The Miss American Pageant is now 83 years old and has become an institution on the domestic entertainment scene. Countless young women have moved up the ranks of local and state pageants to compete on the boardwalk at Atlantic City, hoping that they will be the one to hear the magic words associated with the pageant: "Here she comes, Miss Americaa. Our ideal." Unfortunately, the pageant has at times been marred by various controversies -- controversies that speak increasingly to the social and political agenda embraced by new generations of American women. These controversies and conflicts and their significance will be the focus of this report.
It is important, however, to recognize that the Miss America Pageant is a communicative vehicle -- a means of communicating visually a specific ideal and image of the desirable, appealing and attractive American woman. What the pageant and all of the preliminary beauty pageants conducted each year in the United States achieves is the validation of a specific social ideal, image or stereotype. Constant repetition of this image underscores its significance in the minds of viewers. Miss America is never a short, overweight (or too thin) woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses and carrying a slide rule; she is a tall, statuesque beauty who looks good in a bathing suit and evening gown. Thus, the communication implicit in the pageant is that only a certain "type" of American women is "fit" to be known as "Miss America."
Ten years ago, Barbara Lippert (46) stated that the Miss America Pageant was trying with great difficulty to represent women in a more modern way. The pageant showcases a bevy of beautiful American women who model swimsuits and evening gowns, demonstrate a talent that could range from baton twirling to singing and executing bird calls, and answer a series of questions that are often ingenuous at best. Miss America is crowned by a panel of judges who rate or rank participants ...