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The change in leadership and appointment of Lenora Slaughter marks a pivotal moment in the history of the Miss America pageant. The revival of the pageant in 1933 had been extremely disorganized and financially unsuccessful, with a wave of protests igniting because the winner, Marian Bergeron, had been only 15 years old at the time. Public opinion had been dropping continuously, and the organizers realized that they needed an event that was well-run in order to continue with the pageant. Lenora Slaughter had been working at the Chamber of Commerce in St. Petersburg, Florida, at the time. Initially on a 6-week leave of absence, Lenora Slaughter's permanent instatement as the director of the pageant had brought about the pageant's professionalization, with state competitions, a scholarship program, personality judging, and a talent portion in addition to ordinary rules and regulations.

Despite her positive contributions to the pageant, however, her appointment as director and her subsequent history were riddled with controversy. In addition to the Nude Statue scandal, her implementation of rules and her maintenance of strict appearance standards, her controversy extended to her interference with the contestants' private lives and the placement of Rule 7, which prevented contestants from being married or having children.

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1935: Nonconsentual Nude Statue of Miss America 1935 is Revealed 

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1935: Nonconsentual Nude Statue of Miss America 1935 is Revealed 

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The image depicts Henrietta Leaver, Miss America 1935, standing beside a statue of her. While she posed for the statue clothed, prominent sculptor Frank Vittor nonconsensually depicted her in the nude, revealing the intense sexualization and lack of agency afforded to early pregnant participants. This event is particularly significant when considering the recent institution of Leonna Slaughter as pageant director to rebrand Miss America as a respectable, high-class affair.

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A component of the competition introduced by Lenora Slaughter, the talent portion of the competition was introduced in 1938 to bring more variety to the judging for the beauty pageant. This segment of the Miss America pageant was revolutionary at the time; the connection between talent, education, and women was not something that was frequently made. The expansion of the ideal woman beyond just looks presented women on the global stage in a manner that the world had never seen before, with emphasis on their skills, intelligence, and ambitions, not just their appearance. This change was a necessary element of Slaughter's rebranding to avoid the critiques of raunchiness and oversexulization that had so nearly ended Miss America in the early thirties.

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After World War I, the post-war economic conditions that the United States received after defeating the Central Powers led to a developing style of cultural focus on recreation, including entertainment and leisure. During World War I, women especially held a prominent role in assisting the war effort, including participation in the Army Signal Corps through the group Hello Girls, serving as U.S. Army nurses abroad, and working in the agriculture sector of the United States through the Woman’s Land Army of America. Despite the push for women to return to traditional domestic roles after the war, the increasingly visible role of women in society continued with the boom in America, the war giving women newfound opportunities.

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Cunningham, J.M. "Roaring Twenties." Encyclopedia Britannica, March 23, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roaring-Twenties; Frahm, Jill. “The Hello Girls: Women Telephone Operators with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 3, no. 3 (2004): 271–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25144374; Dumenil, Lynn. “American Women and the Great War.” OAH Magazine of History 17, no. 1 (2002): 35–39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163562.

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The Woman’s Land Army of America--Training school, University of Virginia--Apply Woman’s Land Army, U.S. Employment Service, Richmond, Va. / Herbert Paus.

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1 print : color ; sheet 75.5 x 50.9 cm (poster format) | Two women carrying basket of vegetables in front of woman in uniform on horseback with U.S. flag.

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Beauty pageants have been a core part of femininity and the expression of women throughout American history. Especially during the period when women and their role in society were lowly regarded, beauty pageants encouraged intellectual and personal growth and presented positive messages to both young women and the general public.

These pageants, however, would also reinforce narrow standards of beauty, frequently excluding individuals who did not conform to the notion of a white America. Additionally, there exist many scandals within that include contestants’ personal lives, controversial rule enforcement, and resistance to social progress.

One of these beauty pageants, the Miss America pageant, reflects this constant conflict of femininity. While it brought about revolutionary ideas of women in society, it had also limited what an "ideal" woman should be, bringing about and emphasizing discrimination within the pageant.

