Swimsuit competition is gone from Miss America (Opinion)

In a shocking announcement, the Chair of the Miss America organization's Board of Directors announced that the competition next year will not include the swimsuit competition and contestants would not be judged on physical appearance. What?!? Isn't that the essence of a "beauty pageant"? I had the opportunity to speak with my friend Kaitlyn Schoeffel who is the current Miss New Jersey. Kaitlyn came in Second Runner-Up in the 2017 Miss America contest. We discussed the changes on Chasing News and she is not a supporter of the changes. She believes that the young women work hard to compete at all levels including the physical fitness that is critical to placing high in the swimsuit competition.

A caller said an interesting thing this morning reminding us that the contest is actually about a scholarship and not about beauty at all. Hmm. Then maybe the future events could just be turned into an essay writing competition? My guess is this will be one of the last competitions as the pageant moves toward irrelevancy.

Seems that this is the culmination of a reaction to bad behavior by former Miss America leaders and a Politically Correct culture that has resulted in taking the "Beauty" out of "Beauty Pageant". There is nothing wrong with empowering women to perform at the highest level. There is nothing wrong nor sexist about recognizing women for health, fitness and beauty. Kaitlyn will be joining me Wednesday on the morning show after the 8am news.

Bill Spadea is on the air weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m., talkin’ Jersey, taking your calls at 1-800-283-1015. Tweet him @NJ1015 or @BillSpadea. The opinions expressed here are solely those of Bill Spadea.

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