The Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Dr. Katherine Jellison, Professor and Chair of History at Ohio University, in a story headlined “Is Miss America still relevant? Definitely, say the contestants.”
Dr. Katherin Jellison
“Miss America is just not the national event that it once was . . . and it seems that every year there is a gimmick of some sort to get people interested in it again,” contends Katherine Jellison, a women’s studies scholar and history department chair at Ohio University.
“I just saw a news clip the other day about the first openly gay contestant, and I said to my colleague, ‘Wow, that’s pretty interesting.’ And the next thing I said was, ‘But when are they going to shut that thing down?’ Because it’s just so irrelevant.
“It seems like the pageant has to strive every year to be relevant, much less just solvent. There are so many other avenues for young women to obtain scholarships that don’t involve women walking around in swimsuits and evening gowns.”
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