Miss America: Deidre Downs
by T. Virgil Parker
Nestled somewhere between the Barbie dolls and the ballet lessons lies the dream of Miss America. The glittering confetti swirls around the figure illuminated with the flash of a thousand cameras and we are left with the image of perfect beauty. What other American is crowned? We imagine her rolling off to Prince Charming in an ornate coach magically transformed from a pumpkin. We see them living out the happily-ever-after thing in a palace of crystal.
With an image as pristine as that, reality has to come crashing through. A system of values that makes physical beauty the most important quality a woman can possess is brutally reductionistic. The concept gave profound ire to the feminists. In the sixties and seventies feminists used to wear dresses made out of meat and necklaces made out of hot dogs, brandishing burning bras when they were protesting Miss America Pageants. You have to admit that the bathing suit contest is a bit demeaning.
The irony begins to accumulate when you consider that the Miss America Pageant was the first and only institution to provide educational scholarships to women back in the day when very few women went to college at all. The resumes the Pageant looks for require the contestants to be at least as skilled as the average C.E.O. They have traditionally sought what can only be called empowered women, albeit ones who look good in an evening gown. They, in their way, have always promoted an image of female empowerment, through beauty and through talent and skill. To be fair, our entire culture is built around beauty, as a pass at a handy television remote will demonstrate. Rarely are we allowed to see less than physical perfection on mass media.

Today’s Miss America is an incredible representation of a contemporary wonder woman. She is likely to be more comfortable behind a baseball diamond or reading a MRI than strolling down the runway. I have trouble imagining a more confident, more universally competent individual.
T. Virgil PARKER: Looking at your ambitious set of goals, I’m going to guess that Miss America wasn’t on the menu until recently.
Deidre Downs: My goal was to make top ten for scholarships and I just kept advancing. It was incredible.
I didn’t start out wanting to be Miss America when I was little. That just happened, later. When I was a little girl I was the biggest tomboy you can imagine. I was the only girl on a boy’s baseball team for six years. I went to college on a volleyball scholarship.
After my first year, I looked at all the things I wanted to do academically and the scholarship just didn’t seem worth it. I gave up my scholarship and I needed a way to pay for school, so I went out for the Miss Alabama Preliminary Pageant, competing for Miss Alabama.
T.V.P.: So you’re not your typical Miss America. You represent a more modern version; more directive, a little more ambitious.
D.D.: I think that’s the perception. I think when you look at my predecessors, particularly in the past fifteen or so years, there are a lot of people with professional ambitions. There are a lot of graduate and doctoral students. I don’t think that’s the general perception of the population. People assume that it is more of the beauty pageant and, and people who just want to win this title. People are using it to further their education. If you take a good look at the contestants you see that they really defy those expectations.
T.V.P.: Talent is a strong component of the contest, and you seem to have a very diverse range of talents.
D.D.: I think it is important to be well rounded. The Miss America Pageant helps develop that, and selects for that. You need to have the academic ambitions and the talent, the performance type talents on stage, whether it be singing or dancing or a instrument. You also have to be very committed to a community service issue. You look at all those factors and you look at what the judges are looking for- which is to do this job. You have to tour extensively and speak frequently. You have to represent the organization. It needs to be someone who is well rounded and can do that.
T.V.P.: How does the actual experience compare with the way you imagined it?
D.D. It’s wild. I don’t even have an apartment this year. I live out of a suitcase. About every two three days I’m on a plane to a different city. A lot of people would assume that there’s a lot of glamour. The reality of it is that it’s much more of a job than anything. The travel schedule can be grueling at times, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
T.V.P.: You’ve seen a great deal of America in a very short time. What kind of insights has that brought your?
D.D. : I love to travel, I love to see different parts of the country, the different local flavor everywhere. I think it is interesting more than anything else. I’ve only been to about 30 states so far, I don’t know if .m going to make it to all fifty or not.
T.V.P.: You’ve been instantly cast into the limelight, are there any particular experiences that stand out?
D.D.: Most recently I got to meet Jimmy Carter. They asked me if there was anybody that I really wanted to meet and they would try to make it happen. I chose Jimmy Carter because he’s a personal hero of mine for all he’s done with diplomacy as well as in terms of social justice and working with Habitat for Humanity. They worked that out for me. We met at a Habitat for Humanity build site in Michigan. I was incredible. He blew away all my expectations of him. I had pretty high expectations of him already. He was a very genuine guy.
T.V.P.: You are very passionate about the causes you support. What do you think helped you gain a perspective on social equity child cancer?
D.D.: I think for me, growing up, my mom had always taught us that you really have to look beyond your own perspective and there are issues and problems in the community that are so often ignored. When you’ve been given opportunities to be successful, to have an education, to be Miss America, you really have to use that opportunity to make a difference That was really the driving force for me to go into medicine. I really want to go into indigent care specifically.
I got involved in a childhood cancer summer camp about seven years ago. I became passionate about it. That was the impetus for me to become a doctor. Childhood cancer is something that so many people overlook. It is the number one killer of children. We need to spend more time, and frankly, more money on it.
When I started looking at the problem, I realized that what was needed was a permanent source of research funding in Alabama. That’s when I developed the state-wide license plate, ‘Securing Childhood Cancer’ license plate. It’s an official license plate and it took me three years to get it into production with the help of volunteers and lobbyists. We finally got it running and we raised $100,000 in the first year. We’re very excited about it.
T.V.P.: That’s awesome.
D.D.: It is great to work on something so long and so hard, and then to see a car go by with that license plate is pretty cool.
T.V.P.: You did your undergrad work in history. That’s a big leap to pediatrics. A lot of people headed for medical school focus on Pre-Med.
D.D.: Just recently, a lot of medical schools give more weight to non-science majors. I knew going into college that I anted to go to medical school, and I had an advisor tell me that it didn’t matter what I majored in as long as I tool al the required courses for medical school.
I ended up minoring in Biology and Chemistry. What I wanted to focus on was history. I’ve always loved history and politics. I figured that I’m going to be doing the science for four years in medical school anyway.
T.V.P.: Has your beauty ever made it harder to be taken seriously?
D.D.: I don’t know. It is kind of hard to judge, outside of Miss America. I have noticed this year that people do have assumptions about Miss America that I’ve been trying to dispel.
When I speak I try to focus on my sports background and my career aspirations. I represent the kind of contestant who’s competing now, a well rounded type of person and not necessarily this pageant stereotype. I think people are very surprised by that.. This is such a great program. It’s provided so much scholarship money for me. It paid my whole way for college and I’ve got about $75,000 for medical school.
T.V.P.: I wouldn’t be surprised if the nature of the candidates if going to evolve because of the focus you’re putting on that.
D.D.: I’m sure there are plenty of people who could use it.
T.V.P.: Positive images for ambitious women are hard to come by in contemporary America.
D.D.: That’s very true.
T.V.P.: You have a plane to catch. Is there anything you want to add before I let you go?
D.D.: That just about covers it. Thanks, Tim.