Swimsuits and Scholarships

Jan 15

By Patricia Ho

The lights are dimmed as 15 young women with permanent smiles come on stage, dancing to Dionne Warwick's upbeat "Say a Little Prayer." They move their hips along to the music as best as they can in slinky black cocktail dresses and three-inch heels, complete with synchronized arm and hand movements.

Since its inception in 1921, the Miss America pageant has come to mean different things at different times. According to the organization's website, it started out as a way to lure tourism to Atlantic City with "bathing beauties," and has evolved to remain relevant to the tastes of its viewers and participants.

It raised eyebrows in the '20s where exposed limbs were a subject of controversy, and disappeared for a while during the years of the Great Depression. But during World War II and the Vietnam War it resurfaced to lift spirits and sell bonds. The competition also managed to weather feminist protests in the '60s.

Organizers and contestants at this year's Miss Santa Clara, where three winners go on to compete in Miss California and then Miss America, are careful to speak of the pageant as a scholarship competition.

"There is actually no category for looks or beauty at all in the program," said Megan Brownell, Associate Producer of the pageant.

Contestants do walk around in swimsuits in what is now called the fitness category, but that segment makes up only 10 percent of the final grade, with privately-held interviews and talent taking up 40 percent and 30 percent respectively.

In 1945, scholarships were introduced to the pageant and in 1989, the "platform" was introduced, requiring contestants to pick an issue of personal and national concern to champion.

"They try to stay away from being just a beauty pageant," said contestant and Santa Clara freshman Mary Battaglia, a psychology major. "It's more focused on your platform."

"There's a couple of reasons that [the swimsuits] even remains in the program," said Brownell. "One is that it's tradition. The Miss America program started as a bathing beauty contest. Second of all, Miss America or Miss California travels 360 out of the 365 days of the year. They're making appearances, they're keeping a schedule that is insane and so there is a natural need for a person to be healthy and to be fit."

While the reliability of judging a contestant's fitness level based on her appearance is definitely debatable, Brownell also emphasizes the benefits of participating in a beauty pageant.

"All of the skills that the contestants are working on in order to compete in the pageant and the skills that they take away from it, are skills that women need today, no matter what they're going to do," she said. "Interview skills, the ability to present yourself in front of people, the ability to be disciplined and well-rounded, to know a lot about a lot of different subjects, the ability to interact in different situations, those are all skills that we take into the business world and we apply throughout our lives in various social situations. "

"In terms of real life experience, the pageant is better than college." senior Physics major tamara hill said. "I've learned more about real life in doing the pageant than in all my years of taking academic classes. I have learned so much in terms of interview techniques, how to sell yourself without sounding like you're selling yourself. It teaches you how to deal with people in a formal setting, how to be comfortable with questions that maybe you're not comfortable with."

And the money does not hurt either. Regardless of their placing, each contestant in the pageant receives a minimum of $700 in scholarship dollars.

"Every year we've increased our scholarship dollars," said Brownell. "In fact I think we give the second largest amount of scholarship dollars in California and we're one of the top five of the locals in the nation.

"The Miss America program is different from some of the other pageants that are out there that focus a little bit more on appearance in that it's a scholarship competition first of all. All of the money that the contestant wins is scholarship dollars only. It can be paid to their student loan companies or to their college. It is not given to them in cash and prizes."

This year the pageant drew 15 contestants, compared with 8 last year. Thirteen out of the 15 contestants were from Santa Clara University. The appeal for Hill lay mainly in the scholarship money.

"My friends see it as 'Oh my God, why would you want to get up on stage in your swimsuit. I see it as a scholarship competition. I can make some money to pay for my education. My education is the most important thing to me in my life right now. And taking part makes perfect sense to me."

appearance, in that it's a scholarship competition first of all. All of the money that the contestant wins is scholarship dollars only. It can be paid to their student loan companies or to their college. It is not given to them in cash and prizes."

This year the Miss Santa Clara pageant drew 15 contestants, compared with 8 last year. Thirteen out of the 15 contestants were from Santa Clara. The appeal for Hill lay mainly in the scholarship money.

"My friends see it as 'Oh my God, why would you want to get up on stage in your swimsuit, I see it as a scholarship competition. I can make some money to pay for my education. My education is the most important thing to me in my life right now. And taking part makes perfect sense to me."

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