Miss America Swimsuit Competition Removal

Overview

Miss America Swimsuit Competition Removal refers to an announcement that the Miss America beauty pageant would be rebranding from a pageant to a "competition," removing judgements based on physical appearance including the controversial swimsuit competition.

Background

On January 5th, 2018, Gretchen Carlson, the chair of the Board of Trustees of the Miss American Organization, appeared on the morning talk show GMA, during which she announced that the swimsuit portion of the competition would be discontinued as the competition abandons judgements of contestants based on physical appearance (shown below).

Developments

Online Reaction

That day, a Twitter Moments^[4] page titled "Miss America will no longer have a swimsuit competition" was published, highlighting notable reactions to the announcement. Meanwhile, several posts about the news reached the front page of the /r/news,^[1] /r/The_Donald^[2] and /r/Feminism^[3] subreddits. Also on Twitter, some criticized the announcement while others defended the decision (shown below).

News Media Coverage

That day, the announcement was discussed on the talk show The View (shown below, left). Meanwhile, ABC News aired a segment on the changes to the competition (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References