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Throughout this time period, the push for women’s suffrage also continued. One of the most famous pageants before Miss America, organized by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, was held a day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration in 1913. Over 5,000 women had marched in Washington, D.C., attempting to bring an example of the New Woman in the 20th century. This, along with other efforts, eventually led to the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920, granting women the right to vote.

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National Park Service. “1913 Woman Suffrage Procession.” U.S. National Park Service. Accessed April 19, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/articles/woman-suffrage-procession1913.htm.

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Official program woman suffrage procession. Washington, D. C. March 3, 1913.

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Page Order: Multipage Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML. 2 duplicate copies Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 208, Folder 16. Copy scanned: 1

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Contestants from the inaugural Miss America competition 

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The First Miss America - September 8th, 1921

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The First Miss America - September 8th, 1921

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The Miss America beauty pageant was initially a tourist promotion attempting to incite tourists to remain after Labor Day in Atlantic City. It was a massive hit, and on September 8th, 1921, a hundred thousand people gathered to witness the crowning of the first Miss America. The factors contributing to the winner included photogenic appeal, athletic ability, and personality, showing the potential for women and their increasing acceptance into public roles. The winner was Margaret Gorman, a 16-year-old from Washington, D.C.

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America Beauty Pageants from the 1920s (4)

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1951: Revolutionary Reign of Yolanda Fox 

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1951: Revolutionary Reign of Yolanda Fox 

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In 1951, Alabama native and aspiring opera singer Yolanda Fox was crowned Miss America. While the pageant had ended the tradition of crowning winners in swimwear, opting for a classier alternative, the evening gown, the swimwear component was deeply entrenched in the culture of Miss America. Yolanda Fox revolutionarily refused to don swimwear on her winner's press tour, saying, "I'm an opera singer, not a pinup!" This refusal was a truly radical choice, given that one of Miss America's largest benefactors, Catalina, manufactured swimwear. In response to Fox's refusal, Catalina abandoned Miss America to found the Miss USA pageant. Yolana forced Miss America to begin reconciling the gaping reality between what the door opening, empowering, and scholarship providing program the pageant had begun adopting with reality. Following her year as Miss America, Fox was politically active, never afraid to do what she believed was right, particularly regarding the Civil Rights movement. A notable reality as Alabama's first Miss America.

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Sam Roberts, "Yolande Betbeze Fox, Miss America Who Defied Convention, Dies at 87," New York Times (New York City, NY), February 25, 2016, accessed April 13, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/us/yolande-betbeze-fox-miss-america-who-defied-convention-dies-at-87.html. 

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Up to this point, the Miss America beauty pageant had been a relatively local affair; being held on the east coast of the United States, it only served as a tourist attraction for Atlantic City, NJ. This would not last very long, however. As post-World War II America enters the new decade, media in the form of television becomes more and more popular. On September 11, 1954, the Miss America beauty pageant achieved nationwide acclaim when ABC News broadcast the results of that year's Miss America. The televising of the event would make it a household name in America and become a shared staple of American culture. By the early 1960s, it would become the highest-rated program on American television. Continuous broadcasting would allow the Miss America beauty pageant to standardize ideas of beauty and femininity throughout the entire United States. Participants of the pageant would become celebrities and national icons, influencing ideal American womanhood.

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Lauren Collins, "Miss America's History-Makers and Rule-Breakers," The New Yorker, August 31, 2020, accessed April 13, 2025, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/miss-americas-history-makers-and-rule-breakers; Miss America, "Miss America: A History," Miss America, accessed April 13, 2025, https://missamerica.org/history/.                                           

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Miss America - 1954 | Today In History | 11 Sep 18

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1959: Bert Parks Performance of "There She Is"

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1959: Bert Parks Performance of "There She Is"

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This video portrays long time Miss America host Bert Parks's 1959 performance of Bernie Wayne's iconic "There She Is, Miss America." The song was first performed in 1955 during the pageant's second nationally televised broadcast. The song unambiguously encompasses the pagents' modus operandi and overarching cultural values through lyrics like "There she is, Miss America / There she is, your ideal."

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Bert Parks Sings "There She Is" to Miss America 1959, performed by Bert Parks, 1959, accessed April 13, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gm8jbpJfdw. 

