Miss Massachusetts Pageant Officials Apologize Over Skit Mocking Swimsuit Competition, #MeToo Movement
Ahead of September's Miss America, states across the U.S. have been crowning the titleholders who'll represent them at the pageant. On June 30, the Miss Massachusetts state pageant crowned its first-ever black winner, Gabriela Taveras. But Tavares' victory has been overshadowed by controversy surrounding an on-stage skit performed during the final night of the competition, which has since led to one local titleholder handing back her crown, and gained national attention.
In the skit, the pageant's emcee Ami Schmitz pretends to pray to God, who was played on-stage by a pageant volunteer, Rich Allegretto.
"Miss America did away with the swimsuit competition," Schmitz says, kneeling as if praying. "We may have very well seen the last ever swimsuit competition on stage. It’s very upsetting. And I’m trying to understand, God, why it happened.”
“Me too, Ami,” Allegretto replies, while holding up a #MeToo sign. In a video obtained by The Observer, audience members are heard cheering and applauding (though the Observer also reported that others "were floored by the tone-deaf remark").
Former Miss America and current head of the national board Gretchen Carlson, who sued her former Fox News boss Roger Ailes for $20 million over sexual harassment, has been a vocal supporter of the #MeToo movement, and has said the elimination of the swimsuit competition will take the focus off the contestants’ appearance.
#MeToo has been cited as a factor in the pageant cutting swimsuit specifically; according to The Wall Street Journal, Miss America board member Regina Hopper said prior to the unanimous vote that “no television partner would want to be associated with a swimsuit competition, given the sensitivities of the #MeToo era.”
In an email to Cosmopolitan.com this week, Carlson said that this Miss America board will not be commenting on the skit.
Contestant Maude Gorman, who represented Plymouth County in the state competition, resigned after the pageant over the skit, giving up her crown. Gorman is a sexual assault survivor who has spoken openly about being gang raped at age 13 as part of her platform during her previous reign as Miss Massachusetts World America (part of a different pageant system). In an interview this week with Cosmopolitan.com, she said that she couldn’t believe the reference was made, especially given that Allegretto is a survivor himself (according to a statement he issued on the Miss Massachusetts Facebook page earlier this week). Gorman said she believes the reference was “a joke made in poor taste.”
“That was very dark for them to go there,” Gorman said. “There’s so much talent being showcased that night, so many intelligent and really powerful women giving back to their communities, and they used [the skit] as an opportunity to undermine a movement that empowered survivors to speak up, which was very inappropriate.”
Gorman added that while she’s accepted Allegretto’s apology, she feels it’s important to continue to speak out. “I just wanted to take a stand and show people I’m not someone who will tolerate something like that,” Gorman said. “I’ve worked hard to advocate for change and be a voice of survivors for years, and this went against every fiber in my body, and I needed to do something.”
Gabriela Taveras, who is also a sexual assault survivor, told Cosmopolitan.com she too believes the skit was "inappropriate."
She said she didn’t know about the skit until after she was crowned (as she was in a dressing room backstage while it happened). She added that she had been assured by the state board that they had no prior knowledge either. "But I also know that it wasn't the intent and that's where it becomes complicated - intent and results are two separate things and we cannot control in which direction this goes in," Taveras continued. “I hope everyone takes this as a learning moment." In a statement on her Facebook page, she added that, "the Miss Massachusetts board understands this topic was, and never will be, a laughing matter."
Allegretto, who made the #MeToo reference during the skit, told Cosmopolitan.com that the aim was only to poke fun at the uproar surrounding the removal of the swimsuit competition (representatives of the pageant boards at more than 20 states have signed on to a letter voicing disapproval over its removal) from the Miss America competition and not to portray #MeToo in a negative light.
"That was not the intention behind it," Allegretto said of the outcry surrounding the (tone-deaf) punchline in an interview Thursday. "It was meant as a positive - meaning the Miss America pageant is getting rid of swimsuit, and the impact of what #MeToo does has been heard, and it’s great. It [was meant to] recognize the power of women and that they don’t need to be walking around in swimsuits."
According to Dolores “Buffy” Rabuffo, executive director of the Miss Massachusetts board, emcee Ami Schmitz (who declined to comment on the record when reached by Cosmopolitan.com) will not be asked back. The state board has also issued an apology on its Facebook page, offering its "sincere and heartfelt apology for those offended."
Allegretto said he takes “full ownership” for the #MeToo reference, but declined to say how the idea for the skit’s punchline came about.
“The pageant and the people involved have done wonderful things for decades,” Allegretto said. “And I'm so sorry that anything that I did or said was received any way other than the positive way it was meant.”
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