Resolution: Be it resolved, the Miss America Pageant should cease to be televised.

Opening Constructive Speech: Izzy

On September 7th, 1968, a small group of feminists gathered outside the annual
Miss America pageant in Atlantic City in order to launch a womens liberation
movement. They threw bras, girdles, mops, pots, pans, articles of pornography, and any
and all instruments of female torture. The protest created a launch pad for a broader
movement, but the importance of it being held outside the pageant still rings true today.
The Miss America pageant teaches young girls and viewers that in order for a woman to
succeed in their education and the workplace, they must conform to the societal standards
of female beauty. In No More Miss America, a feminist brochure created in 1968, it
was said that men are judged by their actions, women by their appearance. The Miss
America pageant claims that their contest is won through intelligence and talent, but we
dont see how walking around in a bikini and high heels can earn a place at Harvard.
Even in the Miss America Organizations eligibility contract, Miss America requires
contestants to be single and with a mint condition uterus as was stated by John Oliver
on a segment of his show Last Week Tonight.

In that same segment John Oliver and his team were able to uncover the Miss
America Organizations or MAOs financial lies. They found that the MAO claims to
make forty-five million dollars available in scholarship money. In fact, the MAO awards
only four-hundred eighty-two thousand dollars. Just one point oh-seven percent of what
they suggest they offer. The MAO adds up all of the possible scholarships for each
possible school for every possible winner, although each contestant will end up at only
one of those schools, if any, and only a few will actually win a scholarship. In this
situation, the forty-five million dollars would actually be provided if every contestant
won and every contestant went to multiple colleges. The MAO also claimed to provide
two million, five hundred and ninety-two thousand dollars in the Miss Alabama portion
of the competition. The situation is the same. According to John Oliver, the pageant got
to that two-point-six million dollars by multiplying the value of a single scholarship by
forty-eight, the number of competitors who could theoretically accept it. But, in
actuality not a single contestant ended up getting the scholarship. That means that the
MAO provided zero percent of the money they claimed to provide.

The Miss America pageant has always been a symbol for some form of
discrimination. In the 1930s the MAOs eligibility contract stated that contestants must
be of good health and of the white race. According to PBS, the first African American
women who came on the Miss America show played the role of slaves in a musical
number. By the 1960s there still hadnt been an African American contestant on the
show. Discrimination also occured based on religious background. Bess Myerson, Miss
America 1945, was severely pressured to change her name in the months leading up to
her win. Myerson later recalled her experience by saying that then director of the pageant,
Lenora Slaughter, didnt want a participant with a stereotypically Jewish name. The
Asian American comedian, Margaret Cho, remembers wanting to be a part of the pageant
when she was a young girl. She says that she was not allowed to even entertain the
fantasy of becoming one of these women, either because she was not pretty enough or
not white. Her father told her she could never participate in the show, and she took that to
mean that the beauty pageant was not open to all women.
Although the pageant does not show the same blatant racism, it is still a major
source of discrimination. The Miss Americas of today are forced to sexualize their
bodies, encouraging conformity and what New York Times writer Blain Roberts calls
ludicrous beauty standards. Not only do they promote these ludicrous beauty
standards, but by giving scholarships to their winners they create a correlation between a
woman having a successful education and a womans physical attributes. If the MAO
gave out cash prizes, young American girls would learn that having the perfect societal
standard of beauty does not guarantee a spot in an Ivy League school, and that confidence
can come from intelligence just as much as looks. By giving scholarships to those who
uphold these beauty standards teaches young girls that beauty is directly related to
intelligence and success. Future generations of women need to live in a world in which
they know that they can succeed without large breasts or skinny arms, that they can
succeed without an extensive knowledge of makeup and hairstyling, and that they can
succeed without flaunting their bodies in skimpy bikinis and high-heels.

Rebuttal Points:
We believe that all women should be able to have an education, but sadly thats
not possible. Because of this, the limited number of women who attain scholarships and
go on to be educated members of the community should earn it based on their
intelligence and their talent, and not their background and beauty. Its true that todays
Miss Americas are much more educated than those of the 1900s. For example, Miss
America 2015 stands for stopping domestic violence, and studied at Hofstra University.
Those who watch Miss America are not watching it to develop educated opinions about
whats going on in the news. They watch it for the beautiful women. People magazine
online writes articles such as Twitter Reacts to Miss America Pageant, Miss America
Kira Kazantsev Responds to Sorority Hazing Allegations, and Pretty Ugly: The Biggest
Beauty Pageant Controversies.

