14 DAY TRIAL // A Miss pageant has always been and will probably continue to be considered the ultimate event celebrating beauty, by crowning only one woman who fits certain standards and who is, thus, the epitome of everything a woman should represent. Nevertheless, the Preliminaries for the Miss America Pageant have revealed the ascent of a new type of woman: slender is out, beefy is in.
20-year-old Jackie Geist is the California entrant in the competition for the coveted title of the most beautiful woman in the US. She is not as slender as the contenders of previous years were, and neither is she average-looking, like the women who took part in the first editions of the pageant were. She is, as the media is calling it, the embodiment of a new type of Miss candidate: extremely toned, with six-pack abs, and muscular arms and legs. What’s more interesting is that she is not alone.
“The Miss America pageant 2009 is set to be one of the fiercest fought events in history, contested almost exclusively by Amazonian gym buddies with seriously sculpted figures. The swimsuit segment of the show in the heats at the Planet Hollywood resort in Las Vegas confirmed that a new breed of female athletes are going for glory, a far cry from the very natural looking girls-next-door who have competed down the 80 years of the competition’s history.” the British Daily Mail writes on the surge of this new type of beauty.
The girls are not only seriously in top shape, they are also seemingly competing for the title of the fittest ever, as the swimsuit competition for the Preliminaries has showed. There are no more slender, delicate-looking bodies as there were in the past years, having now been replaced by fitness trainer arms, clearly delineated abdominal muscles, and legs that would make even the most dedicated jogger bow their head in shame.
Nevertheless, fans of the long-running competition will still be in for some fun time, organizers vouch, especially since now they will be able to take part in deciding the most beautiful girl by placing their votes. “America’s going to have a much greater impact than they’ve ever had before. We thought it would be great to really make the whole scheme of the reality show about America getting to know these women and letting them focus in on the women they would vote in to the finals.” Brent Zackey, vice president for production and development at TLC, explained.
