{"id":197,"date":"2013-11-02T12:10:54","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T12:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/?p=197"},"modified":"2017-07-26T19:46:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T19:46:56","slug":"no-more-miss-america-a-voice-from-the-sixties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/no-more-miss-america-a-voice-from-the-sixties\/","title":{"rendered":"No More Miss America (A Voice from the Sixties)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miss America is one of the country\u2019s oldest beauty contests that originated in Atlantic City as a local pageant. However, it quickly transformed into an event that \u201coppresses women in every area\u201d (No More Miss America manifesto). The 1968 press release read in class entitled \u201cNo More Miss America\u201d had an extremely negative view on beauty pageants and how it affected women. The article itself is outwardly feminist, in which it states \u201cwe plan to reject all male authority and demand to be busted by policewomen only.\u201d The article directly criticizes the pageant without presenting any possible counterarguments. <\/p>\n

Today, it is easy to criticize pageants, like Miss America, for being a negative influence on girl\u2019s self-esteem and image of themselves. I agree with the article\u2019s statement that beauty pageants tend to hold \u201cludicrous \u2018beauty\u2019 standards we ourselves are conditioned to take seriously.\u201d They can depict women as being objects with physical worth rather than showing that they are talented women who want to make a difference in the world. <\/p>\n

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2012 Miss America Winner Laura Kaeppler<\/p><\/div>The Miss America pageant was originally created to create a role model who embodies the greatest American ideals. Miss America is supposed to be a graceful, intelligent woman who cares about making a difference in the world. Unfortunately, the pageant itself may not reveal these intentions. According to missamerica.org<\/a>, the winner \u201ctravels approximately 20,000 miles a month, changing her location every 24 to 48 hours. She tours the nation reaching out to support her ideals, committed to helping others.\u201d For example, Jean Bartel, the 1943 pageant winner, supported the war effort by selling war bonds for a total of 2.5 million dollars. Kate Shindle, the 1998 winner, spent her time addressing federal officials on the subject of AIDS and HIV. Shindle also spent time at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. <\/p>\n

The writers of \u201cNo More Miss America\u201d insisted that those who win the pageant are considered a \u201cmilitary death mascot,\u201d because they do no more than present a\u201dpep-talk\u201d to those involved in the war effort. This is a biased view, because as shown by Kate Shindle, the winners choose to support whatever morals they have in a public manner. Furthermore, the article criticizes the pageant as being a \u201cconsumer con-game,\u201d in which the winners are used as an appealing spokesperson for various endorsements. While the winners do endorse various causes and are supported by different sponsors, these endorsements are meant to uphold the winner\u2019s ideals. The entire idea of the pageant is then to have a role model who endorses her own morals in a public manner. <\/p>\n

Miss America is based primarily on beauty, considering that it is a visual pageant in which contestants are compared to each other on the basis of appearance. Yet, the pageant itself allows for women, who wish to better society, to do so with the help of sponsors and various endorsements. The idea of Miss America is positive, yet it is interesting to think that if the contestants were not as beautiful then the pageant probably would not receive as many viewers or as much media attention. <\/p>\n

Overall, the organizers of the 1968 protest \u201cNo More Miss America!\u201d did not recognize any of the counterarguments that uphold the integrity of the pageant. Despite its focus on appearance, it is a manner in which young women, looking to better society, may do so through the help of celebrity and sponsors. If society were to focus on the type of people who win the pageant and what they do afterwards with their celebrity rather than their appearance, then Miss America may not appear as a \u201cdegrading mindless-boob-girlie symbol\u201d (No More Miss America!). <\/p>\n

— Erin R. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miss America is one of the country\u2019s oldest beauty contests that originated in Atlantic City as a local pageant. However, it quickly transformed into an event that \u201coppresses women in every area\u201d (No More Miss America manifesto). The 1968 press release read in class entitled \u201cNo More Miss America\u201d had an extremely negative view on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-blogposts","tag-fa13"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsu.tonahangen.com\/fysfifties\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}