Miss World Protest 1970

Edited for HOWL by Sue Finch, Jenny Fortune, Jane Grant, Jo Robinson and Sarah Wilson

In 1970 an estimated 100+ women infiltrated the Miss World contest at the Royal Albert Hall in London, throwing leaflets, flour, smoke and stink bombs among other things. They targeted the whole sexist set up of beauty contests and big business that profited, not the contestants. As one of their slogans proclaimed ‘We’re not beautiful, we’re not ugly, we’re angry!’

Some of the women were arrested as a result of the peaceful but noisy and disruptive action which brought the popular televised beauty contest and live transmission of the show to a standstill.

When the contest resumed the Miss World titles went to two black women for the first time, Jennifer Hosten from Grenada and the runner up to Pearl Jansen from South Africa. Pearl had been hastily selected by the organisers as a second entry from South Africa in response to the demands of the Anti-Apartheid movement.

The subsequent trial of the 5 women was widely covered by the media, and focused even more attention on the fledgling women’s liberation movement.

Almost 50 years later, and just before Covid closed everything down in 2020, a feature film called Misbehaviour about the Miss World pageant and the protest was released. In the following year, marking the 50^th anniversary of the event, Misbehaving – Stories of Protest Against the Miss World Contest and the Beauty Industry was published. The book’s editors and other contributors were among those involved in one way or another in planning and participating in the protest inside and outside the Albert Hall. Now, in 2024 they have contributed some clips, memories and stories and some of the wonderful visual material from the book to the HOWL website.

The Miss World action was the first feminist event since the women’s suffrage movement to generate mass publicity in the UK. It was also the first conspicuous act of civil disobedience on behalf of the British women’s movement since the suffragettes. The demonstration made headline news and broke new ground in getting live TV coverage. It was broadcast live to over 100 million viewers worldwide until it was interrupted for over 10 minutes by the protest.

Humour was our weapon, used effectively in posters, pamphlets and cartoons and theatre. It illuminates how we fought for the changes we wanted to see in the world, and are still fighting for. Our stories and images were part of subversive activity at the time – and will hopefully inspire the reader with a sense of what those exciting times were really like.

Tactics

The tactics employed at the Miss World protest 1970 and the subsequent trial mirrored the approach used in earlier protests and movements, such as the 1968 action by women in the USA outside the Miss America contest, and in the civil rights movement in the States and the ‘Deeds not words’ slogan of the Suffragettes long before that. At the time our book was published direct action was having a resurgence in expressions of resistance in movements across the world. The 1970 protest stood on the shoulders of the 1968 Miss America protest, and the women who protested against the 1969 Miss World contest in London.

The protest against a sexist spectacle in the Albert Hall became an iconic moment of resistance in women’s history that burst into the living rooms of a world-wide TV audience. Many women have reported that they became feminists that night.

History and Legacy

The history and significance of the protest have received considerable media attention over the last 50 years: in Philippa Walker’s 2002 documentary Miss World 1970: Feminists and Flour Bombs, in Sue MacGregor’s 2002 BBC Radio 4 Reunion Programme Miss World 1970, in Philippa Lowthorpe’s 2019 comedy drama feature film Misbehaving and in Hannah Berryman’s 2020 documentary Miss World 1970: Beauty Queens and Bedlam, in numerous publications, as well as in our book.

Misbehaving portrays the new and vibrant women’s liberation movement of the early 70s. It tells how women protested inside and outside the Albert Hall, who they were, what took them into the women’s liberation movement, how they organised, why they were protesting and of women’s arrests and subsequent trial. The ‘Why Miss World?’ pamphlet which was written following the trial in 1971 is reproduced in full in the book. There is also a chapter on the global beauty industry today and role of data surveillance in determining (or influencing) our choices ranging from makeup to electoral candidates. It includes over 80 photos and cartoons which enliven the text throughout.

Some contributors’ experiences of the protest

Following the Women’s Liberation conference in Oxford in 1970 there was an explosion in the number of women’s groups in England.

