'The Woman as Pop Culture Obsolescent Theme'

The women's liberation movement took up the issue of Miss America in 1968, holding a demonstration on the Atlantic City boardwalk outside the pageant. Feminist protesters laid out their complaints about the Miss America pageant in publicity materials and a pamphlet they passed out on the boardwalk. 'The Woman as Pop Culture Obsolescent Theme' was one of their points of criticism.

Pop Culture Obsolescence

Throughout the 20th century as Hollywood, media, television, film and video images became more widespread, so did the notion that stars had to look or even be younger than they were. It became something of an oft-repeated assumption that actresses lie about their age. It might seem silly if it weren't for the fact that a heavily male power structure could put women out of work because they had dared to age out of their early twenties.

Fear of Normal Aging

Other industries, such as airlines, also seized upon the idea of the young, single, beautiful woman. Throughout the 1960s, most airlines continued to terminate their all-female flight attendants once the women turned either 32 or 35 (or, if they got married). This obsession with youth and beauty in women, and the insistence that only youth could be beautiful, were on display at the Miss America pageant.

"Spindle, mutilate, and then discard tomorrow," wrote Robin Morgan in her press release for the Miss America protest. "What is so ignored as last year's Miss America?" She went on to say that the "cult of youth" reflected the "gospel of our Society, according to Saint Male."

Fear of Forty

Feminists called attention to the cult of youth on other occasions as well. Feminist organizations such as the National Organization for Women began working on the issue of age discrimination in employment and other areas of society. During the 1970s, feminist Gloria Steinem famously quipped to a male reporter who told her that she did not look 40 years old, "This is what 40 looks like. We've been lying for so long, who would know?"

No More Miss America Obsession

At that 1968 Miss America protest, hundreds of women gathered to protest the pervasive obsession with youthful beauty. The statement that a woman should be valued as a person, not a beautiful "woman as pop culture obsolescent," brought a good deal of attention to the new women's liberation movement. The feminist protesters could not support a contest designed to breathlessly search for the its annual beautiful young thing.