Miss America Will No Longer Feature Its Swimsuit Competition

On Tuesday, it was announced that Miss America would eliminate the swimsuit competition from its pageant.

This change in the competition reportedly comes following the #MeToo movement and will help the competition be more encouraging to all women.

To replace the swimsuit competition, contestants will now participate in a live interactive session with the judges. They will be asked to “demonstrate their passion, intelligence and an overall understanding of the job of Miss America during this part of the competition.

The competition will also be getting rid of the evening gown portion of the competition, and instead will ask the contestants to wear “attire that makes them feel confident, expresses their personal style and shows how they hope to advance the role of Miss America.”

These changes to the competition come after internal emails from the former CEO, Sam Haskell was released. In the emails, Haskell, along with others, insulted the “appearance, intellect and personal lives of former pageant winners,” including Carlson, who won the pageant in 1989.