Miss America is getting rid of its swimsuit competition—and not everyone is pleased

Miss America‘s swimsuit competition, the very competition that launched the pageant’s inaugural contest, will be no more, according to Miss America Organization chair Gretchen Carlson. Carlson announced the change on Tuesday on Good Morning America, stating that the title of Miss America will no longer be fought for in the form of a pageant, but a “competition,” with the evening gown portion of the contest also being revamped.

“We’ve heard from a lot of young women who say, ‘We’d love to be a part of your program but we don’t want to be out there in high heels and a swimsuit,’” Carlson said on the program. “So guess what? You don’t have to do that anymore. You’re welcome. Please, come join us.”‘

Carlson, a former Fox News host who sued the station and its late founder Rodger Ailes for sexual harassment, has advocated for the Me Too movement and other women who have experienced sexual harassment themselves. She’s also the first former Miss America to chair the organization—she won the title for Minnesota in 1989, and became chair after emails from the organization’s leadership revealed misogynistic language.

JUST IN: “We will no longer judge our candidates on their outward physical appearance. That’s huge. And that means we will no longer have a swimsuit competition.” – @GretchenCarlson on the major changes coming to @MissAmericaOrg https://t.co/ICRIsRN71h pic.twitter.com/IWKcVvCC50

— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 5, 2018

Carlson said she hopes the changes will allow the competition to be open and inclusive of women who might not have felt comfortable participating in the program given the portion that judges women’s physiques. Though the change will take effect by the 2019 competition this September, it’s doubtful that state competitors will be able to cash in on the memo—a majority of the qualifying competitions begin and end this month, while a handful in states New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, have already held their competitions. The Miss America competitors of 2020 might be more diverse, but 2019’s women might be a group of thin, athletic women who anticipated the swimsuit competition.

Regardless, it’s an effort worth making—while a skim of the competition’s previous competitors shows slightly more racial diversity than what might have been expected 20 years ago, it’s clear that the past decade of winners are not women of size. While the average American woman wears a size 16-18, all of these former Miss Americans were long, thin, and toned at the time of their reign.

Which isn’t to say that the average American woman, nor women of size, strayed from the competition for fear of having their bodies being judged. Potential competitors, much like viewers, could have been turned off from a pageant that still took a woman’s body into account for her overall worth.

Many critics, myself included, have harped about pageants such as Miss America for having a swimsuit contest in the first place. The mere existence of the swimsuit portion negated any sort of larger impact these competitions have, such as supporting women through scholarships or inspiring younger women to make social change, because it meant that a woman’s appearance was still factored into that value.

After Carlson’s announcement, people thrilled with the change shared their approval online, tweeting praise for nixing the swimsuit competition.

https://twitter.com/peytonhenshaw/status/1003963835097763841

Miss America is finally scrapping the swimsuit part of the competition. About time.

— Vanessa Friedman (@VVFriedman) June 5, 2018

Judging a woman in her swimsuit during the Miss America pageant was nothing short of subjective sexism. Ask a contestant what they ate that week leading up to it. Good riddance.

— Angela Belcamino (@AngelaBelcamino) June 5, 2018

Superficial means “relating to the surface” or “external.”

E.g. Miss America is scrapping its practice of asking judges to make superficial assessments of how women look in their swimsuits. https://t.co/8tBmyReH2q https://t.co/m6uFScCDNc

— Dictionary.com (@Dictionarycom) June 5, 2018

Trolls, on the other hand, dismissed Carlson’s announced changes, writing them off as a detriment to the competition itself. If swimsuit-clad women were no longer a part of the competition, they tweeted, neither would their viewership.

Miss America has decided under Gretchen Carlson that there will be no more swimsuit, evening gown or for for that matter ratings. #MissAmerica

— Dean Read (@capecodpi) June 5, 2018

No swimming suit segment for Miss America wow goodbye ratings good bye Miss America #MissAmerica

— Rude boy for life (@swaggie21) June 5, 2018

https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1004004060666576897

No more scantily clad women during the Miss America Pageant … sounds like great radio.

— Paul Bracken (@PaulBracken61) June 5, 2018

If the Miss America Contest is going to eliminate the swimsuit competition then why have the contest at all?

— Bill Powers (@BillPowers9) June 5, 2018

Miss America will effectively devolve into a contest to hear which woman presents the most “woke” monologue. Good luck.

