It’s Great Miss America Finally Apologized to Vanessa Williams, But Beauty Pageants Are Still Irredeemable
Vanessa Williams became the first black Miss America in 1983, the year I was born. She was stripped of her crown ten months later, when she resigned under pressure — nude pictures she’d previously taken surfaced and were published in Penthouse magazine, enveloping her in scandal. So: an organization that existed to judge women on the grace of their bodies felt it necessary to slut-shame Williams for exposing hers. …Read More