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Anti-Discrimination Laws Apply to County Fair Pageants

Lauren

In Indiana the county fair is still a summer highlight for many residents. As teenagers, news of who competes and wins the county beauty pageant still permeates the halls of county high schools. Thus it was with great interest that I found the news that Indiana has decided Title IX must apply to county beauty pageant contestants and that married and pregnant women are now eligible to compete for the title. In addition, award titles will be changed so that achievement is not based within a gender category. We may have two kings or two queens, at certain fairs a “court” of achievers, and even a divorce from the monarchical language altogether.

It is no surprise that this new standard has been met with disapproval.

These pageants are held as part of the 4-H program (a rural-based community leadership skills program for youth, in case you didn’t know) and receives federal tax dollars as part of their funding. Though the King and Queen titles are often based on achievement in the program, as well as your usual pageant standards of poise and appearance, oftentimes achievement isn’t factored in at all.

In my mind, we are doing what’s best for young people,” said Renee McKee, assistant director of the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service and leader of Indiana’s 4-H program. “There are some long-term volunteers who may feel that this is not a good change, but it’s not 1950.”

The changes, which will affect this summer’s events, allow queen contestants to be married and have children, and prohibit boys and girls from being separated based on gender for activities such as public speaking contests.

You’ll have to excuse my feminist irony meter for going off the charts on this story. I find it amusing that this rurally-based program with all of its emphasis on traditional values is revamping a beauty pageant to comply with Title IX.

As feminists we regularly see this kind of catch-22, a spread of equality meeting our ideological standards in curious, counter-logical and sometimes oppressive venues. This is a step forward especially in such a conservative environment, and so, so queer.

15 thoughts on Anti-Discrimination Laws Apply to County Fair Pageants

  1. After holding the title of “Little Mr. Winter Park [FL] 1981,” I don’t feel qualified to complain about beauty pageants.

    Although I’m curious, does this mean I will finally get to compete in the wet t-shirt contest?

  4. Totally agreed, Anne, but we have to start somewhere. It’s about time that this behind-the-times organization began recognizing the ideals of the modern world.

  5. Okay, that comment exchange was so perfect I almost hate to mess it up with another one. But just wanted to say: wow. I’m from rural Iowa, and am well acquinted with 4H. What will be interesting now is if/how these pageants change in practice rather than just legality.

    I knew a lot of young mom’s in high school who probably would really have appreciated this. Which I can read two ways. First, pessimistically (thinking back to your post about which teenage mothers are encouraged to keep their children), I think it’s actually it’s nice to have infrastuctures in place that encourage rural girls to -not- get pregnant. Second, more optimistically, I think that it’s always good when progressive measures are demonstrated to fit smoothly into the lives of Americans who are scared to think of themselves as progressives.

  6. I find it amusing that this rurally-based program with all of its emphasis on traditional values is revamping a beauty pageant to comply with Title IX.

    Right on the money, Lauren. Look, now boys and girls are equally vapid and exploited!

  7. Yes, but I’m saying that to start somewhere would be to abolish the pagaent.

    Hey, lets get together and debate!

  8. I’m not sure it’s queer enough – like would it require the guys to wear dresses if they won “queen”? I wonder what title they’d use for the “milk maids” I saw in the Montrose, PA (population 1500) 4th of july parade. Milk man? Not quite the same ring.

  9. In Iowa for a long time at the state fair the pork board would crown a “pork queen.” Which has a whole different set of queer readings, really.

  10. Now now, they’re not beauty pageants, they’re scholarship pageants, you just can’t be fat and ugly to be a good scholar these days

  11. Not to be a spoilsport, because I really do agree for the most part — but 4-H is not all bad. The 4-H in my area is about traditional things like maple sugaring and raising chicks, but the leaders of our groups just skip all the stuff about homemaking and whatnot.

    Certainly, there can be some problems in supporting a sexist organization, even if your particular branch isn’t sexist (though there’s always that “change from within” mentality), but I think 4-H is also one of the only rural-lifestyle organizations left. The grange is not exactly popular anymore. Who else can teach the kids in this area how to milk a goat?

  12. I don’t know that “rural” is the best way to describe 4-H. I was very much a suburban Bay Area kid when I was involved. While a few of my fellow 4-Hers did indeed raise things like cattle and sheep, the rest of us were doing our thing with smaller animals like livestock, or doing things like leatherworking and cooking and stained glass and sewing.

    I have to say I never noticed any gendered aspect to this, either; we all wore the same thing when we showed off our projects or animals, and all of the classes I took were co-ed. It was certainly more inclusive than either the Girl or Boy Scouts.

  14. I wonder what the 4-H beauty pagent is like, b/c I was in 4-H and honestly, it’s a great program. When I did it, the uniforms for boys and girls were *exactly the same*–white shirt, green tie, white pants. That’s it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the “poise and appearance” thing was truly not about being thin and having t&a, but more about grooming and standing up straight. I mean, it’s very telling that they have a male *and* a female pageant.

  15. I was going to say, “Sorry, somehow this seems wrong.” After thinking about it for a bit I have decided to delete the sorry. It seems wrong.

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