Miss America is rebranding itself, in case you were wondering.
Gretchen Carlson, former Miss America winner and current chair of the Board of Trustees for the Miss America Organization, announced this morning that Miss America is dropping its swimsuit competition.
“We will no longer judge candidates on their outward physical appearance,” Carlson said during her Good Morning America appearance.“That’s huge!”
What exactly are these women going to be judged on, you might ask. The answer is: their souls.
“Who doesn’t want to be empowered, learn leadership skills, and pay for college, and be able to show the world who you are as a person from the inside of your soul?” Carlson said. “That’s what we’re judging you on.”
This vague and somewhat bizarre promise to judge the inside of contestants’ souls comes alongside other rebranding moves. The evening gown competition is being revamped, and there have been major shifts in Miss America leadership.
“This was a board decision,” Carlson said. “We are all led by females now. Our foundation, our new CEO is a woman.” Top positions have recently been filled by women executives. Regina Hopper has been named chief executive replacing former CEO Sam Haskell and former president Josh Randle, and Marjorie Vincent-Tripp has been named chairwoman of the Miss America Foundation’s board of trustees.
This new leadership comes in the wake of an email leak last December that revealed Haskell and Randle had made sexist and fat-shaming comments against former contestants.