Miss America, the annual televised pageant, has announced that it will be scrapping the swimsuit portion from this year’s event. Instead of rating contestants on how they look in a bikini, judges will now rank the women on “who you are as a person from the inside of your soul”.
The 97-year-old competition is also discarding its evening gown section and asking contestants to wear clothes that make them feel confident.
The chair of Miss America, Gretchen Carlson, a former pageant winner and Fox News anchor, divulged these changes on Tuesday. Speaking to Good Morning America, Carlson said: “We’ve heard from a lot of young women who say, ‘We’d love to be a part of your program but we don’t want to be out there in high heels and a swimsuit.’ So guess what, you don’t have to do that anymore.”
JUST IN: "We will no longer judge our candidates on their outward physical appearance. That's huge. And that means we will no longer have a swimsuit competition." - @GretchenCarlson on the major changes coming to @MissAmericaOrg https://t.co/ICRIsRN71h pic.twitter.com/IWKcVvCC50
— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 5, 2018
On Tuesday morning, the official twitter account of Cara Mund, Miss America 2018, further underlined these changes by posting a video of a disappearing bikini. “We’re changing out of our swimsuits and into a whole new era #byebyebikini.”
We’re changing out of our swimsuits and into a whole new era #byebyebikini #MissAmerica2019 pic.twitter.com/08Y7jLFxhs
— Cara Mund (@MissAmerica) June 5, 2018
Carlson was appointed chair of Miss America earlier this year after former members of the top management resigned. Leaked emails had shown pageant officials disparaging past winners for their appearance, intellect and sex lives. Miss America now has an all-female leadership team.
Discussing the new changes Miss America is instituting, Carlson acknowledged the organisation was responding to the #MeToo movement. “We’re experiencing a cultural revolution in our country with women finding the courage to stand up and have their voices heard on many issues,” she said. “Miss America is proud to evolve as an organization and join this empowerment movement.” No word yet on how a competition where women compete against each other for a sparkly crown plans to encourage empowerment.
Carlson herself has been a prominent voice in the #MeToo movement. In July 2016, she sued former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment; Ailes resigned shortly after.
Miss America isn’t the only institution to have recently updated itself in the wake of #MeToo. In January, Formula One said it was ending the use of “grid girls”, the scantily-clad female models who are sprayed with champagne by winning drivers. “While the practice of employing grid girls has been a staple of Formula One grands prix for decades, we feel this custom does not resonate with our brand values and clearly is at odds with modern-day societal norms,” said Sean Bratches, Formula One’s managing director of commercial operations.
The Formula One announcement came shortly after the Professional Darts Corporation said it would stop using “walk-on girls” – women in revealing clothes who take the players to the stage. This decision appears to have been made with some reluctance. In a radio interview, Barry Hearn, chairman of the corporation, complained that “[w]e’re living in changing times – the PC brigade, the liberal brigade are out in strength and it’s causing changes in sport everywhere we look and it’s probably going to get worse.” One imagines Hearn might have a thing or two to say about the Miss America decision.
The 2019 Miss America Competition airs live and without bikinis on ABC on 9 September.
