Is Miss America taking the right path?
Per ABC News, “Miss America is scrapping its swimsuit competition and will no longer judge contestants based on physical appearance, the organization announced Tuesday.
“We are no longer a pageant,” Gretchen Carlson, the first former Miss America to be named chair of the Board of Trustees of the Miss America Organization, said on “GMA.” “We are a competition.””
Also, “In place of the swimsuit portion of the competition, Miss America contestants will now take part in a live interactive session with the judges, according to the organization. The contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia will be asked to demonstrate their passion, intelligence and overall understanding of the job of Miss America.
The organization is also getting rid of the evening gown portion of the competition and instead asking contestants to wear attire that makes them feel confident and expresses their personal style. The contestants will also discuss how they will advance their chosen causes, called “social impact initiatives” by the Miss America Organization.”
So no more swimsuits and evening gowns for these young ladies. Maybe instead they will wear power pants suits? All I have to say is ‘What?’
Miss America has been going downhill for a while now and I think that this is the bottom for this event. It has been getting less and less relevant as pageants go. So now you can cross out this event from your calendar for it has not only hit bottom, now it has fallen through the floor.
Women must remember that men are visual first, other qualities second. It is just the way we are and it does not mean that most men only see the physical beauty of a woman, it just means that the process of gauging that beauty (physical and the intangibles, IE smarts, personally, etc.) starts with what we see. We are what we are and that is not going to change.
In my defense I must say that I find many plain looking women more beautiful than a physically striking one when their other non-visual qualities are taken into account. Attraction between the sexes should be more than just the physical in my humble opinion.
The path that the new management has chosen might seem fine to feminists, but to the rest of the world it is just one big mistake. Many might see this as women asserting themselves, but this world is one of compromises and with these changes there are none. It is a take this competition (was a pageant) as we envision it or else situation. Forcing this viewpoint on this competition is just wrong and will in the end destroy it.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
