The women's liberation movement hit the Atlantic City boardwalk in 1968 to protest the Miss America Pageant. Feminist activists eagerly explained why Miss America was harmful to women. Among their criticisms was the idea of the winner: "competition rigged and unrigged" was the be-all and end-all in a hyper-competitive U.S. society.
What's Wrong With (Beauty) Contests?
"We deplore the encouragement of an American myth that oppresses men as well as women: the win-or-you're-worthless competitive disease," said women's liberation group New York Radical Women.
Although some of the protesters' complaints about beauty pageants revolved around Miss America's objectification of women, this particular aspect concerned men and women, boys and girls. These feminists wanted to rethink the message of fierce competition and supremacy that was drilled into all members of society.
Rethinking Competition Through Feminism
The winner of the Miss America pageant would be "used," while the other 49 young women would be "useless," according to the press release written for the protest. Many feminists envisioned new approaches to society that would leave behind the emphasis on competition. Often, women's liberation groups considered new ways of structuring leadership, moving away from patriarchal society's traditional hierarchies. Consciousness-raising and rotation of women's liberation group leadership were two among many methods of trying to be more inclusive and less reflective of typical male power structures.
In the PBS American Experience documentary Miss America, feminist Gloria Steinem reflects on the Miss America pageant's competition aspect as it relates to oppression of women. Women had traditionally been encouraged to compete with one another to "win" over men. Gloria Steinem points out that women were taught to compete for men, just as all marginalized groups in society had to compete for the "favors of the powerful. So what could be a greater example of that than a beauty contest?"
The 1960s feminist protesters rejected the notion that Miss America's crowning of one winner supposedly represented all women. What the pageant did instead was reinforce the idea that the other 49 women who competed were not good enough - let alone the millions of other American women who watched.