--- title: Miss America Pageant and the Real Protest on Masters of Sex description: While Miss Arkansas happily danced her way to the 2017 "Miss America" title, a flashback to the 1968 pageant protests aired on Showtime. canonical: https://time.com/4487585/miss-america-2016-masters-of-sex-1968-pageant/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-12T18:32:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:31.727Z article:section: History og:title: The Real Miss America Protest Behind a 'Masters of Sex' Moment og:description: While Miss Arkansas happily danced her way to the 2017 "Miss America" title, a flashback to the 1968 pageant protests aired on Showtime. og:url: https://time.com/4487585/miss-america-2016-masters-of-sex-1968-pageant/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt202cb4fae2f5d4b2/6988a5985f570f0767b227be/masters-of-sex-miss-america.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: masters-of-sex-miss-america og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Real Miss America Protest Behind a 'Masters of Sex' Moment twitter:description: While Miss Arkansas happily danced her way to the 2017 "Miss America" title, a flashback to the 1968 pageant protests aired on Showtime. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt202cb4fae2f5d4b2/6988a5985f570f0767b227be/masters-of-sex-miss-america.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Real Miss America Protest Behind a _Masters of Sex_ Moment  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 12, 2016 6:32 PM UTC  Warren Feldman/Showtime  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 12, 2016 6:32 PM UTC **Warning: This piece contains spoilers for** **_Masters of Sex_** While Miss Arkansas Savvy Shields [happily danced](http://time.com/4486998/miss-america-winner-savvy-shields-miss-arkansas/) her way to the 2017 “Miss America” title in Atlantic City, N.J., on Sunday night, a flashback to the 1968 pageant overshadowed by protests was airing on Showtime. The Season 4 premiere of _Masters of Sex_ opened with renowned sex researcher [Virginia Johnson](http://time.com/3880364/the-real-masters-of-sex-life-with-masters-and-johnson/) (Lizzy Caplan) watching televised footage of women chanting “no more bras” and stuffing the undergarments, which a voice on screen describes as “hideous symbol of patriarchal oppression,” into a “Freedom Trash Can.” That dramatic episode really did occur on Sept. 7, 1968, when nearly [400 protesters ](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2088114%5F2087975%5F2087965,00.html)picketed the event. As TIME described the scene in a [Sept. 13, 1968 article](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,838679,00.html): --- > “” --- The women never set fire to the waste bin because “starting a fire on the boardwalk was illegal,” but the protest is known for fueling “the association of feminists as ‘bra-burners,'” as Jennifer Lee, director of _Feminist: Stories from Women’s_ _Liberation_, [wrote](http://time.com/2853184/feminism-has-a-bra-burning-myth-problem/) in 2014. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) That volatile moment in the history of feminism was a point of reference throughout the show’s season premiere. Masters’ wife Libby (Elisabeth Ellis in real life, played by Caitlin FitzGerald) is referred to a “women’s group” run by one of her lawyer’s former clients — a woman who some viewers have [noted](http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-masters-of-sex-tries-to-fix-its-many-flaws-but-is-it-too-late-to-matter) looks like a young Gloria Steinem. The group encourages women to air their grievances and views of current events. At the group, Libby dismisses the Miss America protest as “silly” and “useless,” until the leader asks her why she’s so attached to a “breast restraint that’s become a multi-billion dollar industry owned and operated by men.”  TIME's August 31, 1970, cover story discussed the progress of women's liberationists and featured Kate Millett, author of the landmark feminist text Sexual Politics, on the cover. TIME TIME’s [August 31, 1970](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,876783,00.html), cover story described meetings like the one Masters attended as the “heart” of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Such meetings promoted a “common awareness of problems” throughout the 1960s. As the magazine explained: --- > “” --- For a show all about how Masters and Johnson seemed like the only ones talking about the real science behind sex, it’s already clear that Season 4 will take place in a period of history when social movements empowered people to talk about sex, among other topics once considered taboo. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4487585/miss-america-2016-masters-of-sex-1968-pageant/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4487585/miss-america-2016-masters-of-sex-1968-pageant/"},"headline":"The Real Miss America Protest Behind a Masters of Sex Moment","datePublished":"2016-09-12T18:32:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:31.727Z","description":"The show's Season 4 premiere highlighted a volatile moment in American history","url":"https://time.com/4487585/miss-america-2016-masters-of-sex-1968-pageant/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt202cb4fae2f5d4b2/6988a5985f570f0767b227be/masters-of-sex-miss-america.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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