'Miss America' to scrap swimsuit round from its pageant

In what could be termed as a historic move, the Miss America beauty pageant`s organizers on Tuesday announced they will scrap the bikini segment from this year's edition. The decision was taken in the wake of the Times Up Movement. Media reports state the organisers were keen to end the objectification of its participants.

"We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance," Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who is now the organization`s chairwoman, said on ABC`s "Good Morning America", reported the New York Times.

"We want more women to know that they are welcome in this organization."

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While the Miss America Organization had long defended the segment where women posed in skimpy swimsuits as a measure of the women`s physical fitness, it has now decided to remove it in wake of a harassment scandal it faces and in view of the #MeToo movement.

Carlson said the competition would focus more on the contestants` talents, intelligence and ideas.