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Os Protestos do Miss America e Miss Black America de 1968

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Os Protestos do Miss America e Miss Black America de 1968

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1. O que foram os protestos contra o Miss America?

O protesto "No More Miss America" foi organizado por feministas em Atlantic City no dia 7 de setembro de 1968, em frente ao local onde ocorria o concurso de Miss America. Esse protesto foi liderado pelo grupo New York Radical Women e contou com a participação de diversas mulheres que criticavam a forma como o concurso promovia padrões restritivos e opressivos de beleza, reforçando o sexismo e a objetificação das mulheres. No mesmo dia, o Miss Black America foi realizado em um hotel próximo como um ato de resistência contra a segregação racial, mostrando um novo ideal de beleza feminina.

2. O que elas defendiam e quais eram os objetivos?

O "No More Miss America" protestava contra a objetificação das mulheres e a imposição de um padrão de beleza branco e limitado. As ativistas criticavam o racismo, o consumismo e o uso de mulheres como "mascotes" patrióticas. Já o Miss Black America buscava redefinir a beleza feminina ao incluir mulheres negras com diferentes tipos de corpos, cabelos e personalidades, desafiando a hegemonia do padrão de beleza branco e eurocêntrico.

3. Qual a história desse movimento?

O protesto "No More Miss America" foi marcado por várias ações simbólicas, como a coroação de uma ovelha como Miss America para ironizar a forma como mulheres eram tratadas como objetos. Também houve o "Freedom Trash Can", onde as mulheres jogaram sutiãs, cintas, revistas e produtos de beleza, simbolizando a rejeição dos padrões impostos. Paralelamente, o Miss Black America foi criado por J. Morris Anderson para oferecer uma plataforma para mulheres negras, sendo um grande sucesso com audiência lotada e marcando a primeira coroação de uma Miss Black America.

4. Quais foram as dificuldades enfrentadas?

As ativistas enfrentaram resistência da mídia, que frequentemente ridicularizava as feministas, chamando-as de "queimadoras de sutiãs". Além disso, enfrentaram a hostilidade de espectadores e a falta de apoio institucional. No caso do Miss Black America, houve a dificuldade de estabelecer um evento paralelo em uma sociedade que ainda era profundamente segregacionista e racista, e que valorizava exclusivamente o concurso tradicional.

5. Qual a importância dessa atuação para o movimento feminista?

O protesto "No More Miss America" foi um marco para o feminismo, ajudando a trazer o movimento para a esfera pública e a desafiar normas sociais opressivas. Ele destacou a importância da representação e da diversidade, temas que continuam relevantes até hoje. Já o Miss Black America foi um símbolo de empoderamento e afirmação da identidade negra, desafiando o racismo e influenciando a inclusão de mulheres negras em concursos tradicionais. Ambos os eventos promoveram debates que influenciam até hoje a luta por igualdade e inclusão.

6. Cite uma ou mais mudanças que o movimento feminista gerou para sua localidade.

No Brasil, o movimento feminista influenciou o surgimento de concursos de beleza que valorizam a diversidade, como o Miss Beleza Negra. Além disso, o questionamento dos padrões de beleza e a busca por representatividade continuam impactando a mídia e o mercado de beleza brasileiro, que agora inclui mulheres de diferentes raças e tipos físicos. Movimentos como o #MeToo e campanhas de inclusão racial refletem o legado desses protestos.

Conexão com a realidade das mulheres no Rio de Janeiro

1. Representatividade e Diversidade nos Concursos de Beleza Cariocas

Assim como o Miss Black America desafiou o padrão de beleza exclusivamente branco, concursos de beleza no Rio de Janeiro têm se transformado para incluir mulheres de diferentes etnias e realidades. Em eventos como o Miss Beleza Negra e o Miss Favela, as mulheres negras e periféricas encontram uma plataforma para expressar sua beleza, valorizando suas raízes e desafiando os padrões tradicionais. Esse movimento reflete a influência de ações como o Miss Black America, que abriu espaço para a inclusão de mulheres negras na esfera pública.

2. Movimentos Feministas e Antirracistas no Rio

Inspirados por movimentos feministas como o "No More Miss America", grupos feministas cariocas, como o Coletivo Mulheres de Pedra, atuam nas comunidades periféricas do Rio de Janeiro para promover autonomia, representatividade e consciência de gênero e raça. Esses grupos discutem questões que vão desde a luta contra a objetificação feminina até o empoderamento econômico das mulheres negras e periféricas, enfrentando problemas como o racismo e o machismo estrutural.

3. Influência do Feminismo Interseccional

A ideia de interseccionalidade, central no Combahee River Collective e que ressoou com os protestos do Miss America, é cada vez mais presente nas discussões feministas cariocas. Em movimentos como Marcha das Mulheres Negras e Marcha das Favelas, as mulheres do Rio discutem as múltiplas opressões que enfrentam, sendo mulheres, negras e, muitas vezes, periféricas. Esses movimentos são inspirados pelo entendimento de que a luta feminista precisa abordar todas as formas de opressão, algo que o Combahee River Collective e o "No More Miss America" já apontavam nos anos 60 e 70.

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Apresentação sobre o movimento feminista dos anos 60 e o contexto social da época. Use o Padlet para que os alunos compartilhem suas descobertas sobre outros protestos feministas do período.

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Passing the Torch documentary - Feminism in Michigan since the 1960s (Full Film)

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Os alunos serão capazes de analisar criticamente o protesto 'No More Miss America' de 1968 e seu significado para o movimento feminista.

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Os alunos poderão explicar a importância do concurso Miss Black America como resposta ao racismo e exclusão no movimento feminista tradicional.

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Os alunos desenvolverão habilidades para identificar e avaliar as diferentes formas de protestos e sua eficácia na luta pelos direitos das mulheres.

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Em grupos, os alunos analisarão fotos e reportagens da época sobre os protestos do Miss America e o surgimento do Miss Black America.

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Two women toss items into the Freedom Trash Can while a female reporter looks on.

Date

September 7, 1968

Duration

1 pm to 12 midnight

Venue
Miss America 1969

Location

Atlantic City, New Jersey Boardwalk

Also known as

No More Miss America

Cause

Women's liberation

Target

Miss America 1969

Organised by
New York Radical Women

Participants

New York Radical Women, Jeanette Rankin Brigade, National Organization for Women, American Civil Liberties Union,

The Miss America protest was a demonstration held at the Miss America 1969 contest on September 7, 1968, attended by about 200 feminists and civil rights advocates. The feminist protest was organized by New York Radical Women and included putting symbolic feminine products into a "Freedom Trash Can" on the Atlantic City boardwalk, including bras, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, false eyelashes, mops, and other items. The protesters also unfurled a large banner emblazoned with " Women's Liberation" inside the contest hall, drawing worldwide media attention to the Women's Liberation Movement.

