A civil war is breaking out in the Miss America community

It was supposed to be the year the Miss Americas took back the Miss America pageant. Instead, it’s turning into a civil war. Six months ago, Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News host and 1989 titleholder, took over as chair of the 97-year-old beauty contest turned scholarship competition, after an ouster of leadership over leaked emails in which male board members disparaged certain Miss Americas with vulgar language. With the installation of several other past winners in key leadership roles early this year, the pageant seemed to be channeling the empowered spirit of the #MeToo movement. But Carlson’s team quickly introduced a number of changes that have instead left the Miss America community – a sprawling network of state and local pageant organizers and volunteers, as well as generations of past tiara wearers – sharply divided. The most public reform – the removal of the pageant’s famous swimsuit competition – drew national headlines when it was announced last month. Some longtime devotees were taken aback. As Chris Saltalamacchio, a contestant coach in Atlanta put it, “Miss America is supposed to be an ideal in a variety of ways, and to take away the emphasis on beauty and physical fitness, I think we’re taking away some of the things that make them ideal.” Other changes include calling the pageant a “competition” and the contestants “candidates”; a scoring system that emphasizes talent above all else; and a new mission statement: “To prepare great women for the world, and to prepare the world for great women.” But many state organizers claim these changes were made either without their full knowledge or based on misinformation.