The March 19, 2001, issue of US Weekly magazine contains a startling report: Beauty pageants are in decline.
As proof of this premise, the article cites the dreadful TV ratings of the 2001 Miss USA Pageant. It also notes that the Miss America Pageant has been in ratings trouble for years. By way of explanation for these problems, the article quotes a feminist leader as saying that people now prefer women's soccer to beauty contests.
But are beauty pageants really losing their appeal? Clearly not. For better or worse, they are thriving.
Forty years ago, when the Big Three networks dominated American television, the Big Two pageants dominated American beauty competition. Much of the world had no access to television, and much of the world was off-limits to beauty contests.
Today it's all different. Just as there are thousands of TV channels bouncing millions of satellite signals around the planet, there are thousands of diverse pageants all over the globe.
There are still billions of pageant fans, more than ever in history. It's a multi-billion-dollar industry. But people have choices, and they make them. Pageants must compete for their attention.
The concern of the Miss America and Miss USA organizations ought not to be that the sea is drying up, but that they are in danger of drowning. For both contests, the decline in viewer interest has coincided with a self-conscious retreat from pageants as old-fashioned fun. They must stop apologizing for what they are and target their natural audience.
On a more basic note, the 2001 Miss USA Pageant really ought to have been advertised. Many potential viewers never knew it was coming, and complained directly to us.
And what of the feminist claim that women's soccer has replaced beauty contests? You would never guess it from the pages of US Weekly. We found plenty of articles about fashion, with special attention to revealing gowns. We found stories about weight, hairstyles, jewelry. But not a soccer ball in sight.