Reporter Lindsy Van Gelder drew an analogy between the feminist protesters throwing bras in the trash cans and Vietnam War protesters who burned their draft cards. The bra-burning trope was permanently attached to the event and became a catch-phrase of the feminist era.

The New York Radical Women was a group of women that had been active in the civil rights movement, the New Left, and antiwar movements.[failed verification ] The group was organized in the fall of 1967 by former TV child star Robin Morgan, Carol Hanisch, Shulamith Firestone, and Pam Allen. They were searching for a suitable way to draw attention to their movement.

Hanisch said that she got the idea to target the Miss America contest after the group, including Morgan, Kathie Sarachild, Rosalyn Baxandall, Alix Kates Shulman, Patricia Mainardi, Irene Peslikis, and Ellen Willis, watched a movie that depicted how beauty standards oppressed women. It included clips of a Miss America parading in her swimsuit. "It got me thinking that protesting the pageant might be a good way to launch the movement into the public consciousness," Hanisch said. "Because up until this time, we hadn't done a lot of actions yet. We were a very small movement. It was kind of a gutsy thing to do. Miss America was this ' American pie' icon. Who would dare criticize this?" The group decided to incorporate the techniques successfully used by the civil rights movement and adapt it to the new idea of women's liberation.

In a letter on August 29, 1968, to the city mayor, Morgan requested a permit. She explained that the purpose of the protest was to demonstrate their objections to the pageant's focus on women's body over their brains, "on youth rather than maturity, and on commercialism rather than humanity".

In her letter requesting a permit, Morgan named the sponsor of the protest as "Women's Liberation", a "loose coalition of small groups and individuals". She was the key organizer of the protest. The advisory sponsor was Florynce Kennedy's Media Workshop, an activist group she founded in 1966 to protest the media's representation of African Americans. Other members of New York Radical Women were involved in protesting and documenting the event. Bev Grant, a musician and filmmaker / photographer with Newsreel who part in the protests, also shot film and took photos of the protests and of the pageant itself. Peggy Dobbins, a performer and activist, created a life-sized Miss America puppet which she displayed on the boardwalk in the guise of a carnival barker auctioning her off. Participants also came from National Organization for Women, the feminist Jeanette Rankin Brigade and the American Civil Liberties Union. Men were barred from taking part.

About 200 members of the group New York Radical Women traveled to Atlantic City in cars and chartered buses. On September 7, 1968, about 400[failed verification ] feminists from New York City, Florida, Boston, Detroit, and New Jersey gathered on the Atlantic City Boardwalk outside the Miss America Pageant. They protested what they called "The Degrading Mindless-Boob-Girlie Symbol" and American society's normative beauty expectations. They marched with signs, passed out pamphlets, including one titled No More Miss America, and crowned a live sheep-comparing the beauty pageant to livestock competitions at county fairs, including an illustration of a woman's figure marked up like a side of beef.

They threw a number of feminine products into a "Freedom Trash Can". These included mops, pots and pans, copies of Cosmopolitan and magazines, false eyelashes, high-heeled shoes, curlers, hairspray, makeup, girdles, corsets, and bras; items the protesters called "instruments of female torture" and accouterments of what they perceived to be enforced femininity.

Protesters saw the pageant and its symbols as oppressing women. They decried its emphasis on an arbitrary standard of beauty. They were against the labeling, public worship and exploitation of the "most beautiful girl in America." Sarachild, one of the protest organizers, reported that "huge crowds gathered for the picketing. People were grabbing our fliers out of our hands."

Along with tossing the items into the trash can and distributing literature outside, four protesters including Kathie Sarachild and Carol Hanisch bought tickets and entered the hall. While the outgoing 1968 Miss America, Debra Barnes Snodgrass, was giving her farewell speech, the women unfurled a bedsheet from the balcony that said "Women's Liberation" and began to shout " women's liberation!" and "No more Miss America!" They got out a half-dozen shouts before they were quickly removed by police. While TV cameras at the event didn't show them, newspapers all around the country covered the protest. "I think it kind of made the phrase 'women's liberation' a household term," Sarachild says. "The media picked up on the bra part," Hanisch said later. "I often say that if they had called us 'girdle burners,' every woman in America would have run to join us."

Outgoing Miss America Snodgrass said that the protesters were diminishing the hard work of thousands of competitors who were attending school and had put a lot of effort into developing their talents.

Origin of "bra-burning"

The dramatic, symbolic use of a trash can to dispose of feminine objects caught the media's attention. Protest organizer Hanisch said about the Freedom Trash Can afterward, "We had intended to burn it, but the police department, since we were on the boardwalk, wouldn't let us do the burning." A story by Lindsy Van Gelder in the New York Post carried a headline "Bra Burners and Miss America". Her story drew an analogy between the feminist protest and Vietnam War protesters who burned their draft cards. Individuals who were present said that no one burned a bra nor did anyone take off her bra.

However, respected author Joseph Campbell found a local news story reporting that articles were in fact burned, and a witness corroborating the news story. The article and the witness contradicted the feminists' statements, stating that lingerie was in fact burned at least briefly that day. An article on page 4 of the Atlantic City Press reported, "Bra-burners blitz boardwalk". It stated, "As the bras, girdles, falsies, curlers, and copies of popular women's magazines burned in the Freedom Trash Can, the demonstration reached the pinnacle of ridicule when the participants paraded a small lamb wearing a gold banner worded Miss America." A second story in the same newspaper written by Jon Katz did not mention burning lingerie, but Campbell interviewed Katz. Katz, who was present that day, confirmed that bras and other items had been set on fire: "...the fire was small, and quickly was extinguished." The feminists insisted afterward that the story was wrong.

The parallel between protesters burning their draft cards and women burning their bras were encouraged by organizers including Robin Morgan. The phrase became headline material and was quickly associated with women who chose to go braless. Feminism and "bra-burning" then became linked in popular culture.

Deborah J. Cohan, an associate professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina, Beaufort, believes that bra-burning has become negatively associated with feminism.

When people say, 'Are you one of those bra-burning feminists?' - and yes, I have been asked this many times - the people who ask this are doing so from a pre-existing place of hostility toward feminism.

The bra-burning trope echoed an earlier generation of feminists who called for burning corsets as a step toward liberation. In 1873 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward wrote:

Burn up the corsets! ... No, nor do you save the whalebones, you will never need whalebones again. Make a bonfire of the cruel steels that have lorded it over your thorax and abdomens for so many years and heave a sigh of relief, for your emancipation I assure you, from this moment has begun.

Author and feminist Bonnie J. Dow suggested that the association between feminism and bra-burning was encouraged by individuals who opposed the feminist movement. "Bra-burning" created an image that women weren't really seeking freedom from sexism, but were attempting to assert themselves as sexual beings. This might lead individuals to believe, as she wrote in her article "Feminism, Miss America, and Media Mythology", that the women were merely trying to be "trendy, and to attract men".

