Video story by Payton Walker
Print story by Jessica Abel
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.— Last summer when Emily Bullins, a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, was shopping for swimsuits, she stopped to look at her stomach. Junior year had been her toughest yet. The stress of school had caused her weight to fluctuate, and the changes left behind stretch marks.
Though she preferred the comfort of the two-piece suits she already owned, she found herself picking up one-piece after one-piece in the store. She wanted to hid her skin.
“Why, though?” Bullins, a member of the organization PUSH, Preventing Violence Through Sexual Health, asked herself.
Bullins sits behind a laptop with a sticker that reads “Consent” across the front. She’s been studying intersectional feminism for nearly four years, and still has to remind herself that her physical appearance does not equate to worth.
“I think a lot of those thoughts come from the media,” Bullins continued. “You see models and Miss America contestants looking one way. So when you vary from the one way you’re supposed to look, then you feel lesser.”
Miss America is aware of this problem. For the first time since the pageant began, Sunday’s competition— dubbed Miss America 2.0— went on without the swimsuit competition.
“When the announcement was made that there would no longer be a swimsuit competition and everyone became so upset, it was interesting to try to explain to people that that’s how the program began,” said Beth Knox, executive director of the Miss North Carolina Scholarship Pageant.
“I think the interesting thing about the organization is how it has evolved as women have progressed through the years,” Knox said. “I think these recent changes just fall in line with what we see happening for today’s young women.”
The plan for the new Miss America is to showcase women’s talents, intelligence and achievements instead of their bodies.
But Bullins isn’t convinced scrapping the swimsuits celebrates all women’s talents and achievements.
She’s not certain the swimsuits were ever a problem to begin with, and believes all women have a right to celebrate their bodies.
“The contestants of Miss America, they elect to do the pageants,” Bullins said. “No one was forced to be in that bathing suit, so I don’t want to demonize it. It could be empowering to somebody to be in a swimsuit and to show off. I think a lot of these women are athletic and work to maintain their body shape. That’s something to be proud of.”
The problem, Bullins continued, is that Miss America 2.0 still doesn’t represent every type of woman.
“It shows dozens of women looking able-bodied and thin, and it says, ‘That is what I’m supposed to look like,’ Bullins said. “And the category of women is pretty rigid. I don’t think it’s an invitation for different types of bodies to join.”
Though there have been some notably outside-the-mold contestants in the past, they remain the exception. In 2014, Miss Kansas, Theresa Vail, showed her tattooed skin— in the swimsuit competition. The same year, Miss Iowa, Nicole Kelly, who was born without a left forearm, used her platform to bring attention to people living with physical differences.
The competition’s entry requirements keep the definition of “woman” narrow.
The Miss Virginia website— part of the Miss America organization— lists the official rules of entry. The rules ban married, pregnant and transgender women as well as any contestants who have “been involved at any time in any act of moral turpitude.”
“It’s called Miss America,” Bullins said, “but I don’t think they’re representative of all Americans who are misses. It’s not what we all look like.”
Tylar Watson, a sophomore studying women’s studies and computer science, focuses on gender equity as development chair of CAGE— Carolina Advocating for Gender Equity.
She’s evolved her definition of feminism and self worth the past few years, but remembers a time growing up when she based her beauty standards on the women she saw in the media.
“This ties into being a black woman, but just always wanting to have straight hair,” Watson said. “That’s what everyone had— straight or wavy, curly hair. But definitely not the hair that I had.”
The competition has struggled to include women of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds as well. It took North Carolina until 1983 to crown its first woman of color. The competition started in the state in 1937. This year’s Miss Massachusetts, Gabriela Taveras, is the state’s first African American title winner.
But Watson also noted that the elimination of the swimsuit competition provides a break from the constant focus on women’s bodies, and the archetypal model appearance.
“You don’t necessarily have to have abs and a tiny waist and big boobs to be a healthy, fit and strong individual,” Watson said. “Healthy and strong looks different on different people.”
McKenzie Faggart, the 2016 Miss North Carolina crown winner from Concord agrees. The former Miss America contestant worked to be strong and fit for her swimsuit competition, and doesn’t agree with the organization’s decision to ban it.
“Swimsuit is all about confidence, it’s about showing your best self,” Faggart said. “Women who are confident in themselves know exactly what they’re getting into when they’re competing in Miss America. There’s a swimsuit competition. You know that you have to do it. So if you don’t want to be a part of it, then you shouldn’t [be].”
Faggart said taking away the swim portion of a swim competition changed the organization too much.
“If you don’t want to do that, you shouldn’t compete,” Faggart said. “If you don’t agree with everything Miss America does, don’t compete. It’s that simple.”
Though it is simple that entering the pageant and competing to be Miss America is a choice, the feminist implications of that choice remain less clearly defined. For Bullins, Miss America 2.0 fails to address a basic problem in the pursuit of women’s equity.
“People should have the right to be proud of their body in a bathing suit and to celebrate their body,” Bullins said. “But when the pageant system only allows a certain type of person to enter, it’s not a celebration of our bodies. It’s a celebration of being attractive.”
She paused.
“The problem was never the bathing suit. The problem is only certain people are allowed in that bathing suit.”