In our group the things we discussed fuelled our desire to take action along with other women. As Sue Finch writes:

The more we talked into the night at our women’s group, the more we felt that what really held us back, and kept us powerless, was being judged by – and then judging ourselves by – how we looked.

In terms of organising for the protest women’s groups across England were independent of each other. Jane Grant comments:

Everyone seemed to be agreed on the principles and aims of our protest but details were left to the individual women and small groups  to work out exactly what to do in the Albert Hall.’ And in the absence of mobile phones, emails and internet in 1970, word of the demonstration spread through the grapevine ‘like bushfire’.

Sarah Wilson had the task of sounding a football rattle to signal the start of the protest. When Bob Hope’s racist, sexist, and humourless drone had finally exceeded everyone’s worst expectations…

It was time to go…I made my way down towards the stage. I turned the football rattle furiously, on and on, for what seemed like forever before there was any response. I felt like the army leader who waves his arm to call his troops to follow him into battle, only to turn around and find there is no longer anyone behind him.’ She learned later ‘that nobody was quite ready, and took a while gathering their possessions and lighting the cigarettes to set off smoke bombs. Then complete pandemonium broke out. Whistles, screams and shouts were coming from all over the auditorium.

Jo Robinson describes sitting on her own in the Albert Hall when the protest kicked off. She had come prepared:

I head down towards the stage to see where I can aim my stuff. I see the Women’s Liberation Banner has been unfurled in the back of the stalls with women cheering around it.

I open my satchel and select some lettuces and tomatoes. I spy the sexist newspaper reporters in the media scrum and think they could do with some more information about us, given the sexist and racist abuse, inaccuracies, and demeaning writing they concoct about women in general. I pick out a leaflet, add some rotten tomatoes and limp lettuces and begin to lob them, shouting, “Take that! Read this!” then quickly head into the safety of the stalls.

In a different part of the vast Hall, Jenny Fortune remembers that

It was all so much better than we had hoped would be possible – the eight of us whooped and shouted in exhilaration – delighted at the sight of Bob Hope running for cover.

We had a panoramic view of the whole thing. I had never been so excited in my life. I didn’t want it to stop and pulled out one of the toy smoke bombs and struggled to get the cigarette lighter to catch the tiny wick, determined to make my final gesture. I hadn’t noticed in my intense concentration that the others had decided to quietly beat a retreat. “Come on Jenny we’re going” they hissed. I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder, caught a navy-blue jacket with shiny buttons out of the corner of my eye. Where was everybody – who was this?

Alison Fell wrote about the protest she and 6 other members of the Women’s Street Theatre Group staged outside the contest at the Albert Hall the following year in 1971.

We wanted to point out the objectification of women. We were all dressed in black, sweaters and trousers. I had designed individual wired up systems and cut holes in the jumpers for reflector around the bulbs. There was a bulb for each breast and a third one for the fanny. I put switches in the pockets of our trousers so at a given signal we would all turn on and flash flash flash…We didn’t have any placards or other messages – just flashing lights.

Mair Twissell had been listening to the radio when she heard about the protest that was in progress.

I knew at once the demonstration was about me. I asked my neighbour downstairs to babysit and I put on my coat and went by bus to the Albert Hall. I saw women outside shouting ‘down with patriarchy’. I identified with their anger and started shouting too. Two policeman grabbed me and pushed me inside a Black Maria and I was taken to the Bow Street Station, put in a holding cell with 4 other women…I was charged with conspiracy and later obstruction and abusive language.

In preparing the book we did a callout to other women involved in the protest and have included their stories and memories as chapters. It’s been estimated that over 100 women protested inside the Albert Hall, with even more demonstrating outside, so we know there are more stories and memories to be recorded.

Do you have a Miss World protest story?

We hope this HOWL story will inspire others to post their experiences of any of the Miss World protests on the HOWL website.

Misbehaving, Stories of Protest Against the Miss World Contest and the Beauty Industry, edited by Sue Finch, Jenny Fortune, Jane Grant, Jo Robinson and Sarah Wilson. Merlin Press, London 2020

To read the whole pamphlet, click here.