Women associated with an act like symbolically burning their bra may be seen by some as law-breaking radicals, eager to shock the public. This view may have supported the efforts of opponents to feminism and their desire to invalidate the movement. Some feminist activists believe that anti-feminists use the bra-burning myth and the subject of going braless to trivialize what the protesters were trying to accomplish that day and the feminist movement in general. Joseph Campbell described the reaction that ensued as "serving to denigrate and trivialize the objectives of the women's liberation movement."

The protest planners produced a press release before the event that was afterward turned into a pamphlet titled No More Miss America!. The pamphlet called on women to help "reclaim ourselves for ourselves". Written by Robin Morgan, it listed ten characteristics of the Miss America pageant that Morgan believed degraded women.

Morgan wrote that the pageant contestants epitomize the "Degrading Mindless- Boob-Girlie Symbol". The runway parade is a metaphor of the 4-H Club county fair, where the animals are judged for teeth, hair, grooming, and so forth, and where the best specimen is awarded the blue ribbon. Since its inception in 1921, only Caucasian contestants had been accepted as finalists, so the authors derided the contest as "Racism with Roses". They criticized the "cheerleader" tour taken by the winner to visit troops in foreign countries as "Miss America as Military Death Mascot". Her support of troops personifies the "unstained patriotic American womanhood our boys are fighting for".

She wrote that Miss America is a walking commercial for the pageant's sponsors, making her a primary part of "The Consumer Con-Game". It deplored the win-or-you're-worthless competitive disease, which it described as "Competition Rigged and Unrigged". The authors criticized "The Woman as Pop Culture Obsolescent Theme", which they described as the promotion of women who are young, juicy, and malleable, but upon the selection of a new winner each year, are discarded.

She compared the pageant to s centerfold as sisters under the skin, describing this as "The Unbeatable Madonna-Whore Combination". The writers accused the competition of encouraging women to be inoffensive, bland, and apolitical, ignoring characteristics like personality, articulateness, intelligence, and commitment. They called this "The Irrelevant Crown on the Throne of Mediocrity". The pamphlet said the pageant was "Miss America as Dream Equivalent To", positioning itself as the penultimate goal of every little girl, while boys were supposed to grow up and become President of the United States. Men are judged by their actions, women by appearance.

Morgan wrote that the pageant attempted thought control, creating the illusion of "Miss America as Big Sister Watching You". It attempted to enslave women in high-heeled, low-status roles, and to inculcate values in young girls like women as beasts of shopping. "No More Miss America!" was the very first public pamphlet of the time to share the movement's ideals; therefore, complaints about the Pageant, recorded in the pamphlet, outlined and predicted numerous problems these women might have to overcome in their battle for equality. The pamphlet became a source for feminist scholarship.

A six-minute documentary, Up Against the Wall Miss America (1968), concerns the Miss America protest.

The demonstration was largely responsible for bringing the women's liberation movement into the American national consciousness. The event "'marked the end of the movement's obscurity' and made both 'women's liberation' and beauty standards topics for national discussion".

"No more Miss America! Ten points of protest" was included in the 1970 anthology Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement, edited by Robin Morgan.

Also on September 7, 1968, in Atlantic City, a separate civil rights demonstration took place in the form of a beauty pageant. African Americans and civil rights activists gather to crown the first Miss Black America. The winner, nineteen-year-old Philadelphia native Saundra Williams, had been active on the civil rights scene prior to the competition. As a student at Maryland State College, she helped organize the Black Awareness Movement with her classmates and staged a sit-in at a local restaurant, which refused to serve African Americans.

Born to a middle-class family, she aspired to a career in social work and child welfare. She explained her motivation for running in the pageant:

Miss America does not represent us because there has never been a black girl in the pageant. With my title, I can show black women that they too are beautiful. ... There is a need to keep saying this over and over because for so long none of us believed it. But now we're finally coming around.

The competition, organized by civil rights activist J. Morris Anderson, was held at the Ritz Carlton a few blocks from Convention Hall, where the Miss America pageant took place the same evening. The Miss Black America contestants, prior to competition, rode in a convertible motorcade through the streets of Atlantic City and were greeted with cheers and applause, especially from members of the black community.

Feminist protester and organizer Robin Morgan said "We deplore Miss Black America as much as Miss White America but we understand the black issue involved."

1. ^ Buchanan, Paul D. (2011-07-31). Radical Feminists: A Guide to an American Subculture: A Guide to an American Subculture. ABC-CLIO. pp. 124-. ISBN 9781598843576.

2. Heller, Karen. "The bra-burning feminist trope started at Miss America. Except, that's not what really happened." ^ Washingtonpost.com, 7 Sept. 2018. Academic OneFile

3. Heller, Karen. "The bra-burning feminist trope started at Miss America. Except, that's not what really happened." ^ Washingtonpost.com, 7 Sept. 2018. Academic OneFile

4. Rowbatham, Sheila. ^ A Century of Women Penguin Books, New York. 1997

5. Morgan, Robin. "No More Miss America", ^ Redstockings, 22 Aug. 1968. Web. 2 Feb. 2012.

6. ^ "It Happened Here in New Jersey: Miss America" (PDF). Kean University and the New Jersey Historical Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 28, 2015.

7. ^ Duffett, Judith (October 1968). WLM vs. Miss America. Voice of the Women's Liberation Movement. p. 4.

8. "Red Hot Mamas (bra-burning)". Snopes.com Urban Legends.

9. ^ Van Gelder, Lindsy (September-October 1992). "The truth about bra-burners". Ms. pp. 80-81.

10. ^ Duffett, Judith (October 1968). WLM vs. Miss America. Voice of the Women's Liberation Movement.

11. ^ Boucher, John L. (September 8, 1968). "Bra-Burners Blitz Boardwalk". (Atlantic City) Press.

12. ^ Campbell, W. Joseph (2010). Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism. University of California Press. pp. 109-110. ISBN 9780520262096.

13. "Rush Blasts Greenstone". Radio Equalizer. 14 September 2006.

14. "The so-called "Ginsburg standard"". heuriskein. 9 January 2006.

15. ^ Loughran, Jane (January 11, 2005). "You don't have to be a bra-burning feminist to want to keep your name". News & Star. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.

16. ^ Spongberg, Mary (September 1993). "If she's so great, how come so many pigs dig her? Germaine Greer and the malestream press". Women's History Review. 2 (3): 407-419. doi:10.1080/09612029300200036.

17. ^ Gold, Jodi; Susan Villari (2000). Just Sex: Students Rewrite the Rules on Sex, Violence, Activism, and Equality. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-0847693337.

18. ^ Carole R. McCann and Seung-Kyung Kim (July 22, 2009). Feminist theory reader: Local and Global Perspectives. New York: Routledge. pp. 90-91. ISBN 978-0-415-99477-4.

