Ex-Miss America winners worry pageant will end despite CEO Sam Haskell's suspension

His misogynistic emails were beyond ugly — leading scores of beauty pageant winners to call for his immediate ouster.

Miss America CEO Sam Haskell was suspended by his board of directors late Friday after a report in the Huffington Post revealed he sent and received disturbing messages bashing and slut-shaming women.

At least one winner blasted the suspension as an insult.

“It's absolutely inadequate, I'm sorry. He's brought public shame on an organization he claims to love. If he doesn't leave, he's not putting the organization first,” New York-based winner Mallory Hagan, who was Miss America 2013, told the Daily News.

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“A suspension sends the message they plan to wait this out until it dies down. That's absolutely not enough,” she said.

In one of the emails revealed Friday, Haskell called it “perfect” when an employee used an offensive reference to female genitalia as a new moniker for former Miss Americas.

He also personally attacked Hagan with nasty remarks about her weight and sex life.

The crass comments sent shockwaves from Atlantic City, where the annual pageant his held, to the California offices of Dick Clark Productions, which confirmed it cut ties with the Miss America Organization over the “appalling” emails.

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Forty-nine of the pageant's former winners banded together in a letter that rejected Haskell's “egregious” behavior and called on the group's top leadership to resign.

The board said it planned an internal investigation but stopped short of firing anyone.

“The Miss America Organization Board of Directors today voted to suspend Executive Chairman and CEO Sam Haskell,” the board said.

“Mr. Haskell, in support of the organization, has agreed to abide by the Board's decision. The Board will be conducting an in-depth investigation into alleged inappropriate communications and the nature in which they were obtained. In addition, the Board wishes to reaffirm our commitment to the education and empowerment of young women, supporting them in every way possible.”

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Haskell is one of seven men on the 16-member board — and holds the highest ranking roll, raking in $500,000 per year.

On Twitter, former winner Kate Shindle predicted Haskell will drive the organization into the ground if he's allowed to stay.

“Frankly, I have learned over last two decades that there will be people who will take down the whole ship rather than relinquish control,” Shindle, crowned in 1998, told The News.

“We want to take back Miss America from board members and CEOs who are more interested in passing nasty comments around about women's weight than empowering young women through scholarship and service,” Shindle said.

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Haskell said Friday that he accepted the board’s decision to suspend him, but he is not resigning, saying that his “mistake is a mistake of words.”

He also attacked the release of the embarrassing messages.

“Much of what was reported is dishonest, deceptive, and despicable. The material is based on private emails that were stolen three years ago by ex-employees. The story is so unkind and untrue, and hurts me, my family, and the stewardship of this non-profit,” he said.

“Those who know my heart know that this is not indicative of my character, nor is it indicative of my business acumen,” Haskell said. “I was under stress from a full year of attacks by two Miss Americas, and while I don't ever want to offer an excuse, I do want to offer context.”

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“I have the utmost respect for the women of this program and contestants at every level. It breaks my heart for anyone to think otherwise.” 

Experts believe there's one way to keep the organization afloat.

"To survive, the organization must evolve — and do something big," Atlanta-based brand strategist Laura Ries said. "They should start by firing everyone at the top. Why are we having men run the Miss America pageant?"

Hilary Levey Friedman, a pageant expert and Professor of Sociology at Brown University, told the Daily News that there are two ways the pageant could return to prominence.

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"If the current board members do not resign, and the people associated with the emails, they will likely lose more sponsors and contestants and volunteers within the program, and if that happens, I'm sure there will be a Miss America pageant, but I'm not sure it will be on network TV," Friedman said, after it was announced Dick Clark Productions would no longer put the pageant on-air.

"The second way it could go is that this is a real watershed moment and new leadership comes in and perhaps, and many people would like to see this be female leadership, this could be a real opportunity for the organization to do something that they haven't done more recently, to return to the more historical roots of Miss America which put women at the front educational opportunities."

Friedman called Haskell's email etiquette "highly problematic," especially given the organization's efforts to promote female empowerment.

"I could not imagine how they possibly feel comfortable with the leader referring to a group of women as "c---ts," Friedman said. "It's just hard to imagine that that's acceptable even to the most conservative of supporters."

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Miss America — which was first held in 1921 — awards scholarships to contestants who place the highest in each competition, but other contestants can be awarded varying amounts based on other criteria such as GPA, community service and field of study.

Nearly $6 million was awarded to various contestants in 2014 (the most recent data available) in the form of national cash scholarships and state and local cash scholarships and tuition waves, according to the foundation's website.

Prominent past winners include Vanessa Williams, Debbye Turner Bell and Gretchen Carlson.

Former Miss America contestant Taylor Marsh was one of many women who took advantage of the pageant's educational opportunities – including the scholarship that allowed her to attend college since her family had little money following her father's death while she was still a young girl.

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Marsh, an author and former Broadway performer, won the Miss Missouri pageant in 1974 and went on to compete in the Miss America competition in Atlantic City in 1975.

"A lot of girls come from poor beginnings, they don't have a lot of choices, they are trying to get out," Marsh said. "I was definitely trying to get out. That's what it was used for before social media. For it to continue I gotta tell you, it's really going to need to see a change."

The writer of the upcoming novel "Olivia's Turn" was grateful to the pageant life for providing her with opportunities, but her feminist nature was sure to note that there is no way an antiquated attitude should be continuing in the 21st century.

"Well if it's going to continue it needs a full plate of women. It is ridiculous in 21st century that men are in charge of pageant like this," she shared. "We don't have to ask why men started this, whatever your body was it mattered."

Marsh recalled how protesters from the National Organization of Women set up outside her hotel during the competition and berated her about her choice to compete. She responded, "Do you want to pay my college tuition?"

"I don't know why people blame the girls," she said. "Some of these people come from broken homes."

"I'd hate to see it completely taken down, you know taken apart, because in these small towns it helps these women with their personal poise and it helps them interact with people, but you can't just bring something from 1930s, 50s and bring it into the 21st century and make it relevant unless you change it," Marsh continued.

Friedman, who taught current Miss America Cara Mund in her "Beauty Pageants in American Society" course at Brown, also felt the idea of prancing around in a swimsuit should be put to an end.

"In order to win you have do have to appear on national TV in a bathing suit, that being said, there are a lot of other skills and opportunities that are created for young women by participating in this program," Friedman said.

"But you still have to wear a bathing suit while you do it."

With MEGAN CERULLO