Say Goodbye to the Miss World Bikini Competition

If you’re the type that only watches beauty pageants for the swimsuit competition (in which case, ew), you’re probably going to skip the Miss World competition next year. After 63 years of swimsuit competitions, the pageant directors have agreed to nix the feature. 

“I really don’t want—I don’t need to see women just walking up and down in bikinis. It doesn’t do anything for the woman. And it doesn’t do anything for any of us,” Miss World Chairwoman Julia Morley told ELLE. And she’s right. The competition already includes an interview, charity work, a social (or as they say multimedia) aspect, a talent portion, a sports and fitness challenge and a modeling competition. A bikini aspect does seem a little out of place when you take into account the other parts of the competition. 

Over the years, Morley has tried to put in place reforms to the swimsuit aspect, so that there wouldn’t be as much focus on the contestants’ bodies. They stopped broadcasting the swimsuit portion, and instead judged the women behind closed doors. But taking this part of the competition out entirely is quite groundbreaking. Unlike Miss Universe and Miss USA, Miss World is not under the thumb of Donald Trump. It makes sense, after all, that a woman would make the decision to completely nix a rather pointless part of the show. If you’re trying to send a message about women being charitable, talented and intelligent, why would you need to judge them on how their butts look? 

[via ELLE]

Related: Ask a Pageant Queen: What It’s Like to Compete for Miss USA


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