19. ^ Confronting the "Bra-Burners": Teaching Radical Feminism with a Case Study, Beth Kreydatus, The History Teacher, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Aug., 2008), pp. 489-504

20. ^ Sisterhood is powerful : an anthology of writings from the women's liberation movement (Book, 1970). [WorldCat.org]. OCLC 96157.

21. Klemesrud, Judy. "There's Now Miss Black America". New York Times, 8 Sep. 1968: 81. Print

22. Curtiss, Charlotte. "Miss America Pageant is Picketed by 100 Women", New York Times 9 Sep. 1968: 54. Print.

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Two women toss items into the Freedom Trash Can while a female reporter looks on.

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Discussão sobre interseccionalidade e a importância do Miss Black America para as mulheres negras. Os grupos compartilharão suas conclusões através de um mural colaborativo no Padlet.

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Pesquisa sobre movimentos feministas contemporâneos e sua relação com os protestos de 1968.

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Criação de uma linha do tempo ilustrada dos principais eventos do movimento feminista dos anos 60.

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Observação da participação nos debates e qualidade das contribuições nas atividades em grupo.

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Questionário curto sobre os fatos principais dos protestos e seu contexto histórico.

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Produção de um ensaio analítico comparando os protestos do Miss America com movimentos feministas atuais.

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Discussão sobre como os protestos de 1968 influenciaram a luta pelos direitos das mulheres até hoje.

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Cada aluno escreverá uma reflexão curta respondendo: 'Qual aspecto dos protestos de 1968 você considera mais relevante para o feminismo atual?'

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Entrevistar uma mulher da família ou comunidade sobre sua perspectiva sobre concursos de beleza e padrões de beleza na sociedade.

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Criar uma apresentação digital sobre como os padrões de beleza mudaram desde 1968 até hoje.

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As a boudoir photographer, I'm constantly hearing women talk in depth about the parts of their bodies they don't like.

"I hate my arm flab."

"My boobs are so small. I look like a man."

"Maybe I should wait until I've lost another ten pounds before we schedule the shoot."

"Make sure my hair stays in place so you can't see how big my forehead is."

I've heard women criticize themselves over things that I didn't even know you could be insecure about, like the shape of their nail beds, or having "asymmetrical lips", or the dimples on the small of their backs (or lack thereof). The things some people consider to be beautiful, others see as mere flaws, and this is nothing new. Humankind's beauty standards have always changed from decade to decade and from country to country.

Some of us are convinced that we are just objectively unattractive when in reality, beauty is completely relative. Just because we were born into a time where our physical traits weren't in fashion doesn't mean that we are any less beautiful than those women who were lucky enough to be born during a time where their appearance is in favor. Almost every woman alive today would have fit the mold of the "ideal" woman during one era or another.

As I wrote this post, I had each and every woman I've ever worked with in mind; not only do I truly think all women are beautiful in their own unique ways, but I also think that the things we dislike about ourselves are often the things that make us beautiful in someone else's eyes.

What better example of the ideal woman in ancient Greece can you think of than Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty? And is she depicted with a six-pack and huge boobs? Of course not. Aphrodite, the epitome of physical perfection, is portrayed with distinct stomach rolls as she crouches. I don't know about you, but if stomach rolls are good enough for the goddess of beauty, they're good enough for me.

In ancient Greece, the ideal woman was plump, with wide hips and small breasts. Being beautiful was very important in Greek culture, and many women were willing to sacrifice their health in pursuit of physical perfection. Women would sometimes coat their skin in makeup made with white lead (which happens to be toxic). Blondes and redheads were considered to be especially beautiful, so women would sometimes bleach their hair with vinegar (which often caused hair loss). As for facial features, a prominent nose and small lips were the most favorable.

800 AD

By the 1950s, the world had changed in very dramatic ways. The Great Depression and World War Two had taken a toll on the economy, forcing women in the 1940s to make due with what they had. Because of rationing, women would use eyebrow pencils to draw "seams" up the backs of their legs to make it look like they were wearing nylons, and they began making alterations on men's suits to repurpose them into dresses (which led to the very popular trend of wearing padded shoulders). But by the 50s, the economy was booming for the first time in decades. The beauty industry took off like never before, providing fashionable dresses and cosmetics at affordable prices to women of every class. The availability of these products, amongst other factors, created a societal expectation for women to "keep up appearances", and always look their best. Full lips with bright red lipstick were the new trend, as well as voluminous hairstyles. As women began gaining a little more weight (due to the fact that food was no longer being rationed, as it had been in the previous decade), the hourglass figure became the most desirable shape, which brought about the repopularization of corsets. Contrary to popular belief, "plus-sized" women were not the ideal of the time, at least, not what we could consider today to be "plus-sized". Women still wanted thin arms and legs, as well as a tiny waist, but they also wanted large breasts and round hips. By today's standards, the ideal women in the 1950s were still quite thin.

In recent years, we've made leaps and bounds when it comes to expanding our ideas of what we consider to be "beautiful". For the first time ever, the media has begun representing women of many different sizes, shapes, complexions, sexual orientations, etc. in their advertising. We still have preconceptions that have been ingrained into our cultural consciousness about who the most beautiful women are, and we still have a long way to go when it comes to accepting that beauty comes in many forms, but I'm optimistic about the coming years.

So, what can we learn from this? When it comes to beauty, there is no set of rules. In 100, 200, 300 years from now, the physical qualities that our society glorifies will fall out of fashion and traits that we typically think of as "unattractive" will become the new gold standard. Our perception of beauty is not based in fact, but rather, an ever-changing set of societal opinions that ultimately mean nothing.

Whether you feel that our culture affirms or denies this, you are beautiful. I encourage you to show yourself a little love this week, whether it's booking a boudoir session, buying a new dress that makes you feel great about your body, meditating, or whatever makes you feel like the best version of yourself.

As a boudoir photographer, I'm constantly hearing women talk in depth about the parts of their bodies they don't like.

"I hate my arm flab."

"My boobs are so small. I look like a man."

"Maybe I should wait until I've lost another ten pounds before we schedule the shoot."

"Make sure my hair stays in place so you can't see how big my forehead is."

I've heard women criticize themselves over things that I didn't even know you could be insecure about, like the shape of their nail beds, or having "asymmetrical lips", or the dimples on the small of their backs (or lack thereof). The things some people consider to be beautiful, others see as mere flaws, and this is nothing new. Humankind's beauty standards have always changed from decade to decade and from country to country.

Some of us are convinced that we are just objectively unattractive when in reality, beauty is completely relative. Just because we were born into a time where our physical traits weren't in fashion doesn't mean that we are any less beautiful than those women who were lucky enough to be born during a time where their appearance is in favor. Almost every woman alive today would have fit the mold of the "ideal" woman during one era or another.

As I wrote this post, I had each and every woman I've ever worked with in mind; not only do I truly think all women are beautiful in their own unique ways, but I also think that the things we dislike about ourselves are often the things that make us beautiful in someone else's eyes.

