That’s unfortunate, because Miss America contestants and the Miss America Organization have much to be proud of. The pageant is the nation’s largest provider of women’s scholarships, and encourages thousands of young women to take leadership roles in their communities. Each year, one individual is selected to travel 20,000 miles each month to advocate her chosen social cause.
As Miss America in 1998, I helped raise an estimated $20 million to $30 million for HIV/AIDS organizations worldwide, lobbied legislators for more funding and better health-education programs for those who were infected, and served as a moderator at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva. The wholesome image that came with the job made it possible for me to talk about controversial issues–like condom availability and needle exchange–that would have been off-limits. It also allowed me to speak to thousands of students across the country in schools that had never before opened their doors to an AIDS activist.
I thought my work on the front lines of a life-and-death issue made it clear that there is more to the Miss America program than swimsuits and evening gowns. I quickly realized that that wasn’t the case. Though I was a dean’s list student at Northwestern, suddenly people assumed I didn’t have a brain. Administrators at one highly ranked university canceled an appearance, claiming that Miss America couldn’t possibly have anything in common with their students. Another time, a representative of the group I had flown in to speak to picked me up at the airport, grabbed the heaviest of my three suitcases and said, “Is this the one that holds all the makeup?” I didn’t bother to explain that it held my files on AIDS research.
Granted, the belief that beauty and brains are incompatible is an old one, but organizers should do more throughout the year to counter the public’s perception of Miss America as someone who does little more than turn up at boat shows. Last week the new Miss America, soon-to-be Harvard law student Erika Harold, took part in the World Health Organization’s launch in Brussels of its world report on violence and health. This is a typical moment for Miss America, and about as far from a boat show as you can get.
Organizers also need to take a hard look at the program they broadcast each fall. In an era defined by cynicism, cultural institutions like Miss America practically beg to be mocked. I say, let everybody laugh. The show can’t be all things to all people. Pageant officials should stop trying to make the competition culturally relevant with “Survivor”-like references about who’s going to be “eliminated,” and instead forge a clear identity and embrace it with no apologies. The contestants who go to Atlantic City each year are intelligent, capable women who have something to say. If organizers cut out the minefields–the trivia contests, the backstage dish sessions that threaten to make the contestants look bad, they’d have more time to say it. That would mean including more footage from the “personal interview” portion of the show, when contestants talk about their political views and platform issues.
I realize that none of these improvements will matter if nobody watches, and viewers aren’t going to tune in just to hear contestants’ political perspectives. Fair enough. But organizers should have enough respect for the contestants and the public to be honest about the competition. We’re told it’s about scholarship. We’re told it’s about leadership. If it’s also about looks, then organizers should admit it, instead of capitalizing on the swimsuit competition while swearing that it is an insignificant part of the show.
Despite these problems, I am proud to have represented this program and humbled by the opportunities it has provided for me and for thousands of women since 1921. I will be even prouder when the Miss America Organization defines its mission and lives up to its potential.
