Karen W. Tice
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199842780
- eISBN:
- 9780199933440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199842780.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This chapter provides an overview on the durability and elasticity of campus pageants over time and their various facelifts. It includes a fieldwork vignette to illustrate the investments made in ...
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This chapter provides an overview on the durability and elasticity of campus pageants over time and their various facelifts. It includes a fieldwork vignette to illustrate the investments made in campus pageantry and gendered performances as well as the divergent agendas of supporters and contestants. As locally-situated expressions of student life and institutional politics, campus pageants channel the tensions of beauty and popular culture and norms for academic distinction. Pageants help to bring to the surface the ways beauty and embodiment infiltrate all aspects of higher education. Since campus beauty pageants rarely lend themselves to one coherent narrative, they help to reveal shifting performative constellations of gendered collegiate excellence as well as socially-located discourses of communal solidarities, class mobility, and cultural education. This chapter introduces the concept of “platforming” to capture the deliberate and ongoing process of self-making and the “doing” of gender, race, and class evident on campus campuses.Less
This chapter provides an overview on the durability and elasticity of campus pageants over time and their various facelifts. It includes a fieldwork vignette to illustrate the investments made in campus pageantry and gendered performances as well as the divergent agendas of supporters and contestants. As locally-situated expressions of student life and institutional politics, campus pageants channel the tensions of beauty and popular culture and norms for academic distinction. Pageants help to bring to the surface the ways beauty and embodiment infiltrate all aspects of higher education. Since campus beauty pageants rarely lend themselves to one coherent narrative, they help to reveal shifting performative constellations of gendered collegiate excellence as well as socially-located discourses of communal solidarities, class mobility, and cultural education. This chapter introduces the concept of “platforming” to capture the deliberate and ongoing process of self-making and the “doing” of gender, race, and class evident on campus campuses.
Chiou-Ling Yeh
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253506
- eISBN:
- 9780520942431
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253506.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines the extent to which participants have transformed the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant in San Francisco since the late 1960s. While many contestants achieved their personal ...
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This chapter examines the extent to which participants have transformed the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant in San Francisco since the late 1960s. While many contestants achieved their personal agendas through the competition, their entries were also manipulated and exploited by ethnic leaders and community and family members in order to fulfill various purposes. In 1958, community leaders created an ideal Chinese American femininity through the national ethnic beauty pageant. Many contestants entered the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant to pursue personal interests, which either overlapped or conflicted with the interests of other Chinese Americans who held a stake in the event. The pageant produced the “model minority” image, which conformed to mainstream gender norms, consumption values, and work ethics, as well as Confucian hierarchy and obedience. This served to negotiate the Chinese American racialized and gendered position, to maintain male patriarchal control, and to attract tourists to Chinatown. Moreover, ethnic and feminist movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s motivated liberals, radicals, and feminists to see the pageant as a battleground for ethnic pride and gender equality.Less
This chapter examines the extent to which participants have transformed the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant in San Francisco since the late 1960s. While many contestants achieved their personal agendas through the competition, their entries were also manipulated and exploited by ethnic leaders and community and family members in order to fulfill various purposes. In 1958, community leaders created an ideal Chinese American femininity through the national ethnic beauty pageant. Many contestants entered the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. beauty pageant to pursue personal interests, which either overlapped or conflicted with the interests of other Chinese Americans who held a stake in the event. The pageant produced the “model minority” image, which conformed to mainstream gender norms, consumption values, and work ethics, as well as Confucian hierarchy and obedience. This served to negotiate the Chinese American racialized and gendered position, to maintain male patriarchal control, and to attract tourists to Chinatown. Moreover, ethnic and feminist movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s motivated liberals, radicals, and feminists to see the pageant as a battleground for ethnic pride and gender equality.
Chiou-Ling Yeh
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253506
- eISBN:
- 9780520942431
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253506.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In 1958, seventeen contestants from California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, and Connecticut came to San Francisco to compete for the first national “Miss Chinatown U.S.A.” beauty ...