— Chris Stigall (@ChrisStigall) June 5, 2018

The Miss America Pageant will be getting rid of swimsuits and will not judge based off looks anymore. This is because “We are living in a different era”, #MeToo, and the change of empowerment to women.

Sounds like participation trophies are coming out so everyone wins.

— Students For Trump (@TrumpStudents) June 5, 2018

The sexist remarks brought ire, with women pushing back on this notion that there’s nothing to be valued of women who aren’t nearly naked.

https://twitter.com/sicksadwrId/status/1003986654284038144

https://twitter.com/Chantel01c/status/1003993927752527873

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1003988594749509637

Don’t worry, guys upset about Miss America eliminating its swimsuit competition. If you want to watch pretty women being forced to wear skimpy clothes, there’s always Fox News.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) June 5, 2018

https://twitter.com/MarieNinaAune/status/1003980804459057152

I think any man complaining about the Miss America pageant doing away with the swimsuit competition should have to stand in front of a national televised audience in his swimsuit and be judged.

— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) June 5, 2018

Meanwhile, a few former Miss America contestants expressed mixed feelings over the loss of the swimsuit competition. While the swimsuit portion promoted the idea of “fitness,” health and fitness are not limited to thin, toned bodies. The ending of this portion will hopefully squash these restrictive misconceptions about what healthy bodies “look” like.

We don’t watch men strut on a stage in swim shorts and score their appearance. The Miss America & pageant system is outdated. But, the swimsuit competition is actually tied to fitness. Girls train hard for it, that’s not something to discourage.

— Britt McHenry (@BrittMcHenry) June 5, 2018

https://twitter.com/Local24Chelsea/status/1003992115708399616

A few of my thoughts as a former Miss Texas on Miss America’s decision to eliminate the swimsuit competition. #byebyebikini pic.twitter.com/2KFsAMUwoj

— Kendall Morris (@KendallMorrisTV) June 5, 2018

Ironically, even though this exaggerated body ideal was flaunted across American television screens, the swimsuit and evening gown portions reportedly didn’t draw viewers to the competition anyway. According to Carlson, neither part of the program was highly rated, and the Miss America Organization board agreed to do away with both.

But now that we’re addressing women of all sizes being given the space to compete, when can the same be said for gay women, trans women, or women who don’t present as conventionally feminine? What about differently-abled women? Really, how will ending the swimsuit and evening gown portions of the program level the playing field if the competition doesn’t go further out of its way to represent all women?

And while it does surprise me that an institution that represents the perfect red-blooded American woman has nixed the swimsuit competition, being mindful of how young girls and boys perceive women and their bodies within the Me Too movement does not end at addressing the underrepresentation of women with “average” bodies and women of size. If the competition wanted to better humanize all women, the competition would give members of the trans, genderqueer, and nonconforming communities an opportunity to share their passions with mainstream America, too.

https://twitter.com/bourgeoisalien/status/1003996950335770627

“Miss America announces they will no longer have a bathing suit competition and contestants will no longer be judged on their appearance.” Looks like we got some progress here 2018…now they must set to work at finding fresh new ways to judge women.

— Jelena Adzic (@jelenaadzic) June 5, 2018

Miss America Pageant Ends Swimsuit Competition So Women Can Be Judged Solely On Their Faces: https://t.co/YGm1MyFdsU pic.twitter.com/kmJTYazIhJ

— Reductress (@Reductress) June 5, 2018

oh no if Miss America drops the swimsuit portion then women will only be judged harshly on their appearance every time they post anything online

— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) June 5, 2018

https://twitter.com/Subhah/status/1004018778206765057

https://twitter.com/JillFilipovic/status/1004028262018772994

There’s much more to be said about the ways in which the competition uses the judging of women for entertainment, but I’m not going to be a spoilsport and altogether dismiss the symbolic and literal change that ending this objectifying portion of the competition may bring. It has the potential to influence a larger cultural shift in the way we value women and their bodies, absolutely.

But, at the same time, it doesn’t go far enough to truly make this a competition of openness and inclusivity that Carlson wants. We can scrap the portions of the competition that judge women’s bodies, but unless the organization consciously recruits from all communities that have been discriminated by their appearances, we very well may just prepare for another lineup of mostly-white, mostly-straight, mostly-thin contestants come September.