John Oliver Takes Down Miss America

In last Sunday's Last Week Tonight, the former Daily Show correspondent provided his own take on the annual Miss America Pageant, which could be viewed on ABC and online. In a fifteen minute segment, Oliver verbally destroys the outdated contest. He first addresses the sexism of having a man present a line of women in  bikinis to be judged by others. Men are certainly not forced to strip down to barely naked for the enjoyment of a national audience, and clearly this practice is part of a time long passed, when judges would grade "the structure of girls' bodies" by measuring them. This time, as Oliver points out, was only shortly after the admittance of Alaska into the the United States 1958. He goes on to show that that level of pure ridiculousness is still very much present in today's competitions. Contestants are often forced to answer astoundingly complex questions in a mere 20 seconds. In the past, women have been made the source of national ridicule for their nonsensical responses to these questions, but as Oliver points out, "Which is crazier? That they sometimes give stupid answers, or that they almost always insanely complex questions." Topics include ISIS, government security leaks, and prisoner exchanges. In reality, these competitions should be the source of ridicule.

Oliver goes on to give background on the pageant, which is owned by Donald Trump, who is himself not particularly good looking but because of his wealth can judge these women on their looks. The media backs up the competition by saying that the pageant is largest provider of scholarships for women. Firstly, Oliver talks about how to be able to get these scholarships, women cannot be or have been pregnant and cannot have been married, which furthers patriarchal ideals such as purity but also inherent sexuality in women. The women must also learn trick to get a shot at winning, from dancing to using butt glue to keep bikinis on. However, with greater research, Oliver found that the organization gives out nowhere near the reported 45 million dollars in scholarships annually. By searching through tax forms, Oliver and his team found that the pageant bumps up its number from the not-even 4 million that it gives out to the 45 million through dishonest scholarship information. In the end, Oliver hosts his own fake pageant to emphasize the insanity of the pageant. He also provides links to women's scholarship providers that don't perpetuate sexism and "reward working information of buttock adhesive technology." His segment has gained increasing popularity, and clearly information on the sexist practice has gotten out to more and more people. Hopefully by next year, the awful practice will have no place in our culture.