Posted on 07/09/2018 6:18:00 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Nearly half of Miss America’s board has quit or been forced to resign in the wake of the organization’s decision to eliminate the swimsuit competition from the contest, and 22 state pageant leaders are seeking to oust Chairwoman Gretchen Carlson over concerns about the pageant’s new direction.
Ms. Carlson, a former Miss America and an early leader in the #MeToo movement, announced on June 5 that Miss America was dropping the swimsuit and evening-gown competitions and replacing them with an extended onstage interview. She said it was important to make women’s voices heard during a “cultural revolution in our country.”
Some former directors and state pageant heads said they felt pressured by Ms. Carlson and other executives to choose to end the swimsuit competition or risk having the pageant not being broadcast on television.
When asked for Ms. Carlson’s comment, the Miss American Organization said in a statement that no binary choice between swimsuit and a television deal was ever posed.
The TV broadcast is of critical importance to the pageant as it generates a significant amount of the organization’s revenue. The organization has long been on precarious financial footing, with a net loss of $575,000 in 2016—the latest available figures—on revenue of $9.8 million, according to federal filings.
The elimination of the swimsuit competition is testing the ability of a nearly 100-year-old institution to adapt to a fast-changing culture. Miss America started as a swimsuit competition in 1921, at a time when it was considered modern and liberating for women to pose in bathing suits.
Many volunteers who run the state and local competitions that lead up to Miss America said the change has been disorienting.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Go on, make it about their written essays instead of costume pageantry.
and they can put them all in a magazine somewhere.
no one “reads” these days.
certainly wouldn’t translate well to television.
It’s like the Superbowl eliminating the game and just going with the halftime festivities and the general partying surrounding the “ex-game”.
i.e. stick a fork in it.
And whoever made the decision to make the change should be replaced, if it even remains an ongoing concern.
I don’t watch football or the Miss America pageant, but I know enough about their history to know what matters for them to remain an ongoing concern.
add a spelling b contest to the finalists round
As one freeper commented a while back, why televise the pageant or have an audience? Just do the whole thing over the phone.
No minimum legal coverings (swimsuits). Parading men who claim to be women.
I just lost interest in the Miss USA/WORLD/Universe contests.
What next? burka-clad women?
T & A...... it should be all about T & A
That’s what counts.
What next? burka-clad women?
*****************************
One can only hope. ;-)
I thought they were based on tits and ass, that why they wear the bathing suit.
Gretchen welcomes the “cultural revolution in our country”?
Aging slut bunny regrets being a slut bunny as her looks fade. And that’s part of a ‘cultural revolution’? Oh, brother!
The last time I even paused on beauty pageant even during channel surfing was probably in the 1980s.
The Miss America Pageant is cutting its own throat. I predict this will be the final year for the broadcast.
They should just end it all at once rather incrementally. That’s where they’re headed anyway.
It’s still a beauty pageant right? They are going to have longer interviews, is it now an intelligence pageant?
So suddenly contestants are selected not for their beauty but for their brains. I see why the local pageants are disoriented. Instead of looking for youth and beauty they must find women who are mature, sophisticated, and highly verbal. They will be hard pressed to enter the Miss Universe contest.
Miss America will also need to change its name to Ms Whatever.
Feminists have taken over a bastion of sexuality and youthful exuberance. They must be thrilled.
Get rid of Carlson.
No, it is not a beauty pagent. It is an excercise in politically correct oneupmanship.
Intelligence has nothing to do with it and none of the contedstants will wear glasses for stage effect.
Gretchen Carlsen has in effect destroyed the concept of Miss America.
Yep.
More or less professional contestants complete with cosmetic surgery and forced, politically-charged interviews ruined it long ago.
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