Gretchen Carlson Aims to Make Miss America About More Than Beauty

Veronica LeMaster VERONICA LEMASTER

Gretchen Carlson, the new chairwoman of Miss America, aims to make the pageant more focused on empowering women.

Gretchen Carlson, TV presenter and former Miss America, is now the chairwoman of the organization’s board of directors after being named this week in the wake of an email scandal that led to the ousting of the pageant’s top leadership. Carlson says the pageant is about to face great change.

In an interview with Good Morning America on Friday, the former Fox News anchor said she will make the Miss America Organization more about empowering women.

Carlson said it’s “a form of justice” that former Miss Americas like herself, who were trashed in emails by former leaders of the organization, are now in charge of it, making up the board’s newest members.

“I find that incredibly empowering,” she added. “Some of the women who were allegedly maligned in those appalling emails are now running the place.”

The selection of Carlson marks the first time a former pageant winner has served as the leader of the nearly 100-year-old organization. New board members include three other past Miss Americas: 2012 winner Laura Kaeppeler Fleiss, 2000 winner Heather French Henry, and Kate Shindle, who won in 1998 and now serves as president of the Actors’ Equity Association.

Carlson’s harassment lawsuit against Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes led to his departure.

“I plan to make this organization 100 percent about empowering women,” she said. “Changes are coming.”

One change came on Saturday, when the organization announced that its board of directors “unanimously” raised the maximum age of contestants to 25, from 24. Contestants can be no older than 25 on December 31st in the calendar year of their state competitions, according to a statement from the Miss America Organization.

Among the age raise, there will be many other changes, including the possibility of taking out the swimsuit competition. Carlson did not answer a question on whether the pageant will retain that part of the competition, saying only, “please stay tuned” to see her plans for the organization.

This raises the question of whether there is any way to make pageants empowering

Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and National Identity, said Miss America would now have to reconcile its “public face of female empowerment” with the fact that it was a competition still, in part, about competitors’ physical attractiveness. Would pushing the focus on competitors’ intellect and talents rather than their beauty and body help, or is the entire concept of Miss America outdated?

Gretchen Carlson’s new role as chairwoman will hopefully lead to a more empowering Miss America, where women can be judged by more than her looks, and respect can be taken seriously.

http://www.newyorkminutemag.com/gretchen-carlson-aims-to-make-miss-america-about-more-than-beauty/