Miss World 1960
Miss World's following in the 1960s grew exponentially after the pageant's television debut in 1959. Along with its growing popularity through the decade, the competition was marked by a series of scandals that put the spotlight on contestants' off-stage lives.
In 1960, Argentina's Norma Gladys Cappagli was threatened with disqualification from Miss World when it was reported that she frequently drank alcohol. Britain's Lesley Langley, crowned Miss World 1965, hit the front page of many tabloids for having posed in the nude. Scandal broke out again four years later when it was leaked that Austria's Eva Von Ruber-Staier, Miss World 1969, also had shed her clothes in a photo shoot. Both women were spared the shame of being dethroned. But with each successive hint of scandal, pageant organizers and viewers at home were forced to reconcile the real Miss World contestants with the girl-next-door image the competition had tried so hard to package.
The women's movement of the 1960s also rocked Miss World. By the end of the decade, feminists mobilized against the contest. The entire beauty pageant industry faced mounting criticism and stinging mockery. In 1968, the U.S.-based Women's Liberation Front crowned a sheep as Miss America. Other radical women's organizations began following suit, staging mock farm auctions and cattle shows that drew comparisons between the treatment of livestock and the portrayal of women in beauty contests.
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