Library Journal, A 2020 Title to Watch
"Vigorously researched and wryly humorous . . . This incisive and entertaining history deserves the spotlight." ―Publishers Weekly
"Lively and probing . . . Whether fans or foes of Miss America, few readers will see the pageant in the same way after finishing this book. A cleareyed look at an iconic beauty pageant and its efforts to stave off irrelevance." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Looking for Miss America is as surprising as it is insightful. With Mifflin's keen criticism and detailed portrayals, the reader gets to see the history of America through an unexpected and thought provoking lens. What seems like a forgotten and antiquated tradition is actually the perfect subject to explore America's struggles with feminism, misogyny, racism and identity. Utterly fascinating." ―Mallory O'Meara, author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon
"The conception, commercialization, and exploitation of the 'ideal' woman, as embodied in the Miss America pageant, is a story that reflects the country’s social forces and cultural biases. Margot Mifflin has written a lively history of Miss America that gives meaning to the ever-evolving image of today’s women." ―Lynn Povich, author of The Good Girls Revolt
"Looking for Miss America is a pleasure to read, a deceptively complex account of a bizarre American institution. With deep research and engaging writing, Margot Mifflin connects the Miss America pageant to the broader, often messy trajectory of 20th century American women’s history." ―Kristen Richardson, author of The Season
"While I may have stopped watching Miss America decades ago, I could not stop reading this remarkable account of its tangled, troubled history. Looking for Miss America showcases the trivia and the politics of this odd contest―but the depiction of its contestants' humanity is where Mifflin really shines. I wholeheartedly recommend this to book clubs and curious readers alike." ―Therese Anne Fowler, author of A Good Neighborhood
"A sharp and immensely entertaining look at one of our country’s most enduring―and controversial―traditions, Looking for Miss America also paints a microcosmic portrait of our past century, in unflinching and irreverent detail. With her gimlet eye and wry wit, Margot Mifflin is the perfect tour-guide on this journey through America's fundamentals: cheesecake, capitalism, racism, sexism, ambition, and old-school, unabashed glamor. I couldn’t put it down." ―Karen Abbott, author of New York Times bestseller The Ghosts of Eden Park
07/01/2020
Beauty pageants have long been a topic of research and wide interest, and Mifflin's (Bodies of Subversion) work offers excellent content and historical analysis to this ongoing discussion. The book focuses not on pageantry in general, but instead specifically analyzes the 100-year-history of the Miss America pageant, since its founding in Atlantic City in 1921. This narrower focus allows the author to share personal stories of winners and contestants, and helps readers to better understand how the institution evolved under various leaders and reacted to societal shifts throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Many events will be familiar to even casual observers of American culture—such as the notorious "bra burning" protests and the moment that winner Vanessa Williams was forced to resign—but Mifflin situates these events in the pageant's historical context, allowing for a better understanding of their cultural impact. While deftly commenting on the racism and sexism that have characterized the pageant's history, she also makes space for the contestants to speak openly for themselves about their own experiences, something pageants themselves are not known for. VERDICT This work offers a thought-provoking, balanced, and highly informative look at an institution that has perplexed and enticed Americans since its founding.—Sarah Schroeder, Univ. of Washington Bothell
2020-04-20
The Miss America program heads toward its second century still trying to shed its image as a “leg show” or “cheesecake with a side of culture.”
Journalist Mifflin offers a lively and probing appraisal of a pageant that will observe its centennial in 2021. Drawing on research that includes interviews with former Miss Americas from different eras, this well-balanced account shows that while the program has helped many contestants envision futures beyond their hometowns, it has always had unsavory aspects at odds with its organizers’ efforts to invest it with a wholesome image. The most egregious of these, formally adopted in 1940 and in effect until the 1950s, required contestants to be “in good health and of the white race.” Fresh troubles hit in later decades as feminists’ protests and expanding women’s rights made the program look out of touch. Organizers tried to adapt by killing the swimsuit competition (2018) and having each contestant choose a “social issues platform” to promote (1990). Still, the TV ratings tanked, the number of entrants plunged, and the pageant CEO was forced out after emails surfaced showing that he had “slut-shamed” contestants. Perhaps the most disturbing fact in this book is that since 2007, entrants have had to engage in what Kate Shindle, Miss America 1998, calls “pay to play.” Each contestant “must raise a minimum amount—by soliciting donations—to compete,” and while some of the proceeds go to children’s hospitals, much of it goes to pageant scholarships, so that “contestants themselves have funded 85 percent of Miss America’s scholarships.” Mifflin relates all of this without descending into ridicule or screed and with a keen sympathy for both the costs and benefits to entrants. Whether fans or foes of Miss America, few readers will see the pageant in the same way after finishing this book.
A cleareyed look at an iconic beauty pageant and its efforts to stave off irrelevance. (16-page color insert)