Voie Commentary: Swimwear Component of Miss Lewis County Seems Unnecessary

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An article ran in The Chronicle this week calling for applicants to compete in the 2018 Miss Lewis County Scholarship Pageant. Admittedly, I’m not much of a pageant type myself, but I’ve always found myself sort of fascinated by our local pageant. 

I often know one or two of the girls competing — or their sisters or cousins, etc. — and it’s wonderful to watch these bright young women demonstrate their abilities and talents.

I also love seeing how inspired little girls are by Miss Lewis County. I love that we have a local program that gives our young girls such stellar examples as role models, right here from our own community. I think that’s a really valuable, even if the impacts are difficult to measure.

I love that these young women get to choose platforms to focus on that provide benefits to our community in various ways. I’m also thankful to the countless volunteers that make the program possible.

Overall, I think the program is fantastic. 

I think scoring candidates on their interview skills, their on-stage talent, presence and pose in evening wear (this is a pageant, afterall), on-stage awareness and knowledge are all really wonderful things to highlight and refine. All of these things can, at some point, likely help a Miss Lewis County candidate down the road professionally.

There’s only one concern I have: The “physical fitness in a swimsuit.”

On its face, that sounds reasonable — but what does that really mean?

When I read the term “physical fitness,” I think of an athlete, someone who can demonstrate a trained ability that required some level of discipline to master, or even someone who can demonstrate a physically demanding practical skill.

I laugh to myself a little bit thinking about how I never see anyone at the gym working out in a swimsuit (save for the pool). And, generally speaking, athletes wear specialized clothing or uniforms other than swimwear to train or compete in their given activity to maintain physical fitness.

According to the Miss Lewis County website, the “swimsuit” piece of the pageant is 15 percent of a competitor’s overall score. It says that the “contestant should display a figure that reflects good health and is proportionate in relation to her height, weight and bone structure.”

So, really, it’s not “physical fitness” the pageant is measuring — it’s physical appearance. “Display a figure,” “proportionate” for her “bone structure.” These are all visual physical appearance terms — not physical fitness terms.

Simply wearing a swimsuit does not equal physical fitness. Just because you wear a swimsuit, or appear proportional, or meet some arbitrary physical appearance standard, doesn’t mean you can run a mile in what’s defined as “physically fit” time or demonstrate physical prowess or discipline in a given activity.

It might seem like a silly thing to point out, but if this is a scholarship pageant that’s ultimately about helping promote young women in their education and professional endeavors, what’s the point of this 15 percent swimsuit piece? How does it further a young woman’s schooling or career?



It just seems silly to award scholarship dollars partially based on physical appearance. It isn’t productive or practical to the pageant’s stated goals, though it does fall in line with the history and culture of beauty pageants at large. That leads me to think of all the incredible young women from this area who have been awarded scholarship dollars for competitive athletics.

I graduated from Adna, so I think of Kat Nygaard (EWU), Jessika-Jo and Jordan Sandrini (Siena), Jordan Zurfluh (CWU) and Taylor Hoke (MSU-Billings). From Chehalis, Michelle Sauter (Ohio University). These are girls who went on to actually use physical fitness and ability to further their futures. Some of them have even come back to their hometowns to coach or volunteer in various capacities through the years.

This is physical fitness with a professional, accomplished component that has provided further mentorship opportunities for these women. No one asked them to put on a swimsuit to earn their scholarships.

Other girls I went to school with can ride horses they’ve trained themselves around barrels crazy fast. Some of them can even rope livestock or use their horsemanship and physical abilities to rescue people. Other women I know can buck hay with the best of them, raise a herd of cattle, and lead a 2,000-plus-pound animal around a show ring. Still, other women I went to school with were accomplished hunters — having tracked, hunted, killed, dressed and packed out their own kills before we ever graduated high school.

These are types of physical fitness that enable women to operate successful farms, stables, ranches and businesses — and put food on the table, too. You wouldn’t do these things in swimwear. Nor would you see a woman in swimwear at the office.

Another woman I graduated with started a military track with the local Civil Air Patrol while we were still in high school, followed by earning a degree in geography at CWU, and now is a student naval aviator flying helicopters for the United States Marine Corps.

I would guess that she does not train for, nor fly helicopters, in swimwear.

If we are going to evaluate “physical fitness,” why does that require a swimsuit? Why can’t a candidate for Miss Lewis County demonstrate her physical fitness in a manner that reflects her own activities and personalities? Maybe that’s doing a physically demanding dance routine. Maybe it’s a demonstration of a physical skill. Maybe it’s a demonstration of high-level yoga poses, in yoga-appropriate clothing. Maybe it’s doing hurdles, or throwing shot put.

The point is, we can measure physical fitness without requiring a swimsuit to compete for scholarship dollars.

Lewis County women are far more impressive than just for the way they wear a swimsuit, and they’re capable of far more in the realm of physical fitness and success than to be reduced to an outdated body image standard.

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Brittany Voie is The Chronicle’s senior media developer. She welcomes correspondence from the community by email at bvoie@chronline.com.