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Former Miss Ohio blasts Miss America for eliminating swimsuits: Not a ‘positive impact’ on #MeToo
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Former Miss Ohio blasts Miss America for eliminating swimsuits: Not a ‘positive impact’ on #MeToo

Madison Gesiotto, former beauty pageant contestant and 2014's Miss Ohio, doesn't have warm, fuzzy feelings about Miss America completely migrating away from an appearance-weighted judging system for its annual pageant.

What's a brief history?

On Tuesday, Gretchen Carlson, chairwoman of the board of trustees of the Miss America Organization, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the organization will no longer judge women based on their looks.

She also noted that the swimsuit and evening gown portions of the long-running contest would be omitted going forward.

Instead of running the swimsuit segment in the pageant and broadcast, the competition will feature “a live interactive session with the judges.”

The contestants will be “asked to demonstrate their passion, intelligence and overall understanding of the job of Miss America.”

The organization has also replaced the evening gown portion. Miss America contestants will be permitted to wear clothing that makes them feel “confident, expresses their personal style and shows how they hope to advance the role of Miss America.”

“We’ve heard from a lot of young women who say, ‘We’d love to be a part of your program but we don’t want to be out there in high heels and a swimsuit,’ so guess what, you don’t have to do that anymore,” Carlson said. “Who doesn’t want to be empowered, learn leadership skills and pay for college and be able to show the world who you are as a person from the inside of your soul.”

Carlson added that the competition changes aim to create a more “inclusive” and “transparent” environment and hopefully appeal to a younger audience.

“We are now open, inclusive and transparent and I want to inspire thousands of young people across this country to come and be a part of our program,” she told “GMA.”

“We want you and we want to celebrate your accomplishments and your talents and then we want to hand you scholarships,” she added.

What did Gesiotto say?

Speaking to Laura Ingraham on Tuesday's "The Ingraham Angle," Gesiotto decried the organization's decisions as "ridiculous" and said that the move away from a looks-weighted competition will not make a positive impact on the #MeToo movement.

"Of course, outward beauty is not as important as inner beauty, but at the same time it doesn't mean that outer beauty can't exist," she explained.

The former beauty pageant contestant told Ingraham that she simply "can't keep up" with the #MeToo movement.

"The first thing they were saying is that women should be empowered, able to wear whatever they want," Gesiotto said. "Now all of a sudden, women should not be able to wear whatever they want?"

She added, "It's ridiculous. They're totally off-base, they make no sense and I don't think they're really making [a] positive impact on the 'MeToo' movement with this ridiculousness."

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