Our Town

The Miss America pageant has come to Harvard. It has arrived in the form of a young woman with sparkling blue eyes and a confident smile, a woman who does not habitually wear cakey make-up or Aqua-net.

Elizabeth "Emy" E. Hancock '00, a.k.a. Miss Massachusetts, competed two weeks ago in the Miss America pageant, not finishing in the top but winning a special prize for "Best Interview."

"The experience of being there in Atlantic City was just incredible," she says. "I met so many outstanding young women. And all these people interested in women's goals."

The pageant Hancock competed in has grown and changed since the days when feminist activists crowned a pig outside the Atlantic City Convention Center in 1969. It now requires contestants to come prepared with a "Platform Issue," an area personally important to them that they would advocate for as Miss America. Only a small percentage of the total scores come from 'beauty' areas--the interviews and platform issues are increasingly important. Which makes a big difference in Hancock's attitude towards the pageant.

"In Miss America, beauty-type categories are a very small percentage of the scoring," Hancock says. "It's not about beauty--it's about social activism and goals."

Hancock learned about pageants early--her mother once competed for the "Miss Kentucky" title. She grew up aware of their appeal, watching them on TV with her family, yet she was interested in taking to the walkway until they included social activism.

"When women started having platform issues instead of just being beauty queens--that's when I decided I wanted to be involved in it," she says.

Hancock has been highly successful in her short career as a pageant contestant. She entered in her first local competition last April. When she won that, she qualified to compete for the "Miss Massachusetts" title, which she also won.

As the reigning Miss Massachusetts, Hancock has a demanding schedule, appearing at events ranging from Jimmy Buffet concerts to rodeos for charity to promote her platform issue: Environmental Protection. And she does this while maintaining the hectic existence of a Harvard student.

"People at the Miss America pageant were surprised that I was from Harvard, saying that went against the pageant stereotype. But the pageant is ultimately about following your goals and dreams, which is very much what Harvard is about."

However, she says that her days as a pageant contestant are over. Once a woman has competed in the Miss America pageant, she can no longer compete in future Miss America contests. The alternative is to compete on the "Miss U.S.A." circuit--the one that finishes with the selection of "Miss Universe."

"That's primarily a beauty pageant," Hancock says. "It's not something I really believe in."

To some, this statement might appear hypocritical--the pageant winner who doesn't believe in beauty pageants. However, if you buy the idea that Miss America today is about outstanding young women, not about outstanding bodies, it makes sense.

One age-old objectifying vestige of the Miss America pageant remains, however--the swimsuit competition. Hancock says that it was her least favorite part of the show.

"They say it's to display physical fitness, but c'mon! You have to walk up on this spinning platform and stand there. I felt like I was on display and it took away from my ability to show my personality," she says. "However, the fact is that if you win 'Miss America' you're going to be put on display in front of the press a lot and asked difficult questions and have to handle yourself when you feel uncomfortable."

Hancock is comfortable, however, without the Miss America title.

"I have never been more at peace with myself than I was right after my name wasn't called," she says of the final round. "I'd done my best and I did what I came there to do and maybe I was meant to go home and touch the lives of people in Massachusetts, not travel around as Miss America."

Since her return to the College, Hancock has been able to return to routine.

"Everyone at Harvard has been really great, really supportive," she says. "I got letters from Deans. I have a big card up in my room signed by people from Lowell House. And a small group of Harvard students came to Atlantic City to support me."

You can also see her head shot on the wall at Pinocchio's. Harvard has very much enjoyed Hancock's triumph.

"The thing about Harvard," says Hancock, "is that people are pursuing so many different goals that they know better than to cut someone down for pursuing theirs. I have found so much support here."