I’ve reported on wars, natural disasters, political scandals and serial killers. So sometimes it surprises people when I tell them I once covered the Miss America pageant. Here’s how that happened, and how I came to loathe the swimsuit competition…
There is, I’ve learned, no such thing as a “typical” pageant participant. But Jill Stevens was more atypical than most: An Army medic who had served a tour of duty in Afghanistan before being crowned “Miss Utah” in 2007.
I was covering military and national security issues in 2008 when I heard about the tomboy-turned-combat-medic-turned-beauty-queen who was going to represent Utah at the Miss America pageant in Vegas. A good story AND a trip to Vegas? I was all-in.
Jill Stevens had earned the highest fitness award during Army boot camp and had completed multiple marathons. So when I learned that the “swimsuit competition” was actually called the “fitness” portion of the contest, I figured she was a lock to win that part of the pageant.
Why yes, I am embarrassingly naive.
As a Mormon, Jill Stevens was the only contestant in the 2008 Miss America pageant to choose a modest, one-piece suit for what is billed as the “fitness” portion of the competition. I’m no expert, but the winner of the inaugural Afghanistan Marathon certainly looked fit to me.
The 2008 Miss America judges didn’t even really bother to maintain the pretense that the swimsuit evaluation was about fitness. They eliminated a frickin’ marathon runner and Army combat medic because she didn’t show enough skin.
The events that came in the moments after Jill Stevens was eliminated from the “fitness” portion of the Miss America pageant represent one of the most sublime acts of protest I’ve ever seen. She dropped to the stage for a set of push-ups.
Today, the Miss America organization announced it would eliminate swimsuits and work toward being more inclusive for women of all body shapes. That’s a start, I guess, but the organization has a long way to go before I’m convinced. cnn.com/2018/06/05/us/…
So, yeah, this is a good step for an institution that has predominantly focused on exceptionally harmful ideas of subjective beauty for most of its existence. But it's only a step.
So, if you're celebrating the news that Miss America is scrapping swimsuits today, please do remember: We're only a decade removed from the time the organization eliminated a war veteran and marathon runner for not being "fit."
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