Hanisch was in a small group called New York Radical Women, and they got the idea to target the Miss America pageant after a group meeting discussion about beauty standards. "It was kind of a gutsy thing to do," she says. "Miss America was this 'American pie' icon. Who would dare criticize this?" Hanisch and her group handed out fliers, crowned a live sheep to compare the pageant to a livestock competition at a county fair, and snuck into the event hall with a sheet that read "Women's Liberation." "I think we got in at least half a dozen shouts of 'women's liberation' and 'No more Miss America!'" before the cops hustled them out, says Kathie Sarachild, another member of New York Radical Women. Newspapers around the country picked up on these "bra-burning women's libbers." A myth was born.

These days, Carol Hanisch seems ready for another stunt: "Young women have come through the doors that our generation opened, but I don't think they're grasping their situation any more than we did before we began to grasp ours," she says. "We could certainly use another protest. If I could think of one, I would be doing it. I hope somebody does."

Pageant Protest Sparked Bra-Burning Myth [NPR]