretty, I think its a dumb thing. Lets face it, Miss America is supposed to be the prettiest women in America. So she is basically a model and spokes women. If she is not pretty nobody cares. And by the way, few people care now. Victoria Secret and Sports Illustrated took prettiest women away from Miss America long time ago.
Let's face it, absolutely no women who are under 5'10" would be allowed (I've taught some absolutely gorgeous 5'2" women), and no women who were just high school graduates, or who would want nothing more than to be just housewives and have a great husband and children (instead of owning their own boutique), will ever be finalist in those ridiculous pageants.
You could put 3 guys at a table, give them pitchers of beer and lots of chips, and they'd pick a lot better looking finalist than ever were picked on those shows.