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In 1958, seventeen contestants from California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, and Connecticut came to San Francisco to compete for the first national “Miss Chinatown U.S.A.” beauty pageant, held at the Great China Theatre in Chinatown. Ethnic beauty pageants such as Miss Chinatown U.S.A. were the highlight of the contemporary Chinese New Year Festival. Contestants had to participate in various festival events: in addition to competition night, they had to attend a coronation party, a fashion show, and ride on a parade float. Another requirement was to appear in the events sponsored by their family associations. These activities turned contestants into ethnic celebrities. By redefining womanhood, ethnic leaders rearticulated their ideal Chinese American: women and men who were equipped with certain cultural traits such as middle-class gender ideals, higher education, and work ethics that promoted economic success. Moreover, they observed Confucian ideas such as filial piety and gender hierarchy. Through this model minority identity, ethnic leaders attempted to transform Chinese Americans into ethnic minorities and integrate them into mainstream America.Less
In 1958, seventeen contestants from California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, and Connecticut came to San Francisco to compete for the first national “Miss Chinatown U.S.A.” beauty pageant, held at the Great China Theatre in Chinatown. Ethnic beauty pageants such as Miss Chinatown U.S.A. were the highlight of the contemporary Chinese New Year Festival. Contestants had to participate in various festival events: in addition to competition night, they had to attend a coronation party, a fashion show, and ride on a parade float. Another requirement was to appear in the events sponsored by their family associations. These activities turned contestants into ethnic celebrities. By redefining womanhood, ethnic leaders rearticulated their ideal Chinese American: women and men who were equipped with certain cultural traits such as middle-class gender ideals, higher education, and work ethics that promoted economic success. Moreover, they observed Confucian ideas such as filial piety and gender hierarchy. Through this model minority identity, ethnic leaders attempted to transform Chinese Americans into ethnic minorities and integrate them into mainstream America.
Nhi T. Lieu
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665693
- eISBN:
- 9781452946436
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665693.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines the complex ways in which the Vietnamese diaspora in the United States construct cultural identities and imagine their lost nation through beauty pageants. In response to ...
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This chapter examines the complex ways in which the Vietnamese diaspora in the United States construct cultural identities and imagine their lost nation through beauty pageants. In response to exclusionary practices that disqualify Asian women from representing the “nation” by virtue of their race, Vietnamese Americans have organized their own beauty pageants to provide alternative spaces that give “ethnic Vietnamese” women the opportunity to participate and to reign as beauty queens for their ethnic community. This chapter argues that young women play an essential role in the imagined community because they simultaneously represent tradition and modernity in beauty pageants, which not only stage gender politics of the community but also dramatize the various ways in which Vietnamese American citizenship is realized through the performances of young female Vietnamese bodies. It suggests how the bodies of Vietnamese women symbolically invoked nostalgia and become a medium through which cultural nationalism was forged.Less
This chapter examines the complex ways in which the Vietnamese diaspora in the United States construct cultural identities and imagine their lost nation through beauty pageants. In response to exclusionary practices that disqualify Asian women from representing the “nation” by virtue of their race, Vietnamese Americans have organized their own beauty pageants to provide alternative spaces that give “ethnic Vietnamese” women the opportunity to participate and to reign as beauty queens for their ethnic community. This chapter argues that young women play an essential role in the imagined community because they simultaneously represent tradition and modernity in beauty pageants, which not only stage gender politics of the community but also dramatize the various ways in which Vietnamese American citizenship is realized through the performances of young female Vietnamese bodies. It suggests how the bodies of Vietnamese women symbolically invoked nostalgia and become a medium through which cultural nationalism was forged.
Maxine Craig
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195152623
- eISBN:
- 9780199849345
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152623.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book is a study of black women as symbols, and as participants, in the reshaping of the meaning of black racial identity. The meanings and practices of racial identity are continually reshaped ...
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This book is a study of black women as symbols, and as participants, in the reshaping of the meaning of black racial identity. The meanings and practices of racial identity are continually reshaped as a result of the interplay of actions taken at the individual and institutional levels. In chapters that detail the history of pre-Civil Rights Movement black beauty pageants, later efforts to integrate beauty contests, and the transformation in beliefs and practices relating to black beauty in the 1960s, the book develops a model for understanding social processes of racial change. It places changing black hair practices and standards of beauty in historical context and shows the powerful role social movements have had in reshaping the texture of everyday life. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements led a generation to question hair straightening and to establish a new standard of beauty that was summed up in the words “black is beautiful.” Through oral history interviews with Civil Rights and Black Power Movement activists and ordinary women, the book documents the meaning of these changes in black women's lives.Less
This book is a study of black women as symbols, and as participants, in the reshaping of the meaning of black racial identity. The meanings and practices of racial identity are continually reshaped as a result of the interplay of actions taken at the individual and institutional levels. In chapters that detail the history of pre-Civil Rights Movement black beauty pageants, later efforts to integrate beauty contests, and the transformation in beliefs and practices relating to black beauty in the 1960s, the book develops a model for understanding social processes of racial change. It places changing black hair practices and standards of beauty in historical context and shows the powerful role social movements have had in reshaping the texture of everyday life. The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements led a generation to question hair straightening and to establish a new standard of beauty that was summed up in the words “black is beautiful.” Through oral history interviews with Civil Rights and Black Power Movement activists and ordinary women, the book documents the meaning of these changes in black women's lives.
