Miss America Beauty Pageant

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As Americans settled into their more predictable lives after the Great Depression and World War Two, they began to pay more attention to social issues. Many groups began to question the status quo as they fought for a bigger place in American society. These groups put together powerful events to voice their discontent and display the inequalities that they faced. Two groups specifically, women and African Americans, demanded change and dramatically altered the fabric of American culture.
As a result of the long-held gender roles that restricted women’s rights, women began to protest symbols of femininity such as the Miss America Beauty Pageant. In 1968, almost 400 women protested the Miss America beauty pageant in Atlanta, Georgia. This was organized by the New York Radical Women, a group known for …show more content…
The component of the protest that gained the most media attention was the “Freedom Trash can” where women threw in all items that represented the restrictive gender norms. These items included: fake eyelashes, wigs, girdles, high heels, and dish detergent. By throwing out these symbols, they were metaphorically rejecting all of the beauty standards and gender restrictions of the time. They were generally expected to maintain high levels of beauty as well as a stable home, but these women yearned to do more. This protest was strategically planned, especially because the Miss America pageant was already such a highly televised event. It proved to be a major success by gaining momentum for the women’s rights movement and spreading their message to two-thirds of the national audience. This was a vital point in the women’s rights movement because it was such an obvious rejection of the long-held gender roles. By throwing feminine symbols into the trashcan, they were symbolically throwing away all of the pieces that society used to define women. This protest also
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