A detail in Kathie Sarachild’s “Consciousness-Raising: A Radical Weapon” that grabbed my attention was when she mentioned the protests that various feminist groups staged at the Miss America Protest of 1968. As a form of consciousness-raising, women (including Sarachild) from all over the country joined together in Atlantic City where the Pageant was held and protested and picketed the contest, “throwing high heels, girdles and other objects of female torture into a freedom trash can” (pg 5). And while the women never actually burned anything (this sensationalist rumor is where the phrase “bra-burners” originated), they obviously got their message across in a dynamic and permanent way: she continues by saying that “It was this action in 1968 which first awakened widespread awareness of the new “Women’s Liberation Movement,” capturing world interest and giving the movement its very name.”
Curious to learn more about this important landmark event in the American feminist movement, I found a video on Youtube that shows some of the protesters. They expressed that the Pageant was the very epitome of the “objectification” of women; to watch women parading around on a stage to be scored and evaluated by mostly men, they held, is a degrading idea. They felt that the contest essentially implied that appearance is the most notable and worth-while aspect of a woman. I’ve included the press release related to this event (found at Redstockings.org) which lays out the “Ten points we protest” which includes “The Degrading Mindless-Boob-Girlie Symbol” (how the pageant portrays women as the way society wants to see them), and “The Unbeatable Madonna-Whore Combination” (which points out how women are held to an impossible and ridiculous sexual double-standard).
Finally, I’ve included: a newspaper article that describes more about how the women executed the protest from NPR, and a link to the Miss America website. The reason I did this last one was to see if the organization had a clearly-defined Mission Statement that would defend them against these accusations. While the website does have information on the scholarships they offer to young women across the nation, I didn’t really notice anything that proves that the Pageant isn’t merely subjecting women to the evaluation of their appearance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awCRaGkowjY
http://www.redstockings.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=103
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94240375