What better example of the ideal woman in ancient Greece can you think of than Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty? And is she depicted with a six-pack and huge boobs? Of course not. Aphrodite, the epitome of physical perfection, is portrayed with distinct stomach rolls as she crouches. I don't know about you, but if stomach rolls are good enough for the goddess of beauty, they're good enough for me.

In ancient Greece, the ideal woman was plump, with wide hips and small breasts. Being beautiful was very important in Greek culture, and many women were willing to sacrifice their health in pursuit of physical perfection. Women would sometimes coat their skin in makeup made with white lead (which happens to be toxic). Blondes and redheads were considered to be especially beautiful, so women would sometimes bleach their hair with vinegar (which often caused hair loss). As for facial features, a prominent nose and small lips were the most favorable.

800 AD

By the 1950s, the world had changed in very dramatic ways. The Great Depression and World War Two had taken a toll on the economy, forcing women in the 1940s to make due with what they had. Because of rationing, women would use eyebrow pencils to draw "seams" up the backs of their legs to make it look like they were wearing nylons, and they began making alterations on men's suits to repurpose them into dresses (which led to the very popular trend of wearing padded shoulders). But by the 50s, the economy was booming for the first time in decades. The beauty industry took off like never before, providing fashionable dresses and cosmetics at affordable prices to women of every class. The availability of these products, amongst other factors, created a societal expectation for women to "keep up appearances", and always look their best. Full lips with bright red lipstick were the new trend, as well as voluminous hairstyles. As women began gaining a little more weight (due to the fact that food was no longer being rationed, as it had been in the previous decade), the hourglass figure became the most desirable shape, which brought about the repopularization of corsets. Contrary to popular belief, "plus-sized" women were not the ideal of the time, at least, not what we could consider today to be "plus-sized". Women still wanted thin arms and legs, as well as a tiny waist, but they also wanted large breasts and round hips. By today's standards, the ideal women in the 1950s were still quite thin.

In recent years, we've made leaps and bounds when it comes to expanding our ideas of what we consider to be "beautiful". For the first time ever, the media has begun representing women of many different sizes, shapes, complexions, sexual orientations, etc. in their advertising. We still have preconceptions that have been ingrained into our cultural consciousness about who the most beautiful women are, and we still have a long way to go when it comes to accepting that beauty comes in many forms, but I'm optimistic about the coming years.

So, what can we learn from this? When it comes to beauty, there is no set of rules. In 100, 200, 300 years from now, the physical qualities that our society glorifies will fall out of fashion and traits that we typically think of as "unattractive" will become the new gold standard. Our perception of beauty is not based in fact, but rather, an ever-changing set of societal opinions that ultimately mean nothing.

Whether you feel that our culture affirms or denies this, you are beautiful. I encourage you to show yourself a little love this week, whether it's booking a boudoir session, buying a new dress that makes you feel great about your body, meditating, or whatever makes you feel like the best version of yourself.

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It's All Relative: How Beauty Standards Have Evolved Throughout History - Nena Sterner Photography

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As a boudoir photographer, I'm constantly hearing women talk in depth about the parts of their bodies they don't like. "I hate my arm flab." "My boobs are so small. I look like a man." "Maybe I should wait until I've lost another ten pounds before we schedule the sho

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Ler artigos selecionados sobre o impacto duradouro dos protestos feministas dos anos 60.

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" Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. " That was Margaret Mead's conclusion after a lifetime of observing very diverse cultures around the world. Her insight has been borne out time and again throughout the development of this country of ours. Being allowed to live life in an atmosphere of religious freedom, having a voice in the government you support with your taxes, living free of lifelong enslavement by another person. These beliefs about how life should and must be lived were once considered outlandish by many. But these beliefs were fervently held by visionaries whose steadfast work brought about changed minds and attitudes. Now these beliefs are commonly shared across U.S. society.

Another initially outlandish idea that has come to pass: United States citizenship for women. 1998 marked the 150th Anniversary of a movement by women to achieve full civil rights in this country. Over the past seven generations, dramatic social and legal changes have been accomplished that are now so accepted that they go unnoticed by people whose lives they have utterly changed. Many people who have lived through the recent decades of this process have come to accept blithely what has transpired. And younger people, for the most part, can hardly believe life was ever otherwise. They take the changes completely in stride, as how life has always been.

The staggering changes for women that have come about over those seven generations in family life, in religion, in government, in employment, in education - these changes did not just happen spontaneously. Women themselves made these changes happen, very deliberately. Women have not been the passive recipients of miraculous changes in laws and human nature. Seven generations of women have come together to affect these changes in the most democratic ways: through meetings, petition drives, lobbying, public speaking, and nonviolent resistance. They have worked very deliberately to create a better world, and they have succeeded hugely.

Throughout 1998, the 150th anniversary of the Women's Rights Movement is being celebrated across the nation with programs and events taking every form imaginable. Like many amazing stories, the history of the Women's Rights Movement began with a small group of people questioning why human lives were being unfairly constricted.

Today we are living the legacy of this afternoon conversation among women friends. Throughout 1998, events celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Women's Rights Movement are looking at the massive changes these women set in motion when they daringly agreed to convene the world's first Women's Rights Convention.

Within two days of their afternoon tea together, this small group had picked a date for their convention, found a suitable location, and placed a small announcement in the Seneca County Courier. They called "A convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman." The gathering would take place at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls on July 19 and 20, 1848.

In the history of western civilization, no similar public meeting had ever been called.

In this Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton carefully enumerated areas of life where women were treated unjustly. Eighteen was precisely the number of grievances America's revolutionary forefathers had listed in their Declaration of Independence from England.

Stanton's version read, "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world." Then it went into specifics:

Married women were legally dead in the eyes of the law

Women were not allowed to vote

Women had to submit to laws when they had no voice in their formation

Married women had no property rights

Husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to the extent that they could imprison or beat them with impunity

Divorce and child custody laws favored men, giving no rights to women

Women had to pay property taxes although they had no representation in the levying of these taxes

Most occupations were closed to women and when women did work they were paid only a fraction of what men earned

Women were not allowed to enter professions such as medicine or law

Women had no means to gain an education since no college or university would accept women students

With only a few exceptions, women were not allowed to participate in the affairs of the church

Women were robbed of their self-confidence and self-respect, and were made totally dependent on men

Strong words... Large grievances... And remember: This was just seventy years after the Revolutionary War. Doesn't it seem surprising to you that this unfair treatment of women was the norm in this new, very idealistic democracy? But this Declaration of Sentiments spelled out what was the status quo for European-American women in 1848 America, while it was even worse for enslaved Black women.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton's draft continued: "Now, in view of this entire disenfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, - in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States."

That summer, change was in the air and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was full of hope that the future could and would be brighter for women.

