Miss Plymouth County Returns Her Crown Because of #MeToo Joke

A beauty pageant winner has chosen to give up her title after a skit during the competition mocked the MeToo movement.

Maude Gorman, 24, who held the title of Miss Plymouth County in the 2018 Miss Massachusetts pageant, was not amused by the skit carried out by the pageant emcees. The joke reportedly featured one person playing the character of God, to which the host asked why swimsuit competitions were removed from pageants. The character held up a sign in response that read “#MeToo”.

In an interview with NBC Boston, Gorman stated that as a sexual assault survivor herself she felt betrayed watching the skit unfold from backstage. “To mock a movement that has empowered survivors to stand up is inappropriate, and especially a women’s empowerment organization, should be unacceptable,” said Gorman.

The pageant queen took to Instagram to announce her resignation.

Today, I officially resigned from the title of Miss Plymouth County 2018. While I’m grateful for the opportunities that @missamerica creates for young women, I am also internally conflicted; as the #metoo movement was mocked on stage during the final competition of Miss Massachusetts. As both a survivor, and advocate for victims rights and sexual violence on a whole, I refuse to stand idly by and simply “let this go”. Instead, I will stand up for every individual who has ever had the courage to speak out; and for every person who felt liberated by the #metoo movement. I will not allow ANYONE to take away that empowerment and liberation, or make it anything less than what it is: AMAZING. #metoo #missplymouthcounty #nomore #rainn #surviveandthrive

A post shared by Maude Gorman 🇺🇸 (@maudernliving) on Jul 5, 2018 at 9:03am PDT

Since the pageant the Miss Massachusetts organization has issued an apology on Facebook stating that the skit was not an approved part of the competition and they will be taking measures to screen future skits prior to the pageant.