In our new book, Sexy Feminism, we share ways to add feminism to every day activities. Your beauty routine, for example, can totally be a feminist act.

But there are some institutions that are the oil to feminism’s water: The two just don’t mix. And Miss America is about as oily as it gets. It was the site, after all, of one of the best-known feminist protests. In 1968, leaders of the fast-growing second wave feminist movement chose that year’s Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City as the place to stage a dramatic protest (and gain the world’s media focus while doing it). The activists used pageant contestants as examples of how women were being devalued in society—that is, for their looks, not their intellect. Into the “freedom trash can” went instruments of oppression—high heels, makeup, bras (no, they were not burned), women’s magazines, and girdles. The event sparked the discussion on standards of female beauty that continues to this day.

Only 17 years earlier, a woman named Yolande Betbeze was fighting for similar progress from within the pageant. She was crowned Miss America in 1951 but was very vocal about her feelings about the swimsuit competition (summary: eye roll). After she was crowned, she refused to pose in underwear-like garments of any kind. Her protest provoked the swimsuit company, Catalina, to pull its sponsorship of the pageant. The Miss America Organization itself says Betbeze’s actions led to a new focus on scholarships, rather than female beauty.

Yes, Miss America’s feminist flaws remain today and, lord, those swimsuits are hardly even clothing anymore. But this one woman’s staunch defense of her morals and advocation of her value is proof that any of us can make real change in the world to help women for generations.