Miss America : Standards of American Beauty over the Years

[Rockapin-up]

Thought this was interesting to share. I had no idea the Miss America Pageant started in the early 1920's . I purchased a two framed photos from the early 20's that I swear resembles Miss America 1924 Ruth Malcomson. Anyways it was fun to view the photos.

http://www.makers.com/blog/miss-america-standards-american-beauty-over-years/1

 

[LuvMyMan]

Wow that was nice and very interesting. I myself think the contest is just not the same, we lost the "host" a while back, and it seems to have lost it's luster as well. Some of that of course, is due to scandals that seem to float into the picture with the winners in the recent past.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

When I was younger I watched the Miss America and Miss U.S.A. pageants every year. Over the last couple of decades the scandals and feminists have pretty much sucked all the fun out of it and I no longer watch them.

 

[Stormy]

When I was younger I watched the Miss America and Miss U.S.A. pageants every year. Over the last couple of decades the scandals and feminists have pretty much sucked all the fun out of it and I no longer watch them.

What did the "feminists" do?

 

[Sharpsburg]

Yah! My thought exactly. The feminists were stupid enough to believe that women are more than just how big their cup size is and how well they can twirl a baton in high heels! Pageants are dinosaurs that need to be hit by meteors until they die out.

What did the "feminists" do?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Boys From Marketing ran "Miss America" from the very beginning -- it was originated as a gimmick to promote Atlantic City tourism. We have a "Sea Goddess" pageant here every summer which is intended for the same purpose. They is what they is, and if we're going to debate the pageant rather than discuss the photos, let's remember we have women here with varying views on the topic, and let's respect that.

Keep in mind too that men can post in the Front Parlor, and in the past, discussions of feminism in which men have participated have quickly turned into free-for-alls. I reserve the unilateral right to move this thread into the women-only Powder Room and delete all male posts if the thread shows even the slightest sign of moving in that direction.

So, discuss.

 

[Stormy]

Geesh... I just wanna know what the Godforsaken "feminists" did to Miss America. I've done a search and can't find much

 

[Stanley Doble]

I think they criticized it and basically sucked the fun out of it. Feminists don't believe in females competing in anything, unless they are competing with men, and given an unfair advantage. That seems to be the general idea.

 

[DecoDame]

There's always a fun spectrum of "Amusing to Disturbing" in discovering what some men's notions of feminism are...

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've always sort of felt mens' opinions on feminism are about like men's opinions on menstruation. Interesting from an academic point of view but of no functional significance.

As for Miss America herself, aside from questions of feminism, one thing that killed it was that it got too glitzy, too glossy, too slick, and too professional. It was not a big deal in the Era -- there was no radio coverage of the pageant, and the only time you thought of it was a ninety-second squib at the end of the Movietone News in the middle of September, always featuring the same type of shot of parading contestants overlaid with the occasional smutty joke from Lew Lehr. It was just this cheesy, hokey thing they did in Atlantic City, and nobody tried to make it into anything more than that.

It wasn't until the television era that the Boys realized they could build it up into a major national thing -- but when they took away the corn and the hokum, and tried to make it into a "serious competition," it only emphasized just how ridiculous the whole business really was. Even if no woman had ever raised her voice in criticism of the idea of judging women like prize cattle, that factor alone would have eventually killed the pageant.

 

[Sharpsburg]

Bravo! The "ignore user" command resolves all troubles with one Stanley Doble. I feel better now.

 

[TimeWarpWife]

IMO, the feminists have a way of taking something as harmless as The Miss America pageant and politicizing it. Why does everything have to be controversial and political? Personally, I prefer the days when TV shows weren't used to further political and social agendas, but were simply wholesome entertainment. Just last week there was a news article about French feminists putting warning pamphlets inside Barbie doll packages. Why? I grew up playing with Barbie dolls and it never once occurred to me that Barbie was somehow dangerous to my psyche as a female. For Pete's sake, it's a doll! Sometimes we should just let our kids be kids, Barbie be a doll, and Miss America be a beauty pageant. People just take things too seriously now days. I'm sorry, but I thought that the FL was for people who really liked the golden era when people really cared about each other, respected each other, were kind to each other, but I've found that it's not the case with everyone. With some it's more about the clothes and décor. I didn't make any statements with the intention to ignite or fan any flames of ill will, it's just everything in the world doesn't have to be controversial or political. So many of us need to sit back, relax, and enjoy life for what it is without there being any agenda. Most of the shows and movies I watch are pre-1960s just for that reason - they're simply entertainment, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I have never heard of any feminist who was interested in anything but getting special privileges for women and giving nothing in return.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I too am an enthusiast of pre-1950s entertainment, and I also get tired of the modern academics who are unable to look at it except thru the narrow lens of their own enlightenment. But I'm also extremely interested in how this entertainment was viewed *at the time,* and if you do some digging you'll find that there were plenty of women as far back as the twenties who were critical of beauty pageants. Such a view didn't just appear spontaneously when Robin Morgan set fire to a bra in 1968. It only became noticable at that time, in part because pageants, as I said, were not a big deal or a big business before the television era. But those sixties critics weren't saying anything that hadn't already been said, repeatedly, by middle-class clubwomen as far back as 1925.