M. Cynthia Oliver
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732429
- eISBN:
- 9781604733488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732429.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter explores why young women join beauty pageants, why locals watch these events, and what role drama and scandal play in these contests. It points out that to the women of the Virgin ...
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This chapter explores why young women join beauty pageants, why locals watch these events, and what role drama and scandal play in these contests. It points out that to the women of the Virgin Islands, pageants are a part of their culture itself, and the subjectivity of beauty allowed women of any background in the Virgin Islands to compete and win. It explains that the public are interested in the failure and downfall of contestants, showing that most audiences are not entirely concerned with beauty. It adds that audiences look forward to blunders, as public failure draws the contestant closer to the audiences because failure humanizes the contestant’s image.Less
This chapter explores why young women join beauty pageants, why locals watch these events, and what role drama and scandal play in these contests. It points out that to the women of the Virgin Islands, pageants are a part of their culture itself, and the subjectivity of beauty allowed women of any background in the Virgin Islands to compete and win. It explains that the public are interested in the failure and downfall of contestants, showing that most audiences are not entirely concerned with beauty. It adds that audiences look forward to blunders, as public failure draws the contestant closer to the audiences because failure humanizes the contestant’s image.
Wen Hua
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9789888139811
- eISBN:
- 9789888180691
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139811.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Beauty is about economy; nevertheless, it is also about ideology. This chapter discusses the political implications of China’s booming beauty economy. A main driving force of cosmetic surgery in ...
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Beauty is about economy; nevertheless, it is also about ideology. This chapter discusses the political implications of China’s booming beauty economy. A main driving force of cosmetic surgery in China is pragmatism. This pragmatism is not only produced by the instability of the transitional Chinese social structure, but is also channelled by the Chinese Communist Party’s pragmatic ideology as exemplified by its ”cat theory” and “xiaokang” concepts. It affects an individual’s choice to undergo cosmetic surgery and the state’s policy of developing its beauty industry. Moreover, using the Miss World competition and the ceremony hostesses of Beijing Olympics as examples, the author discusses how beautiful female bodies have been appropriated into a nationalist agenda in China. Female body image and alteration practices have become both a reflection of personal identity, and a site of ideological contestation, of which state power and market forces reconfigure their power structures to form a new bodily regime.Less
Beauty is about economy; nevertheless, it is also about ideology. This chapter discusses the political implications of China’s booming beauty economy. A main driving force of cosmetic surgery in China is pragmatism. This pragmatism is not only produced by the instability of the transitional Chinese social structure, but is also channelled by the Chinese Communist Party’s pragmatic ideology as exemplified by its ”cat theory” and “xiaokang” concepts. It affects an individual’s choice to undergo cosmetic surgery and the state’s policy of developing its beauty industry. Moreover, using the Miss World competition and the ceremony hostesses of Beijing Olympics as examples, the author discusses how beautiful female bodies have been appropriated into a nationalist agenda in China. Female body image and alteration practices have become both a reflection of personal identity, and a site of ideological contestation, of which state power and market forces reconfigure their power structures to form a new bodily regime.
Kalissa Alexeyeff
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832445
- eISBN:
- 9780824870102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832445.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This chapter maps the relationship between expressive practices and femininity, focusing on the performative presentation of femininity through dance and, particularly, the Miss Cook Islands beauty ...
