The Miss America Culture:
Young adults of the 21st century have and will continue to be the subjects of mass media. From T.V. shows, advertisements, music, and most likely on the largest scale: the internet. Seemingly the most popular avenue of advertising is that of beauty, self image, and gender stereotypes. One of the more controversial traditions in American society, in terms of gender stereotyping and sexism, is the Miss America pageant, which first took stage in 1921. Since the late 1960's, feminists have critiqued and protested the basis of Miss America and the sexist, racists and degrading messages that come with the pageant each year. And in fact, their protests don't come without merit, even in 2012. After revisions made from the pressures caused by the initial 1968 protest, the Miss America pageant still seems to be a contest of outward appearance, and a very narrow ideal at that. Below is the judging criteria used in the Miss America 2012 pageant. As seen in the scoring process, the concentration on the outward ideal shows how little the true motives have actually changed since the start of criticism. And beauty pagaents aren't just for teens and young adults in America, children as young as one year old compete in pagaents, and toddlers compete in pagaents where one of the judging criteria is how the child looks in a swimsuit.
National Judging Process
Miss America is both a business and a culturally specific brand that transcends being just a beauty pageant. Miss America herself is a critical member of the Miss America Organization marketing team and works to advance the business of scholarship and community service for women. The Miss America judging system distinguishes Miss America via a form of Olympic scoring where each contestant competes against ONLY herself.
Preliminary Competitions Scoring
The Miss America Preliminary Competitions and their weighted score values are:
- Lifestyle and Fitness in Swimsuit - 15%
- Evening Wear - 20%
- Talent - 35%
- Private Interview - 25%
- On-Stage Question – 5%
Finals Competition Scoring
The scoring for the Miss America Finals Competition is weighted accordingly:
- Composite Score - 30% (Top 16)
- Lifestyle and Fitness in Swimsuit - 20% (Top 16)
- Evening Wear - 20% (Top 10)
- Talent - 30% (Top 8)
- On-Stage Question (Top 8)
- Final Ballot – Each judge ranks the Top 5 contestants in the order he/she believes they should each finish. The outcome of the pageant is based solely on the point totals resulting from the final ballot.
-2012 Miss America Organization
Culture by the Media:
Media and technology are quickly becoming one of the most defining pieces of our society, we use technology on a regular basis for work, play and everything in between. Whether we realize it or not, the media and its messages influence us everyday. The American society has been slow to critically analyze media and its influence on our views and norms in society, but it is becoming an important aspect of our educational system. Many states have adopted the Common Core State Standards and are slowly switching to them until they become fully implemented in the fall of 2014. These standards reflect the need to educate students in critically analyzing all forms of the media, which is the first step in becoming a society that is able to become aware of the media's influence and control the way it effects their views and norms of society.
Research and media skills blended into the Standards as a whole
"To be ready for college, workforce training, and life in a technological society, students need the ability to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas, to conduct original research in order to answer questions or solve problems, and to analyze and create a high volume and extensive range of print and nonprint texts in media forms old and new. The need to conduct research and to produce and consume media is embedded into every aspect of today’s curriculum. In like fashion, research and media skills and understandings are embedded throughout the Standards rather than treated in a separate section."
Pg. 4 CCSS ELA
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf
Identity: Many young readers, like the characters in this book, are searching for who they really are. Once they find out, their struggle continues with trying to accept and love themselves. This novel details this process while also showing the importance of accepting others for who they are. Beauty Queens unfolds what it is like to be given an identity by another, whether it be parents or society and the process of accepting the true identity in its most undeniable form. Without the influence of the media and gender roles, the girls are able to see their dreams as reality, being a scientist, doctor or anything else. Furthermore, the girls explore sexuality in an honest way, discovering what it's like to be sexual rather than sexualized. One of the most important characters, Taylor, is the greatest example of discovering identity without outside influences. In the beginning, Taylor is voted the leader and decides the most important thing to do while on the island is to stay in perfect pageant condition: hair done, made up and constantly practicing the dance routine. By the end of the book, Taylor is responsible for an important discovery and continues on to become the most resourceful and savage girl on the island, using material goods to defend her self and the other girls. Not to mention, there are several incredible LGBTQ characters in this book, who all struggle with the reality of their identity but begin to understand how to love themselves in the process of coming out. The straight characters develop their identity by becoming loving and accepting of everyone's sexual orientation
Gender Stereotypes: In this novel, girls are beauty queens and boys are sexy pirates. What happens when these boundaries are crossed and lines are blurred? Throughout the novel, gender stereotypes created by the media are the main punchline of the satire. By the end of the story, the girls, and boys, had moved past the lines drawn for their gender by society. The captain of the pirates ended up cross dressing and falling for a transgender woman who is pre operation and the head of the pageant girls ended up being more of a warrior than a beauty queen. The gender lines were definitely crossed in a very positive light and Beauty Queens creates a very open space to talk about gender, stereotypes, roles and sexuality as well.
“The Corporation would like to apologize for the preceding pages. Of course, it's not all right for girls to behave this way. Sexuality is not meant to be this way - an honest, consensual expression in which a girl might take an active role when she feels good and ready and not one minute before. No. Sexual desire is meant to sell soap. And cars. And beer. And religion.”
-Beauty Queens
Media and Consumerism: Media is a constant in young adults’ lives today. Commercials and advertisements continually tell female and male teenagers what they need to be ‘cool’. In Beauty Queens, the reader is exposed with multiple advertisements and footnotes detailing the most popular and ‘in’ products. Beauty Queens is written in a way similar to Feed by M.T. Anderson, the reader is often interrupted by advertisements of some time. In this novel however, the media featured in Beauty Queens was the main target of the satire and included radio interviews, commercials and news reports mainly reflecting the expectations of women. Libba Bray uses the island as a way to show how a lack of media influence allows the girls to be individuals and find their own identity, rather than be given an identity and just accept it.
Survival: Not only do the characters have to learn to live on an island without the luxuries they are used to, like food, shelter, and lip gloss, they have to fight for their lives when they find out The Corporation’s secret plan. Oftentimes, especially in YA Lit, a crisis leads to a better self understanding and a great sense of self, this was certainly the case for the girls in Beauty Queens, through their struggles both emotionally and physically, they used the process of survival to better themselves, a very strong message for anyone. There was more than just one instance of survival in the novel, the group survived on the island, individuals survived on their own at times, and the girls and pirates survived in the end to eventually escape.
Awesome & Applicable Resources!
Find out more about Media Literacy:
ABC Good Morning America: Beauty Pageants Draw Children and Criticism