The First Women's Rights Convention
The convention was convened as planned, and over the two-days of discussion, the Declaration of Sentiments and 12 resolutions received unanimous endorsement, one by one, with a few amendments. The only resolution that did not pass unanimously was the call for women's enfranchisement. That women should be allowed to vote in elections was almost inconceivable to many. Lucretia Mott, Stanton's longtime friend, had been shocked when Stanton had first suggested such an idea. And at the convention, heated debate over the woman's vote filled the air.

Today, it's hard for us to imagine this, isn't it? Even the heartfelt pleas of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a refined and educated woman of the time, did not move the assembly. Not until Frederick Douglass, the noted Black abolitionist and rich orator, started to speak, did the uproar subside. Woman, like the slave, he argued, had the right to liberty. "Suffrage," he asserted, "is the power to choose rulers and make laws, and the right by which all others are secured." In the end, the resolution won enough votes to carry, but by a bare majority.

The Declaration of Sentiments ended on a note of complete realism: "In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country."

In ridicule, the entire text of the Declaration of Sentiments was often published, with the names of the signers frequently included. Just as ridicule today often has a squelching effect on new ideas, this attack in the press caused many people from the Convention to rethink their positions. Many of the women who had attended the convention were so embarrassed by the publicity that they actually withdrew their signatures from the Declaration. But most stood firm. And something the editors had not anticipated happened: Their negative articles about the women's call for expanded rights were so livid and widespread that they actually had a positive impact far beyond anything the organizers could have hoped for. People in cities and isolated towns alike were now alerted to the issues, and joined this heated discussion of women's rights in great numbers!

The Movement Expands
The Seneca Falls women had optimistically hoped for "a series of conventions embracing every part of the country." And that's just what did happen. Women's Rights Conventions were held regularly from 1850 until the start of the Civil War. Some drew such large crowds that people actually had to be turned away for lack of sufficient meeting space!

The women's rights movement of the late 19th century went on to address the wide range of issues spelled out at the Seneca Falls Convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and women like Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth traveled the country lecturing and organizing for the next forty years. Eventually, winning the right to vote emerged as the central issue, since the vote would provide the means to achieve the other reforms. All told, the campaign for woman suffrage met such staunch opposition that it took 72 years for the women and their male supporters to be successful.

As you might imagine, any 72-year campaign includes thousands of political strategists, capable organizers, administrators, activists and lobbyists. The story of diligent women's rights activism is a litany of achievements against tremendous odds, of ingenious strategies and outrageous tactics used to outwit opponents and make the most of limited resources. It's a dramatic tale, filled with remarkable women facing down incredible obstacles to win that most basic American civil right - the vote.

Among these women are several activists whose names and and accomplishments should become as familiar to Americans as those of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of course. And Susan B. Anthony. Matilda Joslyn Gage. Lucy Stone. They were pioneer theoreticians of the 19th-century women's rights movement.

Esther Morris, the first woman to hold a judicial position, who led the first successful state campaign for woman suffrage, in Wyoming in 1869. Abigail Scott Duniway, the leader of the successful fight in Oregon and Washington in the early 1900s.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell, organizers of thousands of African-American women who worked for suffrage for all women.

Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Stone Blackwell, Lucy Stone's daughter, who carried on their mothers' legacy through the next generation.

Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in the early years of the 20th century, who brought the campaign to its final success.

Alice Paul, founder and leader of the National Woman's Party, considered the radical wing of the movement.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now a Supreme Court Justice, learned the story of the Women's Rights Movement. Today she says, "I think about how much we owe to the women who went before us - legions of women, some known but many more unknown. I applaud the bravery and resilience of those who helped all of us - you and me - to be here today."

After the Vote was Won
After the vote was finally won in 1920, the organized Women's Rights Movement continued on in several directions. While the majority of women who had marched, petitioned and lobbied for woman suffrage looked no further, a minority - like Alice Paul - understood that the quest for women's rights would be an ongoing struggle that was only advanced, not satisfied, by the vote.

In 1919, as the suffrage victory drew near, the National American Woman Suffrage Association reconfigured itself into the League of Women Voters to ensure that women would take their hard-won vote seriously and use it wisely.

In 1920, the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor was established to gather information about the situation of women at work, and to advocate for changes it found were needed. Many suffragists became actively involved with lobbying for legislation to protect women workers from abuse and unsafe conditions.

In 1923, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman's Party, took the next obvious step. She drafted an Equal Rights Amendment for the United States Constitution. Such a federal law, it was argued, would ensure that "Men and women have equal rights throughout the United States." A constitutional amendment would apply uniformly, regardless of where a person lived.

The second wing of the post-suffrage movement was one that had not been explicitly anticipated in the Seneca Falls "Declaration of Sentiments." It was the birth control movement, initiated by a public health nurse, Margaret Sanger, just as the suffrage drive was nearing its victory. The idea of woman's right to control her own body, and especially to control her own reproduction and sexuality, added a visionary new dimension to the ideas of women's emancipation. This movement not only endorsed educating women about existing birth control methods. It also spread the conviction that meaningful freedom for modern women meant they must be able to decide for themselves whether they would become mothers, and when. For decades, Margaret Sanger and her supporters faced down at every turn the zealously enforced laws denying women this right. In 1936, a Supreme Court decision declassified birth control information as obscene. Still, it was not until 1965 that married couples in all states could obtain contraceptives legally.

The Second Wave
So it's clear that, contrary to common misconception, the Women's Rights Movement did not begin in the 1960s. What occurred in the 1960s was actually a second wave of activism that washed into the public consciousness, fueled by several seemingly independent events of that turbulent decade. Each of these events brought a different segment of the population into the movement.

First: Esther Peterson was the director of the Women's Bureau of the Dept. of Labor in 1961. She considered it to be the government's responsibility to take an active role in addressing discrimination against women. With her encouragement, President Kennedy convened a Commission on the Status of Women, naming Eleanor Roosevelt as its chair. The report issued by that commission in 1963 documented discrimination against women in virtually every area of American life. State and local governments quickly followed suit and established their own commissions for women, to research conditions and recommend changes that could be initiated.

Then: In 1963, Betty Friedan published a landmark book, The Feminine Mystique. The Feminine Mystique evolved out of a survey she had conducted for her 20-year college reunion. In it she documented the emotional and intellectual oppression that middle-class educated women were experiencing because of limited life options. The book became an immediate bestseller, and inspired thousands of women to look for fulfillment beyond the role of homemaker.

Next: Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race, religion, and national origin. The category "sex" was included as a last-ditch effort to kill the bill. But it passed, nevertheless. With its passage, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established to investigate discrimination complaints. Within the commission's first five years, it received 50,000 sex discrimination complaints. But it was quickly obvious that the commission was not very interested in pursuing these complaints. Betty Friedan, the chairs of the various state Commissions on the Status of Women, and other feminists agreed to form a civil rights organization for women similar to the NAACP. In 1966, the National Organization for Women was organized, soon to be followed by an array of other mass-membership organizations addressing the needs of specific groups of women, including Blacks, Latinas, Asians-Americans, lesbians, welfare recipients, business owners, aspiring politicians, and tradeswomen and professional women of every sort.

