‘Bye-bye bikini’: Miss America bids farewell to swimsuit contest
The beauty pageant has scrapped one of its most iconic elements in the competition by coining the hashtag #byebyebikini, in an attempt to shift the annual ceremony’s emphasis on contestants’ physical beauty.
Contestants in the Miss America Competition will no longer have to wear a swimsuit.
On Tuesday, the pageant’s official Twitter account tweeted a short video of a white bikini going up in a puff of smoke with the hashtag #byebyebikini.
Organisers of the event say the women taking part will be judged on other attributes, and not just on physical appearance.
The current Miss America Cara Mund welcomed the move by tweeting, “We’re changing out of our swimsuits and into a whole new era #byebyebikini #MissAmerica2019.”
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey reports.