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A Tale of Two Candidates
No two women are the same. That may seem obvious and simple. However, when you are trying to reshape an organization to be more empowering for all women, realizing that no two women are the same makes it a bit more complex.
The same changes brought about in the transition to Miss America 2.0 that drove many women away from competing are the very ones that enticed other women to join. The removal of the swimsuit competition, the shift from evening gown to red carpet, the increase in the talent score percentage and the addition of the social impact initiative pitch are seen as steps in the right direction by some and the dismantling of 100-year-old tradition by others.
No two women are the same, and their views on what is empowering and relevant are not the same either. Sophe Sligh and Kara Dickens are perfect examples of this.
The journey to the Miss America Organization
Neither of these women made the decision to begin competing in the MAO hastily.
While contemplating whether she might be interested in competing in the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Organization, the teen version of the MAO, Kara Dickens and her mother attended every local preliminary competition they could for a year before she ever stepped foot on a stage. Dickens describes herself as a competitive person. If she was going to make the decision to compete in this organization, she wanted to know what exactly she was getting into and how to be successful.
After observing the organization and the women involved for a year, Dickens did finally decide to compete. She won her second preliminary competition, which sent her on to compete at Miss Arkansas’ Outstanding Teen and thus began her journey with the MAO. After only a year in MAOT, Dickens aged out of the teen competition and had to decide whether she was ready to begin competing for Miss Arkansas as a 17-year-old high school senior. She decided to wait a year before competing in the MAO. In the meantime, she competed in her local fair pageant and went on to become the Arkansas State Fair Queen.
The next year, as a college freshman, Dickens decided she was ready to compete again in the MAO, and she set her heart on the title she wanted more than any other - Miss Arkansas Tech University. She competed in and won Miss Tech in February 2019 in the original MAO format. By the time she made it to the state competition in June of that same year, the organization had transitioned to 2.0. Dickens’ experience at Miss Arkansas, in light of these transitions, was not what she had hoped for.
After [Miss Arkansas], I really had to think, like “What do I want?” and “What was my goal in competing?” I had to reevaluate because I didn’t like 2.0 and it didn’t feel right to me, and it wasn’t the organization that I fell in love with.
Sophe Sligh’s MAO story is a bit different. A native of Hot Springs, Arkansas, which until 2018, was home to the Miss Arkansas competition, Sligh made it a tradition at 8-years-old to attend the pageant each summer. It became a dream of hers to one day compete on that stage among those women whom she admired so much, but when it came to competing, Sligh shared,
I never had the confidence to even put myself in the situation to be crowned and go to Miss Arkansas.
However, something changed for Sligh upon hearing of the changes with 2.0. She decided to give her dream of competing for Miss Arkansas a chance.
What does it mean to empower?
The omission of the swimsuit competition was meant to make the organization a more empowering experience for women. While many women celebrated this change, others bristled at it as walking that stage in a swimsuit was an empowering experience for them. Dickens is one such woman.
What drew me to the organization was that Miss America or any of the titleholders were these well-rounded women. They were beautiful and smart, and you can be both. They competed in swimsuit, and they could interview with the best of them. They could answer questions about politics, about the economy, about their future, about abstract questions...these girls could answer these questions flawlessly and so confidently.
They could also get out on a stage and be proud enough of themselves to be able to wear a swimsuit in front of a crowd. The confidence that these girls radiated was magnetizing.
Rather than seeing the organization as becoming more inclusive and empowering, Dickens felt the changes brought about with 2.0 communicated a different message.
2.0 was almost saying no, women can’t do it all. They shouldn’t be smart and sexy. We’re taking away swimsuit because that’s too sexy and that’s demeaning.
It wasn’t demeaning, it was empowering. When I competed in my swimsuit at Miss Tech, that was the most empowered and confident I have ever felt in my entire life. They took that away and made it as if that should have been shameful.
It made it feel as if women can’t be smart and sexy. They can’t be intelligent and beautiful. They can’t be confident in their appearance and their brain. You can’t have both.
The decision to remove the swimsuit competition effectively pushed Dickens out the door. However, that same choice ushered Sligh in.
Growing up, I had seen all of these beautiful women walking across the stage, and I was like, “I can never be that.” That was just what I had in my mind.
Whenever Miss America 2.0 came around and they announced you didn’t have to walk across the stage in a swimsuit anymore, I was like, okay - let’s see if we can do this.
The removal of the swimsuit competition was not the only change in the MAO that appealed to Sligh. In addition to her pageant career, she also embarked on her professional career as a registered nurse at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in the summer of 2021, a piece of her life about which she is both proud and passionate.
The shift the MAO made to put greater emphasis on candidates’ careers and service to their communities in this new era of Miss America contributed to the empowerment she experienced through the organization. She believes this is true for other women as well.
I really enjoy how they focus more on our careers now...it focuses more on who we want to be and who we are becoming and how we want to contribute to our society as well.
I have seen multiple other women who decided to compete because of [the changes made to the organization].
While Sligh’s experience with the organization is one of empowerment, she recognizes this isn’t the case for all women.
From my perspective, I can say yes, it’s so empowering. Some other people from the outside looking in will say yes, that is so empowering - that is a very strong group of women. To some people, it may never be and that’s just the reality of it.
Staying Relevant
Throughout its 100-year history, the journey to staying relevant hasn’t been an easy one. What began as a swimsuit competition meant to draw tourists to the Atlantic City boardwalk on Labor Day evolved into one of the largest scholarship providers for women in the country. An evolution like that doesn’t come without its challenges. As women and their definition of empowerment have evolved over the years, the organization has been forced to try and keep up.
For many women, including Dickens, the changes in 2.0 and the way in which they were implemented altered the way they viewed and felt about the organization.
Miss America shifted from a person to an organization. The organization lost relevancy trying to stay relevant.
For Sligh and the women like her who began competing or chose to continue competing in the MAO in this new era of Miss America, the changes were viewed as necessities.
It was a hard change and tradition is hard to break but it was definitely the right thing to do in my mind.
Growing up and seeing the original Miss America and how that positively impacted women, I will never say that that was a bad era of Miss America because it wasn’t, but Miss America 2.0 was a step in the right direction and it’s what pushed me to have the confidence to compete.
Looking Ahead
What can we learn from this tale of two candidates?
Since the days women burned bras and heels and fake lashes in protest of the pageant on Boardwalk Hall in 1968, people have been grappling with the relevance and the role of Miss America. We are still wrestling with these questions today.
When I set out on this journey, I sought to answer a few questions.
Is Miss America still relevant?
Is it truly an organization that empowers all women?
Along the way, I have discovered that the answers to my questions are quite complex and ultimately lead to more questions. Questions like:
What does it really mean to empower women?
If no two women are the same, is there a way to empower them all?
Who determines what is relevant?
Time will tell whether the MAO will live to see another century. For now, women like Sophe Sligh and Kara Dickens will have to answer these questions for themselves.
References
Ashlock, C. R., & Crowley, K. D. (2021, October 23). The Impact of Miss America 2.0. personal.
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Ashlock, C. R., & Sligh, S. (2021, October 9). The New Era of Miss America. personal.
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Friedman, H. L. (2020, September 3). Covid-19 Postponed Miss America-What's Next for the Pageant?
Time. Retrieved 2021, from https://time.com/5885790/miss-america-history/.
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Shaw, G. (2019, December 18). Then and Now: How the Miss America Pageant Has Changed Over the