During this same time, thousands of young women on college campuses were playing active roles within the anti-war and civil rights movement. At least,that was their intention. Many were finding their efforts blocked by men who felt leadership of these movements was their own province, and that women's roles should be limited to fixing food and running mimeograph machines. It wasn't long before these young women began forming their own "women's liberation" organizations to address their role and status within these progressive movements and within society at large.

New Issues Come to the Fore
These various elements of the re-emerging Women's Rights Movement worked together and separately on a wide range of issues. Small groups of women in hundreds of communities worked on grassroots projects like establishing women's newspapers, bookstores and cafes. They created battered women's shelters and rape crisis hotlines to care for victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. They came together to form child care centers so women could work outside their homes for pay. Women health care professionals opened women's clinics to provide birth control and family planning counseling - and to offer abortion services - for low-income women. These clinics provided a safe place to discuss a wide range of health concerns and experiment with alternative forms of treatment.

With the inclusion of Title IX in the Education Codes of 1972, equal access to higher education and to professional schools became the law. The long-range effect of that one straightforward legal passage beginning "Equal access to education programs...," has been simply phenomenal. The number of women doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects and other professionals has doubled and doubled again as quotas actually limiting women's enrollment in graduate schools were outlawed. Athletics has probably been the most hotly contested area of Title IX, and it's been one of the hottest areas of improvement, too. The rise in girls' and women's participation in athletics tells the story: One in twenty-seven high school girls played sports 25 years ago; one in three do today. The whole world saw how much American women athletes could achieve during the last few Olympic Games, measured in their astonishing numbers of gold, silver, and bronze medals. This was another very visible result of Title IX.

In society at large, the Women's Rights Movement has brought about measurable changes, too. In 1972, 26% of men and women said they would not vote for a woman for president. In 1996, that sentiment had plummeted to just over 5% for women and to 8% for men. The average age of women when they first marry has moved from twenty to twenty-four during that same period.

But perhaps the most dramatic impact of the women's rights movement of the past few decades has been women's financial liberation. Do you realize that just 25 years ago married women were not issued credit cards in their own name? That most women could not get a bank loan without a male co-signer? That women working full time earned fifty-nine cents to every dollar earned by men?

Help-wanted ads in newspapers were segregated into "Help wanted - women" and "Help wanted- men." Pages and pages of jobs were announced for which women could not even apply. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled this illegal in 1968, but since the EEOC had little enforcement power, most newspapers ignored the requirement for years. The National Organization for Women (NOW), had to argue the issue all the way to the Supreme Court to make it possible for a woman today to hold any job for which she is qualified. And so now we see women in literally thousands of occupations which would have been almost unthinkable just one generation ago: dentist, bus driver, veterinarian, airline pilot, and phone installer, just to name a few.

Many of these changes came about because of legislation and court cases pushed by women's organizations. But many of the advances women achieved in the 1960s and '70s were personal: getting husbands to help with the housework or regularly take responsibility for family meals; getting a long-deserved promotion at work; gaining the financial and emotional strength to leave an abusive partner.

The campaign for state ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment provided the opportunity for millions of women across the nation to become actively involved in the Women's Rights Movement in their own communities. Unlike so many other issues which were battled-out in Congress or through the courts, this issue came to each state to decide individually. Women's organizations of every stripe organized their members to help raise money and generate public support for the ERA. Marches were staged in key states that brought out hundreds of thousands of supporters. House meetings, walk-a-thons, door-to-door canvassing, and events of every imaginable kind were held by ordinary women, many of whom had never done anything political in their lives before. Generous checks and single dollar bills poured into the campaign headquarters, and the ranks of NOW and other women's rights organizations swelled to historic sizes. Every women's magazine and most general interest publications had stories on the implications of the ERA, and the progress of the ratification campaign.

But Elizabeth Cady Stanton proved prophetic once again. Remember her prediction that the movement should "anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule"? Opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment, organized by Phyllis Schlafly, feared that a statement like the ERA in the Constitution would give the government too much control over our personal lives. They charged that passage of the ERA would lead to men abandoning their families, unisex toilets, gay marriages, and women being drafted. And the media, purportedly in the interest of balanced reporting, gave equal weight to these deceptive arguments just as they had when the possibility of women winning voting rights was being debated. And, just like had happened with woman suffrage, there were still very few women in state legislatures to vote their support, so male legislators once again had it in their power to decide if women should have equal rights. When the deadline for ratification came in 1982, the ERA was just three states short of the 38 needed to write it into the U.S. constitution. Seventy-five percent of the women legislators in those three pivotal states supported the ERA, but only 46% of the men voted to ratify.

Despite polls consistently showing a large majority of the population supporting the ERA, it was considered by many politicians to be just too controversial. Historically speaking, most if not all the issues of the women's rights movement have been highly controversial when they were first voiced. Allowing women to go to college? That would shrink their reproductive organs! Employ women in jobs for pay outside their homes? That would destroy families! Cast votes in national elections? Why should they bother themselves with such matters? Participate in sports? No lady would ever want to perspire! These and other issues that were once considered scandalous and unthinkable are now almost universally accepted in this country.

Women's reproductive rights. Whether or not women can terminate pregnancies is still controversial twenty-five years after the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade affirmed women's choice during the first two trimesters.

Women's enrollment in military academies and service in active combat. Are these desirable?

Women in leadership roles in religious worship. Controversial for some, natural for others.

Affirmative action. Is help in making up for past discrimination appropriate? Do qualified women now face a level playing field?

The mommy track. Should businesses accommodate women's family responsibilities, or should women compete evenly for advancement with men, most of whom still assume fewer family obligations?

Pornography. Is it degrading, even dangerous, to women, or is it simply a free speech issue?

Sexual harassment. Just where does flirting leave off and harassment begin?

Surrogate motherhood. Is it simply the free right of a woman to hire out her womb for this service?

Social Security benefits allocated equally for homemakers and their working spouses, to keep surviving wives from poverty as widows.

Today, young women proudly calling themselves "the third wave" are confronting these and other thorny issues. While many women may still be hesitant to call themselves "feminist" because of the ever-present backlash, few would give up the legacy of personal freedoms and expanded opportunities women have won over the last 150 years. Whatever choices we make for our own lives, most of us envision a world for our daughters, nieces and granddaughters where all girls and women will have the opportunity to develop their unique skills and talents and pursue their dreams.

In the world of work, large numbers of women have entered the professions, the trades, and businesses of every kind. We have opened the ranks of the clergy, the military, the newsroom. More than three million women now work in occupations considered "nontraditional" until very recently.

We've accomplished so much, yet a lot still remains to be done. Substantial barriers to the full equality of America's women still remain before our freedom as a Nation can be called complete. But the Women's Rights Movement has clearly been successful in irrevocably changing the circumstances and hopes of women. The remaining injustices are being tackled daily in the courts and conference rooms, the homes and organizations, workplaces and playing fields of America.

