On Sept. 7, 1968, inside Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the 41st annual Miss America Pageant unfolded. In its ordinary, glitzy fashion, each foot bevelled, each smile glinted. Just outside the arena, however, the sunny boardwalk was jammed with paper protest signs, freedom trash cans, exasperated demonstrators and a pet sheep. The sheep sported a satin sash with “Miss America” ironed on in rosy red.
The New York Radical Women feminist organization was relishing the 1960s pinnacle of second-wave feminism, and the propaganda of Miss America was their newest target for American female liberation. They pushed past the “Do Not Cross” tape to protest that the perfectly patriotic, all-American girls inside Boardwalk Hall were actually “death mascots” for the ongoing Vietnam War. The simple smiles of the beauty queens were nationally televised to distract the masses from the destruction in Vietnam.
Since World War I, images of innocent homemakers and seductive sirens have long been spread to boost troop morale overseas and sell war bonds back in the United States. Miss America — the epitome of social graces, female purity, polished poise and irresistible beauty — has been a predictable pawn in America’s military-industrial complex through national war bond-selling tours and, of course, its unwavering portrayal of the all-American girl to fight for while overseas.
The sexuality of women has repeatedly been an instrument of war and a domestic media distraction from American war crimes.
The first Miss America contest was a 1921 Atlantic City pageant. Four years prior, Howard Chandler Christy had illustrated attractive women on his enlistment posters for World War I, drawing on the assumption that an American man’s longing was to fulfill any girl’s desire by enlisting in the American cause. In his notorious “Gee! I Wish I Were a Man” poster, a squinting femme fatale leans back, smirking knowingly at the onlooker.
Yet, Charles Dana Gibson’s 1917 propaganda pictured a mother handing her son off to a delighted Uncle Sam, depicting a man’s noble sacrifice for the greater purpose — America. This contradiction of women as both sensual, inviting temptresses and pure, submissive housewives is a common archetype in American media.
The irony of the ideal American woman portrayed in wartime propaganda was chiseled to perfection with the creation of the Miss America beauty pageant. Contestants must be ages 18 to 25, fit into strict, slender waist measurements and carry themselves with uncontested class and girlish charm. It is important for her to celebrate wholesome American family values in the questionnaire portion, but it is equally paramount for her to dazzle the predominantly male judges in the bikini segment.
Miss America quickly became the poster child for female patriotism and American innocence. So when World War II began, Miss America was reformed into an emblem of national pride.
Jean Bartel, crowned Miss America in 1943, began a 15-week war bond-selling tour that started in New York and spanned 50 of the nation’s largest cities. She went on to sell $2.5 billion worth of war bonds. Venus Ramey, Miss America of 1944, also rallied national support during World War II. She went on a 55-city tour selling war bonds for the U.S. Treasury. The B-17 Flying Fortress that dropped explosives on the Axis powers had her figure traced on the side of the bomber. The winners of those years sold more war bonds than any other public figures at the time.
When the doll-faced, idealized women of the nation are selling the story of a one-sided hero — America — during times of war, it works. To many Americans, the pretty girl emblematic of innocent patriotism could not possibly be advocating for a twisted, violent force.
During questionable political and diplomatic periods, women often become the puppets of a calculated manipulation against the American people. Edward Munson, chief of the 1919 Morale Branch, stated that “the girl behind the man behind the gun” unfailingly stirs men to patriotic sacrifice. And thus, Miss America became the idyllic woman behind war.
Although the wartime propaganda of World War I, World War II and Vietnam may seem like a misogynistic relic of the 20th century, 21st-century military advertising commodifies women in a craftier form. The “Warrior Women” marketing of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars adapted to the evolving, progressive gender role sentiments of the American population by leveraging ascending female empowerment for militia investment.
No matter the current political climate, American media has and will likely continue its artful propaganda that whittles down women to symbolic pawns for public military support. When consuming the hodgepodge of girl boss and working women advertisements packed as feminist progress, consider how the concept of womanhood is being manipulated.
Isabella Ehring is an Opinion Staff Writer. She can be reached at iehring@uci.edu.
Edited by Zahira Vasquez and Jaheem Conley