Fashion Term Papers - Miss America Beauty Pageant

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To the Caucasian population minority pageants may appear to be a reverse discrimination. In contrast many African Americans would argue that such endeavors as minority beauty pageants cannot be considered discriminatory when you consider that their establishment is in direct response to the traditionally discriminatory nature of the mainstream pageantry system. Just as the African Methodist church was established only after the (White) Methodist church rejected black membership.

Although institutions such as the Miss America pageant have diversified racially, the argument is that most have expanded little in the way of culture. And many minorities feel as though the Miss America pageant is as intrinsically coded “white”, as it was when it was first established and that minority pageants are needed as arenas of contestation, where minorities are free to work out the fundamental contradictions inherent in American culture in regard to issues race respectability and beauty.
This paper through critical investigation seeks to illuminate the clandestine racism woven into the fabric of The Miss America pageant and to illustrate the significance minority pageants have in today’s’ culture.
 

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Chronicle of the Court

History of black participation in the Miss America Pageant
From the pageants inception in 1921 till just a year shy of half a century later Miss America hopefuls were strictly and officially limited to the White race. Rule number seven of the by laws stated that all potential candidates had to submit a thorough inventory of their genealogy tracing back as far as they could to verify the purity of their Caucasian bloodline. This by-law was amended in 1945, when the first Jewish contestant Ms. Bess Myerson participated and became the first and thus far only Jewish Miss America. Although the “white only” ruling was no longer official, pageant organizers managed to exclude Blacks and other “undesirable” minorities from the competition for another twenty-five years (Banet-Weiser, 1999).

Black participation in the pageants’ proceedings was reserved for entertainment purposes only. In 1923 the first blacks to take part in the pageant, were portrayed as minstrel slaves in a musical number (Riverol, 1992). No doubt the portrayal of blacks in this manner helped to rationalize their exclusion from the actual competition by illustrating extreme difference between whites and blacks. By presenting blacks in black face, dressed in ragged clothing, using substandard English to express childish sentiments next to clean white women dressed in finery, employing eloquent speech to deliberate mature contemplation’s, the pageant established “Miss America” to be none other than that which signifies the ideal “white” woman.
The first ever-black contestant was Ms. Cheryl Browne of Iowa in 1970 (Riverol, 1992). This historical event took place two years after the women’s liberation movement. 1968 they burned their bras in protest of the pageants blatant racism and sexism. (Riverol, 1992)

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Fifteen years later the world witnessed the crowning of the first African American Miss America, Ms. Vanessa Williams 1983-84. Remarkably, her first runner up Ms. Suzette Charles was also Black and later became the second Black Miss America after Ms. Williams was forced to resign due to a pornographic scandal (Veney, 2001). The crowning of Ms. Williams and first runner up Suzette Charles came in the Regan era when the political climate of racial tension called for some sign of change.

After Ms. Charles there have been five more African American Miss Americas, six in total. Three and four ascended in tandem. The third was Ms. Debby Turner 1989-90 who crowned the fourth Ms. Marjorie Vincent 1990-91 (Riverol, 1992). Later, 18-year-old Kimberly Aiken became the fifth African American to rein in 1993-94 (Banet-Weiser 124). And this year the sixth black Miss America was crowned in the first pageant to feature a black host, comedian Wayne Brady, who at the top of the show announced, “Yes this is the Miss America Pageant 2003. Yes I am the host. And yes I am black.”

After the crowning of the first black Miss America there was suddenly an eruption of first. The following year beheld the first Eurasian Queen, Ms. Mai Shanley 1984-85 who the next year crowned the first Mexican American, Ms. Laura Martinez Herring 1985-86. Since 1986 then till present, titleholders for the most part have once again have fitted within the pageants average queen statistics. An exception is Heather Whitestone, Miss America 1994-95, who was profoundly deaf (beautyworlds.com). And this years Queen Erika Harold claims BI-racial status.

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Pageantry on the national scale has always been political in its decisions without exception. Vanessa Williams came as close to the white ideal as possible while still remaining black enough to fulfill her purpose as a safe political propaganda tool in the Regan post affirmative action era. Crowning her provided proof to white America that discrimination was a foul cry. That anyone willing to do the work could make it. Before Miss Williams the first and only Jewish contestant was crowned post World War II in response to the atrocities committed to Jews overseas. The first handicap able contestant was also the first handicap able winner. All depicts politics. When a white contestant wins the public is likely to attribute her win to a deserving nature because the politics are not as obvious. With contestant so equally talented, beautiful, and intelligent what other definitive factor can one use for the final decision but who will most successfully fulfill this year’s pageant agenda.

Qualifications of the Queen

The making of a black Miss America
Banet-Weiser in her book, The Most Beautiful girl in the World, 1999, dedicates a chapter to out lining the expectations “White” America has for non-white contestants.

Physical Qualities
In her book Banet- Weiser notes that Miss Williams with “…her light skin, green eyes, European features, and straight hair, represented a femininity historically associated with whiteness”. Some blacks used her looks as a criticism of her victory pointing out that the majority of African Americans especially women who are recognized favorably in the media look the whitest. To note is the first black best actress academy award winner Halley Berry, who is in fact biologically half white.

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On observation of pictures displayed on the Internet of the six Black Miss Americas only one - Marjorie Vincent 1990-91, the fourth Black Miss America, embodied sharply distinctive physical qualities not associated with white constructions of beauty. She has dark skin, a round face, full lips, a pug nose, full hips and round buttocks. She did however sport processed straight hair. To the public, the crowning of Ms Vincent might appear as the final step in diversifying the pageant view of beauty as Neimark proclaims in her article “Why we need Miss America”.

Banet-Weiser contends that the bodies of the contestants bear the burden of signifying the current cultural ideals of feminine beauty, which are inextricably bound up in a history of racialization. So the question arises that could a white woman win if she exhibited many of the same physical characteristics of the average black woman, such as large hips, a wide nose or rotund buttocks? Or are their distinctive features strictly reserved as anomalies of race that are afforded special concession only to members of that particular race?

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Ideology
Questions of aesthetics aside, Banet-Weiser takes the study into much deeper territory, beneath the skin and into the soul of the black contestant. Weiser undertakes a discourse on the balancing act Ms. Williams successfully employed of proudly recognizing her exceptionality as a black woman while simultaneously denying that it held any significance.

Culture
Every non- white contestant that has won has also expressed a high regard for white cultural values through the talent competition. Each of them performed “appropriate” entertainment within the confines of “high” or “legitimate” culture. By choosing material and art forms that shy away from articulating cultural difference, black contestants are careful not to appear “too black". Weiser describes just such a dilemma faced by one black contestant when it came to choosing her vocal selection for the talent competition.

Perpetuation of the white ideal institutionalizes white cultural dominance and keeps the “others” under control, in their place within the body politic. To deviate too far from the established persona of “Miss America” is to declare war on foreign territory by challenging white superiority and threatening the validity of the ideal woman.

 

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