Women and girls today are living the legacy of women's rights that seven generations of women before us have given their best to achieve. Alice Paul, that intrepid organizer who first wrote out the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923, said, "I always feel the movement is sort of a mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end." Women, acting together, adding their small stones to the grand mosaic, have increased their rights against all odds, nonviolently, from an initial position of powerlessness. We have a lot to be proud of in this heroic legacy, and a great deal to celebrate on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Women's Rights Movement.

© By Bonnie Eisenberg and Mary Ruthsdotter, the National Women's History Alliance. 1998

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History of the Women's Rights Movement - National Women's History Alliance

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Living the Legacy: The Women's Rights Movement (1848-1998) "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." That was Margaret Mead's conclusion after a lifetime of observing very diverse cultures around the world.

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1. O que foram os protestos contra o Miss America?

O protesto "No More Miss America" foi organizado por feministas em Atlantic City no dia 7 de setembro de 1968, em frente ao local onde ocorria o concurso de Miss America. Esse protesto foi liderado pelo grupo New York Radical Women e contou com a participação de diversas mulheres que criticavam a forma como o concurso promovia padrões restritivos e opressivos de beleza, reforçando o sexismo e a objetificação das mulheres. No mesmo dia, o Miss Black America foi realizado em um hotel próximo como um ato de resistência contra a segregação racial, mostrando um novo ideal de beleza feminina.

2. O que elas defendiam e quais eram os objetivos?

O "No More Miss America" protestava contra a objetificação das mulheres e a imposição de um padrão de beleza branco e limitado. As ativistas criticavam o racismo, o consumismo e o uso de mulheres como "mascotes" patrióticas. Já o Miss Black America buscava redefinir a beleza feminina ao incluir mulheres negras com diferentes tipos de corpos, cabelos e personalidades, desafiando a hegemonia do padrão de beleza branco e eurocêntrico.

3. Qual a história desse movimento?

O protesto "No More Miss America" foi marcado por várias ações simbólicas, como a coroação de uma ovelha como Miss America para ironizar a forma como mulheres eram tratadas como objetos. Também houve o "Freedom Trash Can", onde as mulheres jogaram sutiãs, cintas, revistas e produtos de beleza, simbolizando a rejeição dos padrões impostos. Paralelamente, o Miss Black America foi criado por J. Morris Anderson para oferecer uma plataforma para mulheres negras, sendo um grande sucesso com audiência lotada e marcando a primeira coroação de uma Miss Black America.

4. Quais foram as dificuldades enfrentadas?

As ativistas enfrentaram resistência da mídia, que frequentemente ridicularizava as feministas, chamando-as de "queimadoras de sutiãs". Além disso, enfrentaram a hostilidade de espectadores e a falta de apoio institucional. No caso do Miss Black America, houve a dificuldade de estabelecer um evento paralelo em uma sociedade que ainda era profundamente segregacionista e racista, e que valorizava exclusivamente o concurso tradicional.

5. Qual a importância dessa atuação para o movimento feminista?

O protesto "No More Miss America" foi um marco para o feminismo, ajudando a trazer o movimento para a esfera pública e a desafiar normas sociais opressivas. Ele destacou a importância da representação e da diversidade, temas que continuam relevantes até hoje. Já o Miss Black America foi um símbolo de empoderamento e afirmação da identidade negra, desafiando o racismo e influenciando a inclusão de mulheres negras em concursos tradicionais. Ambos os eventos promoveram debates que influenciam até hoje a luta por igualdade e inclusão.

6. Cite uma ou mais mudanças que o movimento feminista gerou para sua localidade.

No Brasil, o movimento feminista influenciou o surgimento de concursos de beleza que valorizam a diversidade, como o Miss Beleza Negra. Além disso, o questionamento dos padrões de beleza e a busca por representatividade continuam impactando a mídia e o mercado de beleza brasileiro, que agora inclui mulheres de diferentes raças e tipos físicos. Movimentos como o #MeToo e campanhas de inclusão racial refletem o legado desses protestos.Conexão com a Realidade das Mulheres no Rio de Janeiro.

1. Representatividade e Diversidade nos Concursos de Beleza Cariocas

Assim como o Miss Black America desafiou o padrão de beleza exclusivamente branco, concursos de beleza no Rio de Janeiro têm se transformado para incluir mulheres de diferentes etnias e realidades. Em eventos como o Miss Beleza Negra e o Miss Favela, as mulheres negras e periféricas encontram uma plataforma para expressar sua beleza, valorizando suas raízes e desafiando os padrões tradicionais. Esse movimento reflete a influência de ações como o Miss Black America, que abriu espaço para a inclusão de mulheres negras na esfera pública.

2. Movimentos Feministas e Antirracistas no Rio

Inspirados por movimentos feministas como o "No More Miss America", grupos feministas cariocas, como o Coletivo Mulheres de Pedra, atuam nas comunidades periféricas do Rio de Janeiro para promover autonomia, representatividade e consciência de gênero e raça. Esses grupos discutem questões que vão desde a luta contra a objetificação feminina até o empoderamento econômico das mulheres negras e periféricas, enfrentando problemas como o racismo e o machismo estrutural.

3. Influência do Feminismo Interseccional

A ideia de interseccionalidade, central no Combahee River Collective e que ressoou com os protestos do Miss America, é cada vez mais presente nas discussões feministas cariocas. Em movimentos como Marcha das Mulheres Negras e Marcha das Favelas, as mulheres do Rio discutem as múltiplas opressões que enfrentam, sendo mulheres, negras e, muitas vezes, periféricas. Esses movimentos são inspirados pelo entendimento de que a luta feminista precisa abordar todas as formas de opressão, algo que o Combahee River Collective e o "No More Miss America" já apontavam nos anos 60 e 70.

4. Questionamento dos Padrões de Beleza e Valorização da Identidade Afro-Brasileira

No Rio de Janeiro, campanhas como o Encrespa Geral e movimentos de valorização do cabelo natural afro são um reflexo das ideias lançadas pelo Miss Black America. Essas iniciativas desafiam o padrão de beleza eurocêntrico e incentivam as mulheres negras a celebrarem sua identidade e sua beleza natural. Assim como o Miss Black America buscava redefinir a beleza, movimentos cariocas trabalham para valorizar as características das mulheres negras e questionar os padrões tradicionais.

5. Impacto na Indústria Cultural e na Mídia Carioca

No campo da mídia e do entretenimento, o Rio de Janeiro tem visto uma crescente valorização da diversidade, com mulheres negras ocupando espaços de destaque em produções culturais, desfiles de moda e campanhas publicitárias. Essa mudança, que se alinha com as críticas do "No More Miss America" ao uso da mulher como objeto de consumo, mostra como o feminismo impactou até mesmo a indústria cultural carioca, que hoje começa a valorizar a representatividade e a autenticidade das mulheres.