Essay On Miss America Protest

On September 7, 1968, a group of feminists from the Women’s Liberation Movement protested the Miss America Pageant. To quote their press release, the women were protesting, “The degrading Mindless-Boobie-Girl Symbol,” “Racism with Roses,” and the “irrelevant crown on the throne of mediocrity,” among other issues in an attempt to raise consciousness in the American public. This protest scandalized Americans with its theatrics and radicalism. The downfall of the Miss America Protest was hastened by its own radicalism and exclusivity, as was the Women’s Liberation Movement at large.

In the 1960s’, as second-wave feminism developed, two separate branches emerged. The first branch, sometimes referred to as having an “equal rights tendency” was made

The scheduled events were very standard consciousness raising Women’s Liberation protests: picketing, guerilla theater, leafleting, and “lobbying visits” to attempt to reason with the contestants. The component of the protest that would draw the most press attention was called the “Freedom Trash Can.” The Freedom Trash Can was meant for burning instruments of “women torture” including: bras, girdles, curlers, false eyelashes, steno pads, and issues of women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan. The flier also asks women to come and add their own surprises, which shows the protestors’ lack of concern about the bad publicity the movement could possibly receive. Another troubling aspect of the flier is the list of groups invited to the protests. The list includes groups of women that were invited to join the protests. Although the list includes women of all ages and ideologies, the only race invited is “Black Women”, despite there also being women’s groups for Puerto Rican, Chicana, Asian American, and Native American women. This demonstrates the Women Liberation’s Movement tendency to be less inclusive that NOW. Men who were feminist allies were also discouraged from protesting, which again shows the exclusionary tendencies of the Women’s Liberation