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Bert Parks sings "There She Is" to Miss America 1959 (with on-screen lyrics)

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1960: Yolanda Betbeze Fox Pictured Taking Part in Civil Rights Demonstration

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1960: Yolanda Betbeze Fox Pictured Taking Part in Civil Rights Demonstration

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This is an excerpt from the New York Times, June 16th, 1960, reporting a Civil Rights picket of Woolworth's. Yolanda's participation as a civil rights advocate in tandem with her identities as a southern woman and as Miss America 1951 paints an invaluable picture of progress. It communicates that beauty, talent, intelligence, and conviction are compatible and feminine traits. That said, it is imperative to note the reality of her being a famous, beautiful woman; as a result, she became the focal point of this article, leaving the Black leaders feeling like an afterthought, barely recognized in the concluding paragraph.

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"Bias Foes Picket Woolworth Here," New York Times (New York City, NY), June 16, 1960, accessed April 13, 2025, https://nyti.ms/4jsLexI.

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On September 8th, 1968, the first Miss Black America pageant was held in New Jersey. The pageant was founded by J. Morris Anderson, inspired by his own daughters' dreams of becoming Miss America, so he strived to create a pageant that would not only tolerate their being Black but celebrate it. At the suggestion of NAACP leader Phillip Savage, the date, time, and location were carefully selected to run just slightly after the Miss America pageant in what they called "positive protest." This choice allowed the pageant to garner vital media coverage; those who were reporting on Miss America could stop by the inaugural pageant, too. At approximately three in the morning, Saundra Williams was crowned the first Miss Black America. Her performance perfectly encapsulated the spirit and purpose of Miss Black America through her performance of a traditional African dance, and her bold feminist attitude was unapologetically conveyed in the question component. The founding of Miss Black America represents an ideological divide at the core of the Civil Rights movement: should the Black community seek color blind integration, or would equity be achieved through the establishment and expansion of Black spaces?

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"About Us and Our History," Miss Black America, accessed April 22, 2025, https://www.missblackamerica.com/about-us; "First Miss Black America Crowned," History, last modified August 28, 2018, accessed April 24, 2025, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/september-8/the-first-black-miss-america-pageant-takes-place.

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Photo from the 1968 Miss America protest 

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1968: Revolutionary Feminist Demonstration at Miss America Pageant 

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1968: Revolutionary Feminist Demonstration at Miss America Pageant 

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Despite the Miss America pageant promoting newfound values in women, it was still conforming to the ideals of women in traditional roles and objectifying them, as well as discriminating against women who did not fit what it determined to be the "ideal woman." Throughout the late 1960s, the second wave of feminism, which advocated for equality in all aspects of women's experience, swept the nation. On September 6, 1968, a protest against that year's Miss America pageant in New Jersey was held. Protestors would throw items they believed to be tools of female oppression into a "Freedom Trash Can," arguing that the Miss America pageant reinforced sexist ideals by adhering to narrow beauty standards. The protesters were dubbed "The Bra-burning Feminists."

Although no bras were actually burned during the protest, it marked a significant cultural shift by bringing feminism back into mainstream media. It brought to attention how Miss America was as a symbol of many inequalities, including racism and exclusion, and dismantled the idea of Miss America being a celebration of ideal womanhood.

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 "100 Women: The Truth Behind the 'Bra-Burning' Feminists," British Broadcasting Network, September 6, 2018, accessed April 13, 2025, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45303069. 

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1968: Promotional Poster for anti-Miss America Feminist Protests  

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1968: Promotional Poster for anti-Miss America Feminist Protests  

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This is a promotional poster for the women's protest of the 1968 Miss America pageant. This protest was, firstly, a feminist matter; however, this flyer clearly depicts the intersection of Civil Rights realities, even down to their substitution of Amerika. The dual objectives of this protest is particularly interesting when considering the simultaneous founding of Miss Black America. This divide represents a larger ideological divide within the civil rights movement between color blind integration and the expansion and creation of Black community specific spaces.

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Women! Don't Miss Amerika! Flier Inviting Women to Protest the Miss America Pageant, 1968, image, accessed April 13, 2025, https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r3469h.

