Recent news that the Miss America Organization is throwing the swimsuit competition overboard reminds me that I used to judge beauty contests from Forest to Fayette.
It was a time, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when probably every county in the state had one or more pageants to choose Miss whatever town or county happened to be on the docket that night. There also were contests for Dairy Queen, Forestry Queen, Poultry Queen, you name it.
How I came to be a judge of the contestants in such events was related to my role as state editor of the ill-fated Jackson State-Times newspaper, not any other qualification.
State editor didn’t mean that I was high up the executive ladder of the fledging daily that was competing with the more established Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News. It meant that I had graduated from obit writer and police reporter to trying to keep up with news from around the state via a string of correspondents and other contacts with various news sources.
It also meant that if something big happened outside of Jackson — such as a lynching in Poplarville or a voting rights hearing in Prentiss — I was the guy most likely to go cover it.
Ole Miss sorority sisters Mary Ann Mobley and Lynda Lee Mead won back to back Miss America pageants in 1959 and 1960 which added to the popularity of the feeder contests that led to the ultimate prize that few attained: Miss Mississippi and/or Miss America.
The sponsors of the contests in small towns across the state figured out a way to secure non-local judges and state-wide publicity at the same time by requesting that each of the three competitive Jackson newspapers send a judge — and, by the way, bring along a camera and notebook.
During a period of a couple of years, I judged and covered more contests than I can recall. No, I never made any untoward comments about the winners or the losers, so I don't expect to have to answer to the "Me Too" movement like some more famous people than I.
On a couple occasions, my wife accompanied me, and the sponsors asked her to be a judge. She was better at it than I, but it was my camera they coveted more than an impartial judge.
These were mostly beauty contests and not much more. There were interviews, but if the prettiest girl, in the eyes of the judges, could speak a complete sentence she usually won.
I don’t mean to insult any past contestants because most all of them were intelligent, good students. But how they looked and walked in a bathing suit and an evening gown did more than anything else to determine the winner.
Now, reflecting current cultural changes, Gretchen Carlson, chair of the Miss America board, says, “We are no longer a pageant, we are a competition. We will no longer judge our candidates on their outward appearance. That means we will no longer have a swimsuit competition.”
Carlson. who was a good-looking Miss America herself in 1989, says the evening gown part of the competition also will be revamped. “We’re no longer judging women when they come out in their chosen attire — whatever they choose to do.” she said. “It’s gonna be what comes out of their mouth that we’re interested in, when they talk about their social impact initiatives.”
So be it, but the impending changes are not without controversy.
A former Miss America contestant, Lea Schiazza, wrote a scathing article in the Chicago Tribune criticizing the changes. She was Miss Pennsylvania in 1985 and is a graduate of Temple University, where her swimsuit scholarships helped pay her tuition, according to a note at the end of the article.
Other articles that can be found on the internet make the valid point, as did Schiazza, that “pretty girls can be smart, talented and relevant.”
Then there are those opining that the proposed changes in the 97-year-old institution don’t go far enough. They call for more emphasis on women’s rights and social activism along with less on physical appearance. Some don’t even want to call her “Miss America” anymore.
Charlie Dunagin, retired former editor and publisher of The Enterprise-Journal in McComb, may be reached at cdunagin@enterprise-journal.com.