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This chapter maps the relationship between expressive practices and femininity, focusing on the performative presentation of femininity through dance and, particularly, the Miss Cook Islands beauty pageant. This beauty competition and others like it display the contradictions inherent in performing femininity. On the one hand, women who join such competitions have the potential to become individual paragons of Cook Islands femininity. They are simultaneously required to maintain their modest, self-effacing characteristics, which represent group values. In this opposition, expressive practices play a mediational role, enacting an interplay between individual distinction and group affiliation. Evaluations of femininity (encompassing physical and moral comportment) are conjoined with ideas about race, community, kinship, and family.Less
This chapter maps the relationship between expressive practices and femininity, focusing on the performative presentation of femininity through dance and, particularly, the Miss Cook Islands beauty pageant. This beauty competition and others like it display the contradictions inherent in performing femininity. On the one hand, women who join such competitions have the potential to become individual paragons of Cook Islands femininity. They are simultaneously required to maintain their modest, self-effacing characteristics, which represent group values. In this opposition, expressive practices play a mediational role, enacting an interplay between individual distinction and group affiliation. Evaluations of femininity (encompassing physical and moral comportment) are conjoined with ideas about race, community, kinship, and family.
Carol Giardina
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034560
- eISBN:
- 9780813039329
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034560.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The chapter outlines the growth of the Women's Liberation Movement from being confined to one small room to nationwide and then international coverage. The lawmakers rushed to catch up with the ...
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The chapter outlines the growth of the Women's Liberation Movement from being confined to one small room to nationwide and then international coverage. The lawmakers rushed to catch up with the Women's Liberation and this led to many laws being formed in favor of women. Several unions were also formed for union women who demanded liberation for themselves. Zapping the Miss America Beauty Pageant was another achievement of the women's movement. The chapter also gives details about the first national conference which indicated the growth of the new women's movement. With the rise of the movement between 1968–1970 women all over the nation rose up and fought against male chauvinism with much passion and unity.Less
The chapter outlines the growth of the Women's Liberation Movement from being confined to one small room to nationwide and then international coverage. The lawmakers rushed to catch up with the Women's Liberation and this led to many laws being formed in favor of women. Several unions were also formed for union women who demanded liberation for themselves. Zapping the Miss America Beauty Pageant was another achievement of the women's movement. The chapter also gives details about the first national conference which indicated the growth of the new women's movement. With the rise of the movement between 1968–1970 women all over the nation rose up and fought against male chauvinism with much passion and unity.
Chiou-Ling Yeh
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253506
- eISBN:
- 9780520942431
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253506.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In February 1953, the first Chinese New Year Festival Committee placed an announcement in the major San Francisco Chinese American newspapers. One of the reasons for hosting the Chinese New Year ...
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In February 1953, the first Chinese New Year Festival Committee placed an announcement in the major San Francisco Chinese American newspapers. One of the reasons for hosting the Chinese New Year Festival was to unify non-communist Chinese Americans. This announcement explicitly situated the ethnic festival in a Cold War context; it was clearly a response to the direct impact of American foreign policy on the ethnic community. Whereas most literature on the model minority myth and the general history of Chinese Americans tends to concentrate on the class dimension, this book explores Chinese New Year celebrations and ethnic beauty pageants and parades, addressing class differences within the community and arguing that gender and sexuality are inseparable from ethnic-identity formation. Transnational politics and economies affected Chinese American identity formation and the Chinese New Year celebration. This book demonstrates how certain Chinese American community leaders created, manipulated, and marketed group identity. It also considers how globalization and transnational queer activism affected the ethnic celebration, and how commercialism and the mass media entered the terrain of ethnic-identity formation.Less
In February 1953, the first Chinese New Year Festival Committee placed an announcement in the major San Francisco Chinese American newspapers. One of the reasons for hosting the Chinese New Year Festival was to unify non-communist Chinese Americans. This announcement explicitly situated the ethnic festival in a Cold War context; it was clearly a response to the direct impact of American foreign policy on the ethnic community. Whereas most literature on the model minority myth and the general history of Chinese Americans tends to concentrate on the class dimension, this book explores Chinese New Year celebrations and ethnic beauty pageants and parades, addressing class differences within the community and arguing that gender and sexuality are inseparable from ethnic-identity formation. Transnational politics and economies affected Chinese American identity formation and the Chinese New Year celebration. This book demonstrates how certain Chinese American community leaders created, manipulated, and marketed group identity. It also considers how globalization and transnational queer activism affected the ethnic celebration, and how commercialism and the mass media entered the terrain of ethnic-identity formation.
Sahar Amer
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781469617756
- eISBN:
- 9781469619804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469617756.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter focuses on the Islamic fashion industry and how some women have adopted fashion as an expression of individuality or as a strategy of resistance toward conservative interpretations of ...
