Being Miss America

Behind the Rhinestone Curtain

By: Kate Shindle

Narrated by: Kathleen Godwin

In Being Miss America, Kate Shindle interweaves an engrossing, witty memoir of her year as Miss America 1998 with a fascinating and insightful history of the pageant. She explores what it means to take on the mantle of America's "ideal", especially considering the evolution of the American female identity since the pageant's inception. Shindle profiles winners and organization leaders and recounts important moments in the pageant's story, with a special focus on Miss America's iconoclasts, including Bess Myerson (1945), the only Jewish Miss America; Yolande Betbeze (1951), who crusaded against the pageant's pinup image; and Kaye Lani Rae Rafko (1987), a working-class woman from Michigan who wanted to merge her famous title with her work as an oncology nurse. Shindle's own account of her work as an AIDS activist - and finding ways to circumvent the "gown and crown" stereotypes of Miss America in order to talk honestly with high school students about safer sex - illuminates both the challenges and the opportunities that keep young women competing to become Miss America.

©2014 Kate Shindle (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A captivating cultural history of the last 100 years in America through the lens of the Miss America Pageant..." ( Library Journal)

An Honest Review of the MAO from an Insiders Perspective

I loved that she took you through each segment of time and explained in detail how and why each women and hiccup was another piece of the puzzle that makes up the MAO. Refreshingly honest and felt like she needed to tell the public the truth she has seen for years. 10/10

Well-written and informative!

It’s not only about Godwin, but also about Miss America as a whole. Very informative and catchy.