In some ways the headline understates the difficulties involved. President Spencer W. Kimball directly denounced women parading around in swimsuits to be judged by men in a talk at BYU. Yet there were two Mormon winners of the Miss America title. More recently there was a case where an LDS contestant from Idaho was the only one not to wear a bikini.
On the other hand Charlene Wells' father, Robert E. Wells, of the 70, may have received a confession of sexual improprieties by Joseph Bishop given when he was mission president and neither removed him as mission president nor taken action to prevent his call as MTC president, in the later position he may have abused the authority, that may have been unwisely given him, to initiated sexual relations with sister missionaries, that may or may not have constituted sexual assault. Wells has not yet been given a chance to present his side of what transpired, and at least in some cases Bishop has denied basically all the accusations, so it is hard to know what happened. Still, it is hard to not feel that if Bishop did confess a long standing issue of hyper sexual attraction and at times failing along this line, that giving him a position of trust over young nubile females was anything other than a major mistake.
While Miss America started out as just a chance to show off women in bathing suits to increase tourism to Atlantic City, it soon sought a larger course. In the 1950s it chose to not force Miss America to appear at a specific event in a bathing suit, and its former main sponsor, a bathing suit company, jumped ship, and formed the Miss USA competition.
Miss America was hated by bra burning feminists in the 1970s. From at least some time in the 1950s until about 1989 it banned contestants wearing bikinis. Yet by about 2005 the standard issue for contestants unless they chose otherwise was not just a bikini but a string bikini.
The late 1980s also saw a rise in the quality of talent on the part of the winners. However since then TV ratings have plummeted. However this is true of all TV ratings, as we have more options on TV, more options other than TV.
Where does this all leave us. Well, last winter the previous directors were forced out in the wake of a scandal that involved emails related to saying unkind and gossipy things about contestants. At the same time the Metoo movement, put into over-gear by the fall of Harvey Weinstein last October, but building on other issues but things into high hear. The caderie of accusations by former Miss USA consestants against Donald Trump also may have been motivation.
This lead to a decision in May or June that the competition this year would no longer include a swim suit competition and "contestants will no longer be judged based on looks."
Having read through the reactions posted on the Washington Post comments page I can say a few things. First off, about half the people who posted probably just read the title and then knee jerk reacted. Closely related to that, almost half basically engaged in false dichotomies, that we have women parading around in high heels along with string bikinis, or we have them in full burkhas. On the other hand, others insisted that anyone who paid any attention to how physically attractive women were had no interest in their intellectual abilities.
What really surprised me was that no one really considered weather the super skimpy bathing suits seen in recent Miss America competitions were the only option. Maybe to some people being judged in a one piece or in a bikini is all the same, but no one seemed to even consider this issue.
At the same time people seemed to say this change would effect the chance of the US winning at Miss Universe. The only problem is that Miss Universe is a competition that includes the winner of Miss USA, it has no connection to Miss America.
The total failure of most to get this does show how little most people follow these pageants. Of course to some Wikipedia people I am a radical enemy of articles on pageant winners. This is true, but only because I eventually realized that winning a pageant was not a big deal, contrary to what some editors wanted to say, and at the state level did not justify having an article.
I have never watched the Miss America pageant. I also have never seen the super bowl.
My general thought on the whole issue is I think the Miss America competition is still probably worth keeping. However I am a lot less sure if is worth televising. One big issue is how much will the national level reforms trickle down. Oddly enough because of how they were announced, the 2018 competition for the 2019 title might not incorporate appearance at all, but appearance will have weeded out the contestants.
Will the competition for the 2020 title really "not be based on appearance". I have my doubts. Especially if they keep the same guidelines on age. I doubt we will see many people who are less slender and in others ways fit less a certain body image. Only time will tell for sure.
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