Possible Quotes or Points to Include:
Rich in history and social significance, the competition and organization maintain
tradition
o Go into how the traditions are conservative and outdated: Use qoute from
Courtney Martin author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters when she
compared Miss America to a corset by saying they are both outdated and
restrictive and perpetuate a damaging link between real world success and
a womans capacity to cultivate a very specific, stereotypical definition of
beauty.
According to the MAO, The Miss America Organization is one of the nation's
leading achievement programs and the world's largest provider of scholarship
assistance for young women.
o Problems when the largest scholarships are given if a girl can sing Happy
while playing a cup
o Makes serious, difficult, grade and application based scholarships look
bad, or not as worthwhile
o Again, makes it look like women have to sexualize themselves to get far in
the world
Miss America funding advertisement, Some call her a beauty queen, we call her
a scholar.
o It doesnt matter what you call her, it doesnt change how she has to
display her body
o Ms. Magazine quoted Bonnie Dow, author of the 2003 article Feminism,
Miss America, and Media Mythology saying that the pageant ceased
requiring that they wear high heels during the swimsuit segment.

Cross Examination Question Ideas:
On the $45 million:
o How much scholarship money did the MAO say was provided to
contestants?
o How much money was actually awarded to participants?
o Were you aware that the MAO only awarded $482,000 of that cash to their
participants?
o Did you know that the same situation occurred in Miss Alabama?
o How much money did the MAO say was provided in the Miss Alabama
portion of the competition?
o How much money was actually given to contestants for scholarships?
On the Atlantic City issue:
o Did you suggest that the Miss America pageant will be beneficial to the
economy of Atlantic City?
o Are you aware that in the last year 4 major Atlantic Casinos, which are a
major part of Atlantic City revenue, have all either closed or threatened to
close?
o Donald Trump is suing to have his name disassociated with Trump Plaza.
Is there any reason for this other than Trump Plazas embarrassing lack of
revenue?

On the political influence:
o Do you know what the Kira Kazantsevs, the 2015 Miss America, political
platform was?
o If they know: Thats right, domestic violence. Do you really think that
anyone watching the broadcast took their eyes off of her body and thought
about what she had to say about the subject?
o If they dont: Exactly. Very few people paid attention to that. It was
domestic violence. But Im sure that viewers to too distracted by her bikini
to think about it for a second.


More Rebuttal or Second Constructive Speech Points

One common argument in favor of the Miss America pageant is that it will bring
in much needed economic prosperity to its broadcasting area, Atlantic City. This hope is
nothing but poorly placed optimism. From 2004-2013, the Miss America pageant
significantly declined in viewership. According to studies done by ABC, in 2005 the
pageant hit a record-low at 9.8 million viewers, causing the network to drop the show
altogether. In 2013 the show was put back on ABC after hitting a decade high of 10
million viewers, only 0.2 million more than their previous all time low. The fact that this
number was considered a victory shows just how many fewer people are paying attention
to the show.

However, even if the pageant had enough of an effect on the people of the United
States, Atlantic City is falling too quickly to be saved. In the past year, Atlantic City has
plummeted incredibly quickly. According to the Washington Post article Why the Miss
America pageant cant save Atlantic City, in just 2014 large revenue casinos such as the
Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, the Showboat, the Revel, and Trump Plaza have all either
shutdown or threatened to close. Washington Post reporter Mark Berman also stated that
at the beginning of the year Atlantic City housed a dozen casinos, but by Thanksgiving
that number was cut in half. One fifth of the cities workforce lost jobs - thats 10,000
people out of work. The Miss America pageant does not have enough of an effect to save
Atlantic City, but even if it did the city is too economically unstable to be saved.

Miss America as American tradition:
Continues to sexualize and objectify women
Basically states that only a stereotypically beautiful woman can succeed in the US
Creates more standards on which to judge women that men are not expected to go
through
o Wheres Mr. America?