A Few Media Matters: Miss America, Misogyny, and Rush Limbaugh

On Saturday, Media Matters tweeted about this year’s Miss America pageant:

Noted sexist Rush Limbaugh is judging the Miss America pageant tonight on TLC: http://ow.ly/12c55.

Follow the tweet’s accompanying link, and you’ll find an article from Marcia Kuntz and Julie Millican, vice president and senior researcher at Media Matters for America, a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.” In their article, Kuntz and Millican explain that they cannot understand why Rush Limbaugh — with all the “deep-seated misogyny that he has broadcast nationwide throughout his career” — would be selected to judge the Miss America pageant, an organization that claims to promote the advancement of women. The authors’ examples of Limbaugh’s misogyny are many; among the juiciest — and most disturbing — morsels are these:

• Rush famously declared his cat has “taught” him “more about women than anything my whole life” because his cat is “smart enough to know she can’t feed herself” and gets “loved,” “adoration,” “petted” and “fed” without having “to do anything for it.”
• After Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the country’s first female speaker of the House, Limbaugh said: “Why, she can multitask. She can breastfeed, she can clip her toenails, she can direct the House.”
• Also regarding Pelosi: Limbaugh also thinks a great idea for population control would be to “simply put pictures of” Pelosi “in every cheap motel room.” That picture, Limbaugh said, “will keep a lot of things down.”
• “Women still live longer than men because their lives are easier.”
• Finally, he claims that Hillary Clinton wasn’t in the military because “they didn’t have uniforms or boots big enough to fit that butt and those ankles.”

Miss America 2010 judges: Vivica A. Fox, Dave Koz, Brooke White, Shawn Johnson, Rush Limbaugh and Katie Harman.

There is little denying that these statements about women are unjustifiable, extreme, and filled with hatred. And based on these descriptions alone, it is apparent that Limbaugh, who also proudly employs (and created?) the term femi-Nazis, has some serious issues that, I’m guessing, will likely never be resolved without some serious psychoanalysis.

But honestly, that’s not why I’m writing this post. What most interests me is that Kuntz and Millican are arguing that Rush Limbaugh’s “history of misogyny has no place in an organization that claims to focus on the advancement of women.” First, I do not see how Miss America (or any pageant for that matter) can adequately represent the progression of women. I am aware that the organization gives away more than $45 million in cash and scholarship assistance, which “help[s] young women all across the country to reach their dreams and goals” (Miss America press release). That is commendable. Moreover, I know that many contestants use their winnings for graduate school and other educational endeavors, which is also admirable. But ultimately, the monetary/educational prizes are based primarily on a young woman’s looks and body. Can we truthfully call that progressive?

I also recognize that the Miss America pageant, which began as a “bathing beauty” contest in the 1920s, has purposely reworked itself several times so that beauty is not its sole criterion. For example, here’s the (horrifying) judges card from the 1920s:

• Construction of Head: 15 points
• Eyes: 10
• Hair: 5
• Nose: 5
• Mouth: 5
• Facial Expression: 10
• Torso: 10
• Legs: 10
• Arms: 10
• Hands: 10
• Grace of Bearing: 10

With this format, the young woman who scored closest to 100 points would win. (For more on the history of the Miss America pageant, see the very well-done PBS website American Experience: Miss America.)

But today, in addition to being attractive and poised (Swimsuit and Evening Wear Categories), the contestant must also be able to carry on a (very short) conversation about contemporary topics (Private Interview and Onstage Question) and adeptly display a talent (Talent Competition). Here’s how the 2010 scoring breaks down. Obviously, the overall criteria for today’s Miss America hopeful is not limited (only) to the construction of her head or torso; but still, we cannot deny that she is being judged, assessed, objectified, and gazed at in order to procure a scholarship. I am aware that student athletes (e.g., basketball, football, softball, tennis players) are also evaluated and inspected before they receive a university/college scholarship. Likewise, American Idol contestants are judged and gawked at similarly on television as they attempt to reach their dreams and goals (i.e., that coveted recording contract). But honestly, is it the same? No, the prizes awarded to athletes and entertainers are based almost entirely on their skills. (I mean no disrespect, but did Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barino win Idol based on their looks?) Additionally, none of these young people is required to parade around in bikinis, tight shorts, or cocktail dresses for their prize. It is quite troubling then, as Jill Filipovic posits, that women in this country and abroad are “still playing dress-up for money.”

But back to my original concern regarding Media Matters, the pageant, and Rush Limbaugh: although Miss America promotes itself as a forward-thinking organization and doles out money for young women to achieve their dreams, its surface actions seem to suggest otherwise. As a result, I don’t see why it is at all surprising that someone like Rush Limbaugh would be selected as a judge for this event. After all, every one of Limbaugh’s comments that Kuntz and Millican cite (as well as the many others you may find online) consider women in the manner of beauty pageants, i.e., fetishizing their physical bodies, lack of intellect, and ability to appeal to heterosexual white men. See Hugh Hefner as well as Donald Trump, owner of Miss USA and co-owner of Miss Universe, for similar views on women and beauty contests.

I’m aware that I am saying nothing new here. Women have been speaking out about the problems with beauty pageants for over 40 years now, and they will likely continue to do so until the contest falls by the wayside. But perhaps there is one bright spot in all of this: as Entertainment Weekly points out this week in an article entitled “Who Killed Miss America,” the pageant’s ratings are at an all-time low — currently, it’s at 3.5 million; it drew 26.7 million viewers in the 1990s. If only Mr. Limbaugh’s ratings would do the same…

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