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This chapter focuses on the Islamic fashion industry and how some women have adopted fashion as an expression of individuality or as a strategy of resistance toward conservative interpretations of Islam. It examines criticisms against veiling fashions, particularly by conservative Muslims who view the very idea of Muslim fashion as a threat to the practices of devotion and to Islamic core values. It first traces the history of the Islamic fashion industry and the rise of the Muslim middle class before turning to the shopping habits of Muslim women with regards to fashion. It then considers the way Euro-American fashion designers adapt to Islamic fashion; the emergence of fashion design in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia; and Muslim and Middle Eastern designers' development of their own fashion lines, brands, and styles. It also looks at other fashion-related trends that target Muslim women, from swimwear and hair salons to fashion shows, fashion magazines, beauty pageants, and Muslim dolls.Less
This chapter focuses on the Islamic fashion industry and how some women have adopted fashion as an expression of individuality or as a strategy of resistance toward conservative interpretations of Islam. It examines criticisms against veiling fashions, particularly by conservative Muslims who view the very idea of Muslim fashion as a threat to the practices of devotion and to Islamic core values. It first traces the history of the Islamic fashion industry and the rise of the Muslim middle class before turning to the shopping habits of Muslim women with regards to fashion. It then considers the way Euro-American fashion designers adapt to Islamic fashion; the emergence of fashion design in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia; and Muslim and Middle Eastern designers' development of their own fashion lines, brands, and styles. It also looks at other fashion-related trends that target Muslim women, from swimwear and hair salons to fashion shows, fashion magazines, beauty pageants, and Muslim dolls.
Nhi T. Lieu
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816665693
- eISBN:
- 9781452946436
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816665693.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Using research on popular culture of the Vietnamese diaspora, this book explores how people displaced by war reconstruct cultural identity in the aftermath of migration. Embracing American democratic ...
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Using research on popular culture of the Vietnamese diaspora, this book explores how people displaced by war reconstruct cultural identity in the aftermath of migration. Embracing American democratic ideals and consumer capitalism prior to arriving in the United States, postwar Vietnamese refugees endeavored to assimilate and live the American Dream. The text claims that nowhere are these fantasies played out more vividly than in the Vietnamese American entertainment industry. The book examines how live music variety shows and videos, beauty pageants, and websites created by and for Vietnamese Americans contributed to the shaping of their cultural identity. It shows how popular culture forms repositories for conflicting expectations of assimilation, cultural preservation, and invention, alongside gendered and classed dimensions of ethnic and diasporic identity. This text demonstrates how the circulation of images manufactured by both Americans and Vietnamese immigrants serves to produce these immigrants’ paradoxical desires. Within these desires and their representations, the book finds the dramatization of the community’s struggle to define itself against the legacy of the refugee label, a classification that continues to pathologize their experiences in American society.Less
Using research on popular culture of the Vietnamese diaspora, this book explores how people displaced by war reconstruct cultural identity in the aftermath of migration. Embracing American democratic ideals and consumer capitalism prior to arriving in the United States, postwar Vietnamese refugees endeavored to assimilate and live the American Dream. The text claims that nowhere are these fantasies played out more vividly than in the Vietnamese American entertainment industry. The book examines how live music variety shows and videos, beauty pageants, and websites created by and for Vietnamese Americans contributed to the shaping of their cultural identity. It shows how popular culture forms repositories for conflicting expectations of assimilation, cultural preservation, and invention, alongside gendered and classed dimensions of ethnic and diasporic identity. This text demonstrates how the circulation of images manufactured by both Americans and Vietnamese immigrants serves to produce these immigrants’ paradoxical desires. Within these desires and their representations, the book finds the dramatization of the community’s struggle to define itself against the legacy of the refugee label, a classification that continues to pathologize their experiences in American society.
M. Cynthia Oliver
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732429
- eISBN:
- 9781604733488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732429.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter discusses the change in how beauty pageants were held in the Virgin Islands, in light of the country’s economic progress. During the late 1940s, pageants in the Virgin Islands adapted ...