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In 1969, a Miss America chairman made a public statement, saying, "We have no interest in minorities or causes" only "plain American idealism.” In response, Pepsi, appalled, withdrew their sponsorship. Miss America sought to maintain its racist and misogynistic status quo through a pseudo-apolitical attitude. Pepsi's reaction was monumental as it represented mainstream support for racial and gender equality. Pepsi boldly illustrated that not having a thing does not make to neutral and defining American idealism sans Black woman is racist.

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1970: First Black Miss America Contestant 

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1970: First Black Miss America Contestant 

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In 1970, Cheryl Brown represented Iowa as the first Black contestant in Miss America history. Between the protests, the Miss Black America pageant, their debacle with Pepsi, and generic social pressures, Miss America was forced to abandon its explicit racial exclusion. From the depictions of Black women as enslaved people for musical numbers in the early twenties to the policy of lineage tracing that lasted through the forties in tandem with rule seven stating that "contestants must be of good health and of the white race" Cheryl Brown was a brave figure who's participation denotes an invaluable moment in Miss America history. The objective of Miss America is to select a woman each year who optimizes the American ideals of femininity; Miss America's opening of competition to women of color indicates an important societal shift. The American public was taking steps towards the inclusion of Black women into its definition of femininity and desirability.

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Lieutenant Marsh in uniform while holding Miss America crown at speaking engagement 

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In January 2024, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Madison Marsh became the first active duty military officer to win the Miss America pageant. Marsh's reign highlights the successes of a crucial part of the pageant: the longtime celebration of not only beauty, but also achievement. Marsh emphasizes the idea that serving in the military didn't mean she lost herself or had to give up herself, and that despite living and heading in a nontraditional direction, she's still able to pursue her full potential.

Lieutenant Marsh broadened the scope of what being Miss America could represent. Her journey shows that societal expectations do not limit women and that the Miss America pageant is a platform for multifaceted women. The Miss America pageant continues to expand in the direction of celebrating a woman's full range, and it has a future in modern society as it constantly evolves towards inclusivity and authenticity.

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Madison Marsh, "My Year as Miss America Proves Joining the Military Doesn't Mean Losing Yourself," USA Today, January 3, 2025, accessed April 20, 2025, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2025/01/03/miss-america-2024-madison-marsh-air-force/76893215007/.

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New York Post reporter interviews Danielle Hazel and Gloria Allred 

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In September of 2024, Danielle Hazel, represented by Gloria Allred, filed a discrimination complaint with the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Hazel is seeking change regarding the Miss America and Miss World pageant circuit's explicit exclusion of mothers. The pageants insist this restriction is merely for the well-being of the child. However, this stance suggests that mothers are unable to independently make suitable choices for their children, their families, and themselves. Additionally, this restriction is rooted in rule changes instituted in the 1930s designed to increase the air of prestige surrounding the event. In addition to restrictions regarding children, these rules discriminated on the basis of age, race, disability, and marital status. Just as these practices were intended to mirror the social standards of the time, the continuation of this restriction may shine a light on the social standards of today and the way society perceives mothers, particularly young mothers with pursuits of their own, whether education, employment, or parenting. Why should a woman's choice to have a child make her less worthy? Despite the pageant's massive strides away from these archaic practices, the discrimination faced by Danielle Haze represents that further progress remains necessary and provides hope that the societal view of mothers is shifting.

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Peter Senzamici, "NYC Mom Challenges Ban on Mothers in Top Beauty Pageants: 'Being a Parent is not a Crime,'" New York Post (New York, NY), September 16, 2024, accessed April 19, 2025, https://nypost.com/2024/09/16/us-news/nyc-mom-challenges-ban-on-mothers-in-top-beauty-pageants-being-a-parent-is-not-a-crime/.

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Despite receiving widespread initial success and the pageant continuing throughout most of the Roaring 20s, climaxing with Norma Smallwood, Miss America 1926, making $100,000 in appearance fees, a income higher than either Babe Ruth or the president of the United States, its popularity had declined after backlash about women’s increasing independence as well as the morality of both the contest and the contestants, and the pageant was temporarily shut down in 1929 as the U.S. economy was thrown into chaos. Amidst the great depression, however, the same circumstances that led to its conception had revived the pageant, and it was again used to stimulate Atlantic City’s economy.