Miss America's God: Faith and Identity in America’s Oldest Pageant

The Miss America pageant has extraordinarystaying power. Despitethecultural windsof the past century, Miss America continues to captivatethe nation,givingAmericawhat it wants most-sex, entertainment, competition, religion, and even self-discovery.
InMiss America's God, Mandy McMichael traces the pageant's long and complicated history. She demonstratesthatthe pageantisa little exploredwindow into American culture, one that reveals a complex cocktail of allAmericans holddear. Ultimately,McMichaelcontends thatthe pageant isanunexpected cultural spaceofreligious expression and self-discovery for many contestants whose faith communities support and validatetheir pageant participation.
Miss America's Godutilizes feminist theory, women's history, sociology, psychology, ethnography, and religious studies to explain the enduring popularity of the pageant,as well as religion's curious embrace of its spectacle. Whilecontestants use the pageant tobuildfaith and identity, the pageant uses the faith of the contestants to remain relevant in a societythat isincreasingly suspicious of it. McMichael shows just how central religion has been to Miss America. Religion, for Miss America, sanctifies sex, ritualizes entertainment, justifies competition, and enables self-discovery. Religion makes Miss America acultural icon that withstands the test of time.
Mandy McMichael is J. David Slover Assistant Professor of Ministry Guidance at Baylor University.
"Miss America's God traces the history of the Miss America pageant from its origins in 1921 to the present, demonstrating that its persistence over the past century derives from some alchemy of sex, entertainment, and religion, thereby tapping into Americans' insatiable and enduring passions. Mandy McMichael demonstrates how the Miss America pageant has variously stood against, amplified, and capitulated to the zeitgeist, and its ability constantly to reinvent itself makes it quintessentially American."-Randall Balmer, John Phillips Professor in Religion and Director of the Society of Fellows, Dartmouth College
"What sets this manuscript apart is the way it takes a pageant that every one of us has watched an event that readers think they understand (and which many of us may well hold in scorn) and unmasks it as a form of sacrificial atonement that sounds for all the world like "The Lottery," that short story that blew us away in ninth-grade English class. What a read!"-Valarie H. Ziegler, Walter E. Bundy Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of Religious Studies, DePauw University
"This book skillfully explores the complicated relationship between faith and the Miss America pageant. McMichael's deep immersion in pageant culture, her nuanced analysis of pageant testimonies, and her knowledge of religion provide a fascinating portrait of the ways that the secular and sacred have been navigated on the runway."-Karen W. Tice, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Educational Policy Studies and Director of Graduate Studies, University of Kentucky
Introduction
1. Miss America as Sex
2. Miss America as Entertainment
3. Miss America as Competition
4. Faith of the Pageant, Faith and the Pageant
5. Faith in the Pageant
Conclusion: Born Again: Miss America 2.0
The Miss America pageant has extraordinarystaying power. Despitethecultural windsof the past century, Miss America continues to captivatethe nation,givingAmericawhat it wants most-sex, entertainment, competition, religion, and even self-discovery.InMiss America's God, Mandy McMichael traces the pageant's long and complicated history. She demonstratesthatthe pageantisa little exploredwindow into American culture, one that reveals a complex cocktail of allAmericans holddear. Ultimately,McMichaelcontends thatthe pageant isanunexpected cultural spaceofreligious expression and self-discovery for many contestants whose faith communities support and validatetheir pageant participation.Miss America's Godutilizes feminist theory, women's history, sociology, psychology, ethnography, and religious studies to explain the enduring popularity of the pageant,as well as religion's curious embrace of its spectacle. Whilecontestants use the pageant tobuildfaith and identity, the pageant uses the faith of the contestants to remain relevant in a societythat isincreasingly suspicious of it. McMichael shows just how central religion has been to Miss America. Religion, for Miss America, sanctifies sex, ritualizes entertainment, justifies competition, and enables self-discovery. Religion makes Miss America acultural icon that withstands the test of time.