That Memorable Day In September: The Politics Of Beauty And The Women’s Liberation Movement

Most of the time, when someone uses the word “feminism” in a derisory way, they prefix it with the term "bra-burning". It has ceased to matter by now that no bras were ever burnt, and the myth originated with a piece by reporter Lindsy Van Gel of the New York Post, writing about the September 7, 1968, protest outside Atlantic City's Convention Hall by the New York Radical Women’s group. They planned to throw items of "female torture"—bras, girdles, high heels, hairspray, hair curlers, copies of Playboy—into a metal Freedom Trash Can. While the activists initially hoped to set the contents ablaze, local police refused permission due to the wooden boardwalk’s fire hazard. So, no bras were actually burnt.

Origins Of The Bra-Burning Myth

Van Gelder tried to compare this method of protest to anti-Vietnam War activists burning their draft cards. Other media seized upon the provocative phrase and gave the women’s movement its most enduring insult. The widespread adoption of the "bra burner" archetype exerted a lasting influence on how Second-Wave feminism was perceived.

It is also true that the protest against the beauty pageant’s reduction of women’s personalities to body parts got its prominent place in the history of women’s liberation, which is unarguably one of the most powerful socio-political movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. It doesn’t matter that beauty contests are still organised; women have progressed through the gates opened for them through the struggles of others who fought for their right to vote, get an education, and pursue a career.

Politics Behind Beauty Standards

Still, as observers and scholars have noted—since there have been reams of documentation on feminism—by focusing on undergarments, major media outlets shifted public attention away from the movement's significant political demands, such as equal pay, reproductive rights, daycare, and an end to racist and ageist beauty standards. The "bra burner" label reframed radical political dissidents as irrational, hysterical, or merely seeking sexual attention. Anti-feminist groups used the image of the "bra-burning radical" to caricature activists as anti-male and unpatriotic. This rhetoric was weaponised during the 1970s and 1980s by conservative campaigns, such as opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), to portray the women's movement as a threat to traditional family structures.

That transformative time is brilliantly captured in the recent book, Liberation Summer: The Moment That Changed the Women's Movement and the Future of American Politics, by historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Micki McElya. At the beginning of the meticulously researched and lucidly written book, she lists women leaders and the organisations they formed and headed, the work they did, and the sacrifices they made so that other women could lead better, fuller lives.

Gloria Steinem, who went on to become a feminist leader, was a footnote in this protest as a journalist covering the event. She passed away recently, leaving behind her ideas and words that have, over the decades, influenced millions of women and men.

A Cultural Milestone

The demonstration against the beauty pageant by itself was not seismic, but it was a cultural milestone that nudged the women’s movement forward.

The Atlantic City Beauty Pageant was almost exclusively white, but nearby, another crucial protest took place. The inaugural Miss Black America Pageant, organised by entrepreneur J. Morris Anderson, to oppose Miss America’s embedded racism.

The late 1960s decade was a watershed in American history, and the echoes were heard all over the world. Amidst the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and the rising tide of Black Power activism, there was also the politics of beauty. Debates were generated about the objectification of womanhood for commercial gain. It is obvious that the beauty and fashion industries gain by setting standards of beauty and indirectly forcing impressionable young women to slavishly follow them.

Women’s Media And The 4Fs

McElya writes that the women’s section of the New York Times back then was called Food, Fashion, Family, Furnishings, or the 4Fs. Female journalists who were employed with media houses were given these beats to cover, regardless of their academic achievements. It made commercial sense to have a women’s section, because advertisers recognised “the enormous purchasing power of women as primary shoppers, not the breadwinner, in an increasingly consumer-driven US economy. The pages were filled with recipes, tips for mothers and housewives and stories about fashion, home, décor, and news of local society, schools, and volunteer organisations. Everything else, it was implied, was of little consequence or interest to women."

One of the biggest points of criticism of feminism is that it is anti-men. Marilyn Webb wrote in the first issue of the Voice of the Women’s Liberation Movement, “Our enemy is not men, but an oppressive system that pits group against group, denying each—men and women—self-control and self-confidence.”

Miss America Drops Swimsuit Round

A small change? In 2018, the swimsuit round was dropped. Gretchen Carlson, former Miss America and the head of the board of trustees of the organisation, said, “We are no longer a pageant. Miss America will represent a new generation of female leaders focused on scholarship, social impact, talent, and empowerment… We're experiencing a cultural revolution in our country with women finding the courage to stand up and have their voices heard on many issues. Miss America is proud to evolve as an organisation and join this empowerment movement."

A summary of the book states, “By contextualising the Miss America protest and the Miss Black America Pageant within the broader political machinery of the late 20th century, McElya makes it impossible to dismiss these events as mere pop-culture fluff. She demonstrates that who gets to represent "ideal" beauty has always been directly connected to who holds public power, economic leverage, and cultural authority.”

Feminist writers like Naomi Wolf and Susan Brownmiller have pointed out that emphasis on beauty was a political backlash to women's progress, diverting their time, financial resources, and mental energy to physical appearance. Third Wave feminist writers like Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards argue that wearing makeup or high heels did not necessarily undermine a woman's intelligence or feminist commitment.

It all boils down to what the women’s movement has been demanding all along—the freedom of choice.

Deepa Gahlot is a Mumbai-based columnist, critic and author.

Published on: Friday, September 11, 2026, 09:21 PM IST