从泳装比赛到社交平台，玛格特·米夫林1982年的着装 寻找美国小姐
她刚到西方学校的时候， Margot Mifflin ’82 didn’t want to take a required American history course and was told to plead her case to legendary professor John Rodes, 那时候谁是历史系的系主任. “你为什么不想选历史呢??他问她. 米夫林回答说:“我真的只是对文学感兴趣.她不明白的是, 她现在说, “文学就是历史——要理解文学?, 你必须了解历史.”
美国小姐选美大赛是北卡罗来纳州大西洋城的酒店经营者们的创意.J.计划将旅游旺季延长至秋季. It has weathered many cultural changes since its inception nearly a century ago. Growing up, Mifflin watched the pageant but she wouldn’t consider herself a fan. 她说:“如果你喜欢它，你每年都会得到这个机会。. “如果你不喜欢它，每年我们都会被强加这个东西. So the question of how well do these contestants actually represent our country was of interest to me.”
为什么现在人们对这场盛会感兴趣?
美国小姐一直提倡二元性别表现, 社会整合, 文化传统, 所有这些都在今天受到质疑和颠覆. The book chronicles the gender expectations women were up against for most of a century, and how they used—and sometimes subverted—them through Miss America in a culture that denied them opportunities in areas where 美 wasn’t a factor. Gloria Steinem, Diane Sawyer, and Oprah Winfrey all used pageantry as a stepping stone.
此外，它的历史上还有一些非常迷人的女人. 选美比赛对女性施加的社会限制往往适得其反, and the winners who rebelled are among the most interesting Miss Americas—the ones who wouldn’t conform. 约兰德·贝贝兹在1950年加冕后拒绝穿泳装亮相, 促使关键赞助商, 卡特琳娜泳装, 退出并开始竞争对手的美国小姐比赛, 唐纳德·特朗普后来拥有的. 她不仅改变了选美历史的进程, but also turned her back on Miss America in the 1960s and 1970s for its sexism and racism. 第一个黑人冠军, 凡妮莎威廉斯, 直到1983年才加冕, and Black women were actively banned from competing in the 1940s and early 1950s. 还有Kathy Huppe, 1970年蒙大拿小姐, 是谁在被要求压制反战观点后辞职的, 然后出现在《生活》杂志上，她穿着选美服，高举着拳头.
美国小姐选美大赛是如何演变的?
1921年创立时，它主要是一项游泳选美比赛. This was a year after women won the vote; the pageant rewarded tradition-bound, marriageable women who were not likely to be out marching for their rights or exercising them in professions outside entertainment.
20世纪30年代, 新主任, Lenora屠杀, added a talent component because she didn’t want them to just be standing around in their swimsuits. 1945年，在她的指导下又增加了奖学金. She wanted to ramp it up into something that was more substantial for the women who competed. 这是一个巨大的变化，也使它与其他选美比赛区别开来. 在20世纪90年代, 新增了社会问题平台, where contestants had to pick a cause they would advocate for during what used to be called their reign. 现在它被称为他们的“服役年”.”
上一次大的变化是在2018年，当时他们取消了泳衣. 那是一个有趣的过渡年:一旦你把泳衣拿走, 加上所有这些东西, 《十大正规网赌平台》还是原来的样子吗? 如果不是，是什么? 奖学金竞赛? 才艺表演? 或者这是一份工作，就像美国小姐组织现在做的广告一样?
为了写这本书，你采访了多少位美洲小姐? 在你做这件事的时候，组织合作吗?
他们核实了一些事实，并带我去见了几个我需要交谈的人, but they weren’t generally helpful; I had to track down the people I wanted to talk to independently. 我采访了15位州和全国冠军以及当地选手, 法官, 球迷, 志愿者, and some state program directors—to understand the workings of Miss America and also the state competitions, 每一种功能都略有不同.
从这一切中，你最惊讶的收获是什么?
事实是从来没有西班牙裔的赢家. 沙琳·韦尔斯，1985年美国小姐，出生于巴拉圭，父母是美国人.] There’s also never been a Muslim winner and there’s been just one Jewish winner—Bess Myerson. 除了两名美国小姐外，其余都是基督徒.
The other surprise was that even women who had some very negative experiences—while or as a result of competing—did not regret it. They either felt it served as a springboard for getting somewhere in life or they learned from it.
你还探索了选美比赛的其他方面吗?
随着选美比赛在20世纪30年代的发展和完善, it became like a middle-class debutante ball that borrowed many of those rituals: putting marriageable women on display, 强调礼仪, 走, 坐着, 血统与魅力, 昂贵的礼服. 但是当社交舞会保护了阶级地位, 美国小姐试图推动女性进入上层阶级——有时确实如此.
Many lower-income women enjoyed social mobility and later educational opportunities because of it. This is one of the unexpected benefits of pageantry that many people don’t know about. So it does still yield concrete benefits; the question is just why women have to compete with each other to get them when men don’t.
回到20世纪80年代, did the controversy around 凡妮莎威廉斯 stoke new interest in Miss America at a time when it might have been on the wane?
确实如此. 人 suddenly took notice and wanted to understand what had happened and had very different views of her and whether or not she was the victim in this scandal. [Williams lost the crown in July 1984 after suggestive images of her from an old photo shoot surfaced in 《十大正规网赌平台》.] Conversely she’s probably the best known Miss America because of her success as a singer and actress—one who succeeded in spite of, 不是因为选美.
I interviewed a woman who competed the year after that who talked about how difficult it was for them because they were feeling like the choice for that year’s winner [Sharlene Wells of Utah] was directly in response to Williams. 她是凡妮莎·威廉斯的对立面——一个正统的摩门教徒.
Does it feel weird to be putting this book out right now with no pageant on the horizon because of the pandemic?
It feels like just the right time, because I think Miss America is really winding down. They are planning their 100th anniversary but I’m not sure what will happen after that. 收视率下降了. 参与率下降.
The whole project of naming one woman as representative of American womanhood is out of step at a time when we’re grappling with the importance of recognizing diversity in every field, and especially as women are entering politics in record numbers and no longer need Miss America as a public platform as they might have 50 years ago.
你觉得它会留下什么?
Miss America will go down as a long-running pop culture ritual that was a precursor to reality TV, 它反映了美国女性的主流观念, 比赛, 美, 和爱国主义. 至于它是否代表美国, I didn’t mention a central paradox of the pageant: There’s nothing less American than a crown.
上图: 戴着自由女神的王冠, 第一届美国小姐, 玛格丽特·戈尔曼, 得到了通往大西洋城的钥匙, N.J.为1922年的选美比赛做准备时，国王尼普顿送给他的礼物. 图片由Margot Mifflin提供. 作者照片由Thea Dery '17提供.
