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Miss America pageant is American anachronism

2 min read

If the Miss America pageant were a rock band, it would be one of those faded acts that once filled Madison Square Garden but now musters only a handful of curiosity seekers at a rib cook-off in Kalamazoo, Mich.

The 2015 iteration aired Sunday night. You would be forgiven for not knowing that, considering any buzz it generated on social media was barely perceptible, and soon probably only close family and friends will remember that Betty Cantrell of Georgia won it this year (OK, we exaggerate, but not by much).

It’s a precipitous fall from the lofty spot the Miss America pageant once held in America’s consciousness. Once a routine ratings champion, besting even the Academy Awards, it was booted from broadcast television over 10 years ago and hustled off to the nether reaches of cable. Though it’s back on ABC-TV, it’s been a ratings laggard.

Sure, a lot of the pageant’s rapid tumble into irrelevance has to do with the far greater number of entertainment options people have now compared to 40 or 50 years ago. The idea of a “mass” culture has given way to a thousand specialized niches.

But, perhaps more importantly, girls and young women can now aspire to being so much more than Miss America. Women lead some of our largest companies. Three of them now sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, and 20 women now sit in the U.S. Senate. They lead countries as varied as Germany, Argentina, South Korea, the Central African Republic and Croatia. Despite her sagging poll numbers, the odds are still pretty good that Hillary Clinton will be the Democrats’ standard-bearer next year. Whether it’s Clinton or somebody else, the prospect of a female commander in chief is probably not too far over the horizon.

Some older Americans might still have a sentimental attachment to the Miss America pageant, but for everyone else, it’s become an anachronism. For all but the event’s organizers, that’s good news.

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