{"id":3434,"date":"2018-06-15T15:04:45","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T19:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=3434"},"modified":"2018-06-15T15:04:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T19:04:45","slug":"no-bikinis-miss-america-scraps-swimsuit-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2018\/06\/no-bikinis-miss-america-scraps-swimsuit-competition.html","title":{"rendered":"No More Bikinis! Miss America Scraps Swimsuit Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Miss<\/a>
Miss America 2014 contestants pose for a photo opportunity in front of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Caf\u00e9 on the historic Boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J., Sept. 13, 2013. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Spc. Brandon Jacobs\/Released)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Miss America beauty pageant has suffered a number of black eyes in recent years. The most current of these was in the form of former SEO Sam Haskell\u2019s leaked emails that insulted a number of former pageant winners. The oldest and most stubborn black eye, however, was the swimsuit portion of the competition.<\/p>\n

The swimsuit portion of the Miss America has been a point of contention for more than 50 years. A poll in 1995, however, showed that two out of three viewers wanted the swimsuit competition to remain as part of the pageant. \u201cWe are not stupid,\u201d said then-chief executive Leonard Horn. \u201cWe are very sensitive to the fact that the swimsuit competition has always been our Achilles\u2019 heel. The swimsuit competition has been controversial since the early 1920s, but it\u2019s been retained because the majority of the people like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, however, Miss America finally bowed to vocal dissidents at the tail end of the #MeToo movement. The swimsuit competition has officially been scratched from the 2019 Miss America competition, and it is not the only thing that was scrapped. The evening gown portion is set to be replaced by a section in which participants \u201coutwardly express their self-confidence in evening attire of their choosing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The title of the pageant itself is also undergoing an overhaul. In fact, Miss America is insisting it will no longer be a beauty pageant at all. \u201cWe are no longer a pageant,\u201d said the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Gretchen Carlson. \u201cWe are a competition.\u201d To that end, there will be more opportunities for competitors to discuss their social impact initiatives and a \u201clive interactive session with the judges, where [each contestant] will highlight her achievements and goals in life and how she will use her talents, passion and ambition to perform the job of Miss America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revamped competition has been dubbed Miss America 2.0 and claims that the competition will not \u201cjudge [contestants] on [their] outward appearance.\u201d The move away from a traditional beauty pageant has been hailed by some as a long overdue step. Other people, however, are skeptical. Some wonder how well a competition that has always been known for beautiful women will weather the transition away from a focus on appearance. Other people feel that Miss America is still going to be based on beauty. The judgements of physical appearance will simply be hidden instead of out in the open.<\/p>\n

The final form of Miss America 2.0 remains up in the air with viewers and journalists alike trying to predict what the now-former pageant will look like. \u201cMiss America 2.0 [claims it] will help young women \u2018learn leadership skills and pay for college and be able to show the world who you are as a person from the inside of your soul\u2019,\u201d wrote Megan Garber<\/a>. \u201cWhat, realistically, will that mean? Will Miss America become a speech contest? Will it become a talent show? An essay competition? A spelling bee? A platform for young women to share their visions for a better world\u2014TED, but with better clothes?\u201d So far, there is no answer to those questions, and it remains to be seen how many people will tune in to the 2019 competition to learn the answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Miss America beauty pageant has suffered a number of black eyes in recent years. The most current of these was in the form of former SEO Sam Haskell\u2019s leaked emails that insulted a number of former pageant winners. The oldest and most stubborn black eye, however, was the swimsuit portion of the competition. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[806,803],"class_list":["post-3434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-something-to-think-about","tag-miss-america","tag-news"],"yoast_head":"\nNo More Bikinis! Miss America Scraps Swimsuit Competition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After over 50 years of controversy, Miss America is scrapping the swimsuit competition, but the pageant\u2019s new look leaves important questions unanswered.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2018\/06\/no-bikinis-miss-america-scraps-swimsuit-competition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No More Bikinis! Miss America Scraps Swimsuit Competition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After over 50 years of controversy, Miss America is scrapping the swimsuit competition, but the pageant\u2019s new look leaves important questions unanswered.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2018\/06\/no-bikinis-miss-america-scraps-swimsuit-competition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-15T19:04:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/files\/2018\/06\/Miss_America_2014_contestants_in_Atlantic_City.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Hertzenberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"No More Bikinis! 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Miss America Scraps Swimsuit Competition","og_description":"After over 50 years of controversy, Miss America is scrapping the swimsuit competition, but the pageant\u2019s new look leaves important questions unanswered.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2018\/06\/no-bikinis-miss-america-scraps-swimsuit-competition.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2018-06-15T19:04:45+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/files\/2018\/06\/Miss_America_2014_contestants_in_Atlantic_City.jpg"}],"author":"Stephanie Hertzenberg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2018\/06\/no-bikinis-miss-america-scraps-swimsuit-competition.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2018\/06\/no-bikinis-miss-america-scraps-swimsuit-competition.html","name":"No More Bikinis! 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