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This chapter discusses the change in how beauty pageants were held in the Virgin Islands, in light of the country’s economic progress. During the late 1940s, pageants in the Virgin Islands adapted portions of contests from the Caribbean, South American, and European pageant model. As the Virgin Islands continued to become more familiar with Western aesthetic practices, it started changing beauty pageants into a venue where economy, nation, and aesthetics converged in the body of a young black female. It points out that islanders finally started to become more interested in beauty, aiming to become as fashionable as their white counterparts.Less
This chapter discusses the change in how beauty pageants were held in the Virgin Islands, in light of the country’s economic progress. During the late 1940s, pageants in the Virgin Islands adapted portions of contests from the Caribbean, South American, and European pageant model. As the Virgin Islands continued to become more familiar with Western aesthetic practices, it started changing beauty pageants into a venue where economy, nation, and aesthetics converged in the body of a young black female. It points out that islanders finally started to become more interested in beauty, aiming to become as fashionable as their white counterparts.
M. Cynthia Oliver
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732429
- eISBN:
- 9781604733488
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732429.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Beauty pageants are wildly popular in the U.S. Virgin Islands, outnumbering any other single performance event and capturing the attention of the local people from toddlers to seniors. Local beauty ...
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Beauty pageants are wildly popular in the U.S. Virgin Islands, outnumbering any other single performance event and capturing the attention of the local people from toddlers to seniors. Local beauty contests provide women with opportunities to demonstrate talent, style, the values of black womanhood, and the territory’s social mores. This book is a comprehensive look at the centuries-old tradition of these expressions in the Virgin Islands. It maps the trajectory of pageantry from its colonial precursors at tea meetings, dance dramas, and street festival parades to its current incarnation as the beauty pageant or “queen show.” For the author, pageantry becomes a lens through which to view the region’s understanding of gender, race, sexuality, class, and colonial power. Focusing on the queen show, the author reveals its twin roots in slave celebrations that parodied white colonial behavior and created creole royal rituals and celebrations heavily influenced by Africanist aesthetics. Using the U.S. Virgin Islands as an intriguing case study, she shows how the pageant continues to reflect, reinforce, and challenge Caribbean cultural values concerning femininity. The book examines the journey of the black woman from degraded body to vaunted queen, and how this progression is marked by social unrest, growing middle-class sensibilities, and contemporary sexual and gender politics.Less
Beauty pageants are wildly popular in the U.S. Virgin Islands, outnumbering any other single performance event and capturing the attention of the local people from toddlers to seniors. Local beauty contests provide women with opportunities to demonstrate talent, style, the values of black womanhood, and the territory’s social mores. This book is a comprehensive look at the centuries-old tradition of these expressions in the Virgin Islands. It maps the trajectory of pageantry from its colonial precursors at tea meetings, dance dramas, and street festival parades to its current incarnation as the beauty pageant or “queen show.” For the author, pageantry becomes a lens through which to view the region’s understanding of gender, race, sexuality, class, and colonial power. Focusing on the queen show, the author reveals its twin roots in slave celebrations that parodied white colonial behavior and created creole royal rituals and celebrations heavily influenced by Africanist aesthetics. Using the U.S. Virgin Islands as an intriguing case study, she shows how the pageant continues to reflect, reinforce, and challenge Caribbean cultural values concerning femininity. The book examines the journey of the black woman from degraded body to vaunted queen, and how this progression is marked by social unrest, growing middle-class sensibilities, and contemporary sexual and gender politics.
M. Cynthia Oliver
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732429
- eISBN:
- 9781604733488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732429.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the larger issues subsumed by the beauty pageant industry in the Virgin Islands, focusing on its relationship with economics, entrepreneurship, and political emergence for the ...
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This chapter examines the larger issues subsumed by the beauty pageant industry in the Virgin Islands, focusing on its relationship with economics, entrepreneurship, and political emergence for the women of the Virgin Islands. It explains that when the Virgin Islands started negotiating with the U.S. for their autonomy, the federal government responded in racist colonial language. The U.S. was concerned about the Virgin Islands’ regard for women’s worth, moral predisposition, and their roles within and without the family, and about their beauty pageant events. Instead of being curtailed and limited by American colonial policies, the women of the Virgin Islands shifted their focus to intraisland relationships, continuing the Islands’ pageantry. The Virgin Islands developed popular pageants dependent on the accumulation of charitable donations, which determined the popular and the powerful among the Islands. The chapter notes that these fund-raising events influenced the perception of women, class, and power, in the Islands.Less
This chapter examines the larger issues subsumed by the beauty pageant industry in the Virgin Islands, focusing on its relationship with economics, entrepreneurship, and political emergence for the women of the Virgin Islands. It explains that when the Virgin Islands started negotiating with the U.S. for their autonomy, the federal government responded in racist colonial language. The U.S. was concerned about the Virgin Islands’ regard for women’s worth, moral predisposition, and their roles within and without the family, and about their beauty pageant events. Instead of being curtailed and limited by American colonial policies, the women of the Virgin Islands shifted their focus to intraisland relationships, continuing the Islands’ pageantry. The Virgin Islands developed popular pageants dependent on the accumulation of charitable donations, which determined the popular and the powerful among the Islands. The chapter notes that these fund-raising events influenced the perception of women, class, and power, in the Islands.
