My research question: How have beauty pageants (Miss America specifically) transitioned throughout history in terms of race, weight, gender, etc and why? Does this change lead to a positive or negative outcome?

The Politics of Sex, Beauty, and Race in America’s Most Famous Pageant

First Black Girl Wins Miss American Crown

The first link is a book titled “There She Is, Miss America”:The Politics of Sex, Beauty, and Race in America’s Most Famous Pageant written by Elwood Watson and Darcy Martin. It explores the scandals, praises, and changes that have occurred throughout history in this pageant starting from the very first one up until present day. It was the first published book to critique the pageant therefore got a lot of criticism from contestants and pageant judges/supporters alike, however, I am confident this book holds the truth rather than sugar coating what goes on behind the scenes of Miss America.

The second link is an archive I found in George Mason’s database titled “First Black Girl Wins Miss American Crown” that was written in 1983 in The Times. I thought this article was interesting because most of society knows who Vanessa Williams is, however, most of us, including myself, do not know she was the first black woman crowned in the Miss America pageant! Even more interesting than that, the runner-up was also African American. Although this article doesn’t go into much detail, it is the shift that led many other women of different races, ethnicities, and cultures to compete despite the previous assumption that only traditional “white” women can compete/win.

The last two images are from Flickr Commons and they are pictures of the first Miss America winner, Margaret Gorman in 1921. She was first named Miss Washington DC until the year after they had another Miss Washington DC, therefore they changed her title to Miss America. In one photo she is shown with her dog and in the other with fellow contestants.