The American beauty pageant industry is, in a succinct summary last week, “such a hot mess.”
Two reigning beauty queens have stepped down in as many weeks, and there could be more turbulence to come in an area of show business that promotes a sheen of perfection — at least among its participants — but is increasingly seen as out of date with modern social norms. .
The drama began when 24-year-old Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt recently gave her crown back, citing her mental health in a cryptic Instagram post that also appeared to contain the hidden message: “I have been silenced.”
Voight later said that a driver who took her to a Christmas parade in Florida had made “inappropriate advances” toward her and that she had received little or no support when she raised the issue with pageant chairman Laylah Rose, who reportedly told her, “Unfortunately, it is part of the role you fulfill as a public figure.”
In a resignation letter, Voigt said that Rose had threatened to take away her salary for minor issues, and that Rose had said she hoped Voigt would be hit in the face by a baseball ball when she was booked to throw the opening pitch at a game.
That was quickly followed by the resignation of Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava, who said her “personal values are no longer fully aligned with the direction of the organization.”
Srivastava, a 16-year-old high school student from New Jersey who won the title in September, had previously expressed pride in being the first Mexican Indian American to do so.
The double firings have thrown the Miss USA organization, which organizes both pageants, into disarray, with accusations of mismanagement and a hostile work environment filling the air like so much hairspray, rhinestones and positive thoughts.
Many of the accusations are against Rose, the president of the Miss USA organization. At least on the surface – on Instagram – Voigt and Rose had a good relationship. “Thank you, @laylahrose, for making this all possible,” read a message from Voigt. “She did her best! I love our president!” read another.
But insiders said no, and Voigt did not write or post the glowing messages about Rose, according to the Daily Beast, and were written by the organization’s social media team.
And more would follow. Turbulence in the Miss USA organization, marked by changes in leadership, declining revenues and declining TV audiences, and ambitions to make it a showcase for women’s empowerment, have breathed new life into what was once a valuable entertainment franchise.
According to The Beast’s reporting, Miss USA’s problems began as soon as Rose took over last year. “It was a shitstorm from the moment it started,” an election director told the outlet.
Rose, a former contestant who also competed in fashion shows in New York, told NBC that “the well-being of all individuals involved with Miss USA is my top priority.”
“All along, my personal goal as head of this organization has been to inspire women to always create new dreams, have the courage to explore and maintain integrity along the way,” she said. “I hold myself to the same high standards and I take these allegations seriously.”
According to Hilary Levey Friedman, author of Here She is, a history of the American beauty pageant, the controversy at Miss USA is “unprecedented.”
“No Miss USA since 1952 has ever resigned before, and the only other national title holder to ever resign before was Vanessa Williams.”
Williams, who won “Preliminary Swimsuit” and “Preliminary Talent” (for a vocal performance of Happy Days Are Here Again), was crowned Miss America in 1984, becoming the first African-American woman to hold the title. Months later, she was forced to resign due to the unauthorized publication of nude photos in Penthouse.
Friedman points out that controversies have increased. In 2022, days after R’Bonney Gabriel was crowned Miss USA after winning Miss Universe, some contestants publicly accused the competition organizers of vote rigging.
An investigation was launched and the Miss Universe organization suspended Miss USA President Crystle Steward, who herself held the Texas, USA and Universe titles in 2008.
Friedman, who argues in her book that beauty pageants often mirror the arc of feminism, said the current controversy should be seen in that context. “The current wave of feminism is about women organizing and using their voices, especially when it comes to mental health, harassment, [and] workplace conditions in general, so it’s not surprising that we see this in pageants.”
But the commotion isn’t limited to Miss USA/Universe. In 2018, the Miss America pageant eliminated the swimsuit competition to focus on being more inclusive of women of all sizes, and to judge contestants on inner rather than outer beauty.
Winner Cara Mund later complained that she was “bullied, manipulated and silenced” by the pageant’s leadership, including former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, Miss America 1989, who was instrumental in forcing the resignation of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes amid multiple sexual harassment claims.
Mund said Carlson, the chairman, and CEO Regina Hopper had made her life “miserable.” Her speech, she said, was shortened to 30 seconds, and she was told that a dress she had been given permission to wear in the traditional “show us your shoes” parade could not be worn. The two women, she added, had “systematically silenced me, belittled me, marginalized me, and erased me in subtle and not-so-subtle ways on a daily basis in my role as Miss America.”
If the current crop of pageant scandals is intra-female, it hasn’t always been that way. Friedman devotes part of her book – Tabloids, Trump, Tits – to the era when Donald Trump owned the Miss USA franchise from 1996 to 2015.
The former president reportedly met his second wife Marla Maples when she was Miss Hawaiian Tropic, and he enjoyed hanging out with the contestants backstage because, he said, he “owned it.” At least three of ‘his’ beauty queens lived in Trump Tower. According to Friedman, Trump is a “central figure who connects pageantry, politics and feminism.”
One of the former US president’s most memorable contributions was when he tried to put Miss Venezuela, Miss Universe Alicia Machado, on a diet in 1996, complaining that she was an “eating machine.”
“One of the worst things he said was about a woman who was in a beauty pageant – he loves beauty pageants, supporting them and hanging around them – and he called this woman ‘Miss Piggy’, and then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping’ because she was Latina,” Machado later recalled.
According to Friedman, the controversies are indicative of a broader shift in America that embraces women’s rights. She said: “Seeing young women in the wake of the Women’s March in the US [and] the MeToo and Time’s Up movements, that they can organize, use their voices and not tolerate what they consider to be harassment and abuse in the workplace.”
But Friedman also argues that the picture is somewhat nuanced. In the 1940s, Miss America added a scholarship at a time when women largely did not seek higher education or have the opportunity to finance it. “For some people this is a tool for social mobility,” she emphasizes, “and for some people it is empowering.”
“If women want to say, this is empowering, and a great way to use my voice and speak out and be part of my community, and it works for them, then we shouldn’t cut off an opportunity just because it is not so. our choice,” Friedman said.
Objectively, Friedman said, people don’t pay as much attention to staged beauty pageants as they used to, but that doesn’t mean we don’t watch; we do it in different ways now.
“The Bachelor is extremely popular and features a major beauty pageant element in every episode. Instagram, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition is still coming out, Victoria’s Secret fashion has come back, the Met Gala,” she said. “Especially with the rise of reality TV and social media influencers – they’ve just changed shape.”