As far as Barbie goes, I'm less concerned with the body-image stuff -- those who get worked up over this give little girls a lot less credit for intelligence than they ought to -- than with the idea of toys designed to teach little girls that their main purpose in life is to be consumers of merchandise. I dislike any franchised toy line that has more to do with furthering the interests of the Boys than with any actual natural desires of little children. There was nothing remotely similar to Barbie in the Era itself -- she was entirely a creation of the postwar consumer age, and was always intended to be such. Sell the kid a doll and then make the real money selling her the "lifestyle accessories" to go with it. And it isn't just Barbie -- the "American Girl" racket is just as pernicious. Teach the kid about life during the Depression by selling her a bunch of stuff.

I can think of a great many feminists who have given a great deal back to society over the last hundred and fifty years or so, and they did it without having to shake their cans on a stage in a bathing suit. I don't think demanding to be judged by our accomplishments rather than by our T's and A's is in any way a special privilege.

 

[Tomtheantiquarian]

Not all beauty pageants were the same.

Chicago hosted the Chicago Fair in 1950. Following two years of the wildly popular Chicago Railroad Fair, people still wanted more. The promoters delivered as best they could. There was a narrow gauge train to ride as well as others in a historical pageant which used the same stage set as the railroad fair. Hitler's car (one of many, many making that claim) was on display as well as a middle-aged woman in an iron lung, cutting edge medical technology. There was also a beauty pageant.

The forgotten Dumont television network was the sponsor; the contestants were from the cities where Dumont had television stations. It was really about talent; the girls were obviously really trying. It didn't have the glitter or fame of the Miss America pageant. It simply had wholesome American girls. That's a word we don't hear much anymore.

http://boingboing.net/2010/05/19/1950-miss-us-tv-beau.html

 

[DecoDame]

Not sure how it's possible to take things too seriously and make things needlessly controversial, but also be someone who is shallowly only interested in "clothes and decor"? Seems a contradiction to me.

Anyway, I personally don't really have a strong opinion about the pageants, at all. If I thought of them in any way during my adult life, I suppose I saw them as a quaint relic of some sort, but didn't care enough to even huff at them. I've enjoyed looking over older pictures at times, as a historical artifact and a glimpse of different and changing "standards of beauty". And as I just happily received a picture book of Alfred Cheney Johnston's Follies portraits for Christmas, I can't be hypocritical and claim not to appreciate feminine beauty. I've just never seen it as the highest aspiration a lady can attain. If that's somehow controversial or not fun, so be it, I guess.

As Lizzie indicated, things past weren't ever nearly as neat and tidy and black and white as we like to think. We may collectively believe that pageants back in the day were just wholesome entertainment, unsullied by politicizing, but as the linked story says, From 1923 to 1933, the pageant was shut down due to financial issues and the idea that it promoted "loose morals." There were questions regarding the merit of parading women in swimsuits then, too.

And interestingly, while some may see The Feminists as the dour spoilsports here, I found these entries also in the OP's link very enlightening. Seems our wholesome Golden Age contestants themselves were buzz-kill "troublemakers", by some definitions (shall we call them "feminists"?):


After winning the title of Miss America in 1943, Jean Bartel refused to pose in a swimsuit. Then, while she was on a tour selling war bonds, she came up with the idea to make Miss America a scholarship fund. She spoke to the board of directors, and within two years, a scholarship fund was established.


In 1951, Yolanda Betbeze won the Miss America title then refused to pose in a swimsuit again. After her one-year Miss America reign, Fox was active in NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality, and studied philosophy at the New School in New York.

 

[MamaMidnight]

There's always a fun spectrum of "Amusing to Disturbing" in discovering what some men's notions of feminism are...

Yep.

 

[3fingers]

My wife has been involved with the Miss America pageant for quite a number of years. I have no interest in it and don't understand the attraction, and I do not watch it. It is her thing and I stay out of it. My thought however is that no one is compelled to participate in any way. We may think it is silly, exploitative or whatever, but the young ladies who are involved are free to do as they wish.
I will say that contrary to the stereotypes we all hear and see about these women, many are extremely intelligent and go on to become leaders in whatever career they pursue. I have met a number of them over the years and found most of them to be outstanding young ladies in all respects. Of course, there are always the few who are "difficult", just as there are those types of people in society at large. They nearly all say that the experience they had in the pageant was a huge benefit to them in the ability to comfortably meet new people and speak in public, not to mention the college money they got for participating. Even our local pageant where my wife started her involvement years ago offers a scholarship to every participant, whether they are the "winner" or not. The scandals that make the news do so because people will buy the magazine or click on the story, just like any other scandal that pops up.
We may choose to not agree with it or support it, but I think with all of the things that are wrong in the world it's kind of far down on the list of things to get worked up about.