Furious debate erupts over whether Miss England’s bikini round should be reinstated as pageant director insists it’s ’empowering’ on GMB – but viewers call it ‘dangerous’ and ‘misogynistic’
- Debate got heated as the panel discussed Miss England’s bikini round on GMB
- READ MORE: Could Miss England pageant bring back its famous bikini parade?
Good Morning Britain hosted a heated debate today over whether Miss England should bring back its controversial bikini round.
The beauty competition is looking to reintroduce the bikini parade on stage for the first time since 2002 – despite other competitions continuing to scrap such rounds.
To discuss the issue, Good Morning Britain’s hosts, Dan Shepphard and Susanna Reid welcomed the pageant’s director Angie Beasley and journalist Flora Gill.
While she was the one who decided to scrap the bikini parade when she got charge of the contest in 2002, Angie was arguing in favour of the round’s come-back, while Flora said the move was ‘backwards,’ and said the pageant’s director was ‘disingenuous’ to argue that the bikinis would empower women.
Watching at home, some agreed with Flora that the bikini round was misogynistic and should not be brought back to the competition’s main run.
Good Morning Britain hosted a heated debate on whether Miss England should bring back its bikini round this morning. Director Angie Beasley argued that it was up to the contestants
Journalist Flora Gill said the move was ‘backwards,’ and said the pageant’s director was ‘disingenuous’ to argue that the bikinis would empower women
Watching at home, some viewers were not convinced that the contest should bring back its bikini round
Angie, who took over the competition in 2002, explained the bikini round replaced was never completed taken out of the Miss England pageant.
‘We replaced bikinis with sportwear to showcase the other parts of the competition,’ she said, adding that the bikini round made up only a tenth of the contest.
‘We don’t parade the girls on stage, we haven’t paraded them since 2009, we brought it back because it was debated and the girls wanted it,’ she added.
‘They wanted us to include the swimwear round. It’s important to give the girls a choice and that’s what Miss England is all about.
‘It’s about empowering women and given them a choice,’ she added.
‘If you want to enter a competition like this, which, I’d like to add, hundreds of thousands of women do in this country, they should have the choice,’ she said.
Susanna asked if Angie would make the bikini round an option contestants can choose to take part in, which the pageant director replied that was already the way the Miss England contest operated its Beach Beauty photoshoot.
‘We have a Beach Beauty round, which is run as a photoshoot, and if you want to enter that round, you can do by submitting your own photograph of yourself in swimwear, then you can decide in the beach shoot.
Angie added that she took part in the pageant’s bikini round in the 1980s, and that it made her more confident
Fiona told Angie not to ‘pretend’ that the move to bring back the bikini round was to empower women
’80 per cent of the girls submit the photograph and they feel good about themselves in a bikini, it’s up to them,’ she added.
She went on to say that Bhasha Mukherjee won Miss England in 2019 without taking part in the Beach Beauty photoshoot, suggesting posing in a bikini was not necessary to win.
‘These are really educated girls, they got a mind of their own, they can decide if they want to enter Miss England and the Beach Beauty round, so we’re putting it out to them for them to decide whether we include it this year, there are all these different rounds,’ she said.
However, journalist Flora said she felt re-introducing the bikini round was ‘backwards.’
‘I think beauty pageants have taken a lot of steps to make themselves more progressive, and be more than just about physical beauty,’ she said.
‘It feels like a step backwards to be bringing back this idea that an important part of beauty was judged on how you look in a bikini.
‘It’s the same as we used to have Page 3 models or women in bikinis holding up signs to highlight different rounds in game shows,’ she added.
Viewers at home sided with Flora, dubbing the bikini round ‘dangerous,’ and ‘misogynistic’ and adding that they don’t think it empowers women
‘Everyone would always say, “It’s up to these women, it’s their choice”, but it’s also about the image you’re projecting of women and what you’re saying is important,’ she told Angie.
‘It’s not as if we’re talking about banning this round which already exists, it’s bringing it back,’ she added.
Susannah argued that some women want to wear a bikini because they feel good about themselves, but Flora countered she doesn’t want to feel judged when she wears her own bikini at the beach.
Angie, who took part in Miss England in the 1980s, countered that she was initially terrified of taking part in the pageant’s bikini round, but that it eventually gave her body confidence.
Flora questioned whether the decision is really up to women, or if they feel pressure to have to take part in bikini rounds.
‘I just think the whole thing is disingenuous,’ she said.
‘Don’t pretend you’re doing it for feminist reasons, you’re doing it because you think you’ll get more attention if they are in their bikinis, which you will,’ she shrugged.
Viewers at home sided with Flora, dubbing the bikini round ‘dangerous,’ and ‘misogynistic.’
‘Don’t say you’re not doing it and then bring it back. That’s going backwards,’ one said.
Don’t pretend you’re doing it for women empowerment. It’s only seen as empowering when they’re overweight,’ one said.
‘Women’s beauty pageants are so misogynist and encourages men to mistreat their partners!!
‘Sexualising girls as objects of prettiness. Not good,’ another wrote.
‘Empowering women? really? ,’ one said, ‘that’s judging people on their body not empowering them,’ another said.
‘We’re giving girls the choice …’ my a***,’ one wrote.
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