Brains Behind the Beauty: Societies Views of Women in Beauty Pageants

When you think of the Miss America pageant what do you think of? Tall, beautiful women in sparkly gowns and skimpy bikinis strutting across a stage? Judging women on their talents of classical dancing and opera singing? Laughing at women who ramble during their ten seconds to answer a question on an educational topic? These are common responses from viewers of the highly recognized beauty pageant that began in 1921. The competition itself is all about "empowering young women to achieve their personal and professional goals, while providing a forum in which to express their opinions, talent and intelligence" (Miss America: Purpose). While the competition itself might attempt to focus on those things, the backlash created by viewers does the opposite. People sit at home in front of their televisions passing judgments on these women's looks, talents, and intelligence. The issue with this is not from the competition itself; but rather the stigma it has in regards to women's intelligence in the eyes of the viewers. 

This stigma was portrayed during the 2016 Miss America pageant which aired on September 13, 2015 broadcasted live through ABC.  Miss Colorado, Kelly Johnson challenged the norms during the talent portion of the show when she decided to give a monologue rather than the traditional esthetic act. In her monologue, she wore a pair of navy scrubs and discussed how she nursed a patient named Joe with Alzheimer’s. This experience with Joe reminded her of why she became a nurse in the first place. For me, watching this monologue was a relief. I was tired of hearing all these girls singing opera songs I had never heard of and dancing around on the floor in sequence jumpsuits. I wanted to see something real and that is what I thought Miss Colorado brought to the competition. 

Apparently, I was one of the few that thought that way. The next afternoon, backlash came from the daytime talk show, The View. Co-hosts Michelle Collins and Joy Behar were discussing the events from the night before and criticized Miss Colorado on her lack of talent. Michelle Collins proclaimed that she "came in in a nurses’ uniform and basically read her e-mails out loud” and Joy Behar asked “why does she have a doctors’ stethoscope on?” After hearing these comments, I realized that people still have the traditional ideals of gender roles when it comes to women expressing their full potential.

Society holds a belief that beauty contestants are no more than a pretty face. These ideals stem back to traditional beliefs that women are only good for household work and to provide for their husbands. Although the pageant community has tried to dismiss these ideals, we as a society have not come to accept that. Miss Colorado used her talent portion of the pageant to not only show her passion for her occupation and the importance of education, but to also open up a discussion about beauty queens having mare more than their looks. However, she was ridiculed for it and those who performed the more traditional talents were praised. 

Skeptics may say that it is the women competing that are bringing the criticisms upon themselves. They say that women enter into the pageant to show themselves off when in actuality, many women enter the competition as a way to subsidize their education. In an interview with Vogue UK, Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri, commented that "a lot of people don't know that the Miss America programme is actually the biggest women's scholarship programme in the world, it provides more than $45 million in funding every year" (Milligan). This shows that the competition is more than just women entering in a competition to show off their bodies and instead a competition where the women compete in an attempt to win money they can use to further their education and grow their intellect. 

This is more than an issue within the pageant community, it is an issue within our society today. We need to learn not to pass judgments upon women regardless of their looks or their education levels. It is 2015 and people are still arguing over gender equality issues that began in the 1800s. Luckily, the Miss America Pageant committee was able to stick to their ideals of reaching goals, empowering women, education and talent by awarding Kelly Johnson 2nd runner-up overall in the competition. Days after the critiques came from The View, people took to social media to discuss their concerns over the distasteful comments which resulted in an apology from The View. Miss Colorado’s talent portion of this year’s competition was a step in the right direction towards changing the stigma society has placed upon women’s intelligence throughout the Miss America Pageant circuit.

Works Cited: 

Milligan, Lauren. "Challenging The Miss America Stereotypes." Vogue News. Vogue UK., 5 November 2013. Web. 24   September 2015.

"Miss America: Purpose." Miss America. Miss America Organization, 2015. Web. 18 September 2015. NJ.Com.

“Miss Colorado skips the song and dance, talks about nursing.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 9 September 2015. Web. 22 September 2015.

"Season 19, Episode 5." The View. Perf. Joy Behar and Michelle Collins. Dir. Mark Gentile. ABC, 14 September 2015. Television.