In this day and age, there’s something almost quaint about beauty pageants. They have been rightly criticized for perpetuating restrictive beauty standards and outdated gender roles, demanding absolute purity from the contestants while ogling their swimsuit-clad bodies. But many institutions have been outpaced by the Internet, and beauty pageants may be losing the sexist arms race. TikTok accounts with millions of followers are earnestly telling their audience that women should be subservient to their husbands, or that embodying sexist stereotypes is Good and Empowering, Actually. Isn’t that more damaging than sashes and high heels?
But perhaps that’s the wrong question to ask. One manifestation of misogyny might be more culturally relevant than another, but they both represent the same thing: a society that marginalizes and oppresses women from the ground up, demanding that they meet impossible standards and treating them with withering cruelty when they fall short. Social norms may have changed, but the reality of sexism remains the same.
Uhl, a classically-trained vocalist who performs as a singer-songwriter in Denver, takes a look at this pernicious system with “Miss United States.” A haunting, eerie lament reminiscent of an American Nico, it’s named after a beauty pageant that, until writing this article, I believed to be a copyright-friendly version of Miss America invented for the movie Miss Congeniality. The elderly woman who serves as the song’s narrator may or may not be a literal Miss United States, but it’s clear that she spent her life chasing youth and beauty. It’s also clear that this has done nothing to stave off the inevitable: “My heart’s still here/and it’s always beating softer.”
Musically speaking, “Miss United States” is quite beautiful, if not a little dissonant. Lush strings crackle and rise in the song’s intro before settling into a sweeping, swooning sound. Uhl’s voice, meanwhile, is gorgeous, summoning operatic gravitas while still retaining its clarity and agility. It reinforces the song’s narrative: it’s very much the kind of voice a beauty queen might have, aging or otherwise. But as grand and romantic as the song sometimes sounds, it doesn’t let you forget the pain at its center.
“When I was in love,” Uhl sings towards the end of “Miss United States,” “nothing really mattered.” It’s a sentiment that sounds romantic on paper, but it’s delivered with longing and regret. Perhaps it felt like nothing mattered at the time, but now that it’s passed the song’s narrator realizes just how many things she neglected as she pursued beauty and love at all costs. Like many young women, she had been taught, explicitly or implicitly, that the proper thing for a woman to do was tend to her looks and attract a man. But there is so much more to life than that, and this woman found that out too late. “Nothing really matters,” she sighs, shifting into the present tense, and the tragedy is complete.