Mark Maguire and Fiona Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719086946
- eISBN:
- 9781781704608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719086946.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
What is everyday life like for the second-generation African-Irish youth? This chapter begins with an ethnographic account of an African beauty pageant in Ireland and shows the complex interactions ...
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What is everyday life like for the second-generation African-Irish youth? This chapter begins with an ethnographic account of an African beauty pageant in Ireland and shows the complex interactions between generations across gendered and cultural lines. This chapter teases out the lived experiences of parenting and of growing up in African-Irish families – from parents’ hopes and fears for their children to young Nigerian and Congolese children's expressions of identity, difference and conformity.Less
What is everyday life like for the second-generation African-Irish youth? This chapter begins with an ethnographic account of an African beauty pageant in Ireland and shows the complex interactions between generations across gendered and cultural lines. This chapter teases out the lived experiences of parenting and of growing up in African-Irish families – from parents’ hopes and fears for their children to young Nigerian and Congolese children's expressions of identity, difference and conformity.
Carol J. Oja
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199862092
- eISBN:
- 9780199379989
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199862092.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Dance
Sono Osato starred in the original production of On the Town as the character Ivy Smith, also known as “Miss Turnstiles,” beauty queen of the subway. As a teenager in Chicago, Osato was hired by the ...
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Sono Osato starred in the original production of On the Town as the character Ivy Smith, also known as “Miss Turnstiles,” beauty queen of the subway. As a teenager in Chicago, Osato was hired by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as they travelled through town, and she had a remarkable career in dance before moving to Broadway. Her father Shoji Osato was a Japanese national, and her mother was of European-American ancestry. During World War II, Shoji Osato was detained as an “alien enemy,” and FBI files chronicle his ongoing persecution, despite the lack of evidence linking him to treasonous intentions. In On the Town, the racial identity of Sono Osato was handled carefully, presenting her as both an all-American girl and an exotic temptress. In an era with virtually no Asian Americans on Broadway, it was remarkable that Osato starred in On the Town without public objection.Less
Sono Osato starred in the original production of On the Town as the character Ivy Smith, also known as “Miss Turnstiles,” beauty queen of the subway. As a teenager in Chicago, Osato was hired by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as they travelled through town, and she had a remarkable career in dance before moving to Broadway. Her father Shoji Osato was a Japanese national, and her mother was of European-American ancestry. During World War II, Shoji Osato was detained as an “alien enemy,” and FBI files chronicle his ongoing persecution, despite the lack of evidence linking him to treasonous intentions. In On the Town, the racial identity of Sono Osato was handled carefully, presenting her as both an all-American girl and an exotic temptress. In an era with virtually no Asian Americans on Broadway, it was remarkable that Osato starred in On the Town without public objection.
M. Cynthia Oliver
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781604732429
- eISBN:
- 9781604733488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781604732429.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter discusses the conditions in which a black queen could not only be imagined but also created, empowered, and sustained for almost 400 years. It explains that the emergence of the black ...
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This chapter discusses the conditions in which a black queen could not only be imagined but also created, empowered, and sustained for almost 400 years. It explains that the emergence of the black beauty queen fulfills the role of a resistant woman that mocks the Victorian era notions of whiteness, femininity, imperialism, social classes, and slavery. It also notes that black beauty pageant queens use dancing, dance dramas, and tea meetings, as methods for mocking Western culture, showing that even black women can be qualified to perform things that only the members of the nobility and royalty could enjoy.Less
This chapter discusses the conditions in which a black queen could not only be imagined but also created, empowered, and sustained for almost 400 years. It explains that the emergence of the black beauty queen fulfills the role of a resistant woman that mocks the Victorian era notions of whiteness, femininity, imperialism, social classes, and slavery. It also notes that black beauty pageant queens use dancing, dance dramas, and tea meetings, as methods for mocking Western culture, showing that even black women can be qualified to perform things that only the members of the nobility and royalty could enjoy.
