Introduction Beauty Pageants are a relic of an old era- where objectifying women was the norm. Pageants would struggle to pull off a delicate balancing act -- objectifying women while providing them with real opportunities; promoting traditional roles while encouraging women's independence; glorifying feminine modesty while trading on female sexuality. Along the way, it would come to be a barometer of the nation's shifting ideas about American womanhood. With the advent of feminist movement in 20th