Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Fifty years after Jamaican and Trinidadian independence, Imagining Caribbean Womanhood examines the links between beauty and politics in the Anglophone Caribbean, providing a first cultural history of Caribbean beauty competitions, spanning from Kingston to London. It traces the origins and transformation of female beauty contests in the British Caribbean from 1929 to 1970, through the development of cultural nationalism, race-conscious politics and decolonisation. The beauty contest, a seemingly marginal phenomenon, is used to illuminate the persistence of racial supremacy, the advance of consumer culture and the negotiation of race and nation through the idealised performance of cultured, modern beauty. Modern Caribbean femininity was intended to be politically functional but also commercially viable and subtly eroticised. The lively discussion surrounding beauty competitions, examined in this book, reveals that femininity was used to shape ideas about Caribbean modernity, citizenship, and political and economic freedom. This cultural history of Caribbean beauty competitions will be of value to scholarship on beauty, Caribbean studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies, 'race' and racism studies and studies of the body.

Ethnic attitudes --- Race awareness --- Beauty contests --- Attitude (Psychology) --- Ethnic relations --- Minorities --- Cultural awareness --- Awareness --- Ethnopsychology --- Beauty pageants --- Pageants, Beauty --- Contests --- History --- Political aspects --- Social aspects --- Anglophone Caribbean. --- Barbados. --- British Caribbean. --- Caribbean beauty contests. --- Carnival Queen. --- Claudia Jones. --- Jamaican racial democracy. --- London. --- Miss Ebony. --- Miss Jamaica. --- Miss Trinidad. --- TenTypes Model. --- West Indian Gazette. --- black beauty culture. --- creme de la creme. --- cultural revolution. --- radical feminism.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Sarah Banet-Weiser complicates the standard feminist take on beauty pageants in this intriguing look at a hotly contested but enduringly popular American ritual. She focuses on the Miss America pageant in particular, considering its claim to be an accurate representation of the diversity of contemporary American women. Exploring the cultural constructions and legitimations that go on during the long process of the pageant, Banet-Weiser depicts the beauty pageant stage as a place where concerns about national identity, cultural hopes and desires, and anxieties about race and gender are crystallized and condensed. The beauty pageant, she convincingly demonstrates, is a profoundly political arena deserving of serious study. Drawing on cultural criticism, ethnographic research, and interviews with pageant participants and officials, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World illustrates how contestants invent and reinvent themselves while articulating the female body as a national body. Banet-Weiser finds that most pageants are characterized by the ambivalence of contemporary "liberal" feminism, which encourages individual achievement, self-determination, and civic responsibility, while simultaneously promoting very conventional notions of beauty. The book explores the many different aspects of the Miss America pageant, including the swimsuit, the interview, and the talent competitions. It also takes a closer look at some extraordinary Miss Americas, such as Bess Myerson, the first Jewish Miss America; Vanessa Williams, the first African American Miss America; and Heather Whitestone, the first Miss America with a disability.

Beauty contests --- National characteristics. --- Racism in popular culture. --- Popular culture --- Characteristics, National --- Identity, National --- Images, National --- National identity --- National images --- National psychology --- Psychology, National --- Anthropology --- Nationalism --- Social psychology --- Collective memory --- Ethnopsychology --- Exceptionalism --- Miss Universe Pageant. --- Miss America Pageant. --- Taḥarut "Mis Yunivers" --- achievement. --- american women. --- beauty pageants. --- beauty standards. --- beauty. --- bess myerson. --- black miss america. --- cultural criticism. --- disability. --- diversity. --- empowerment. --- ethnography. --- feminism. --- gender studies. --- gender. --- heather whitestone. --- interview. --- interviews. --- jewish miss america. --- liberal feminism. --- miss america. --- national identity. --- nonfiction. --- pageant officials. --- pageant participants. --- pageants. --- race. --- ritual. --- sexuality. --- social issues. --- sociology. --- swimsuit. --- talent competitions. --- vanessa williams.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Pageants, Parlors, and Pretty Women: Race and Beauty in the Twentieth-Century South

Civil rights movements --- Race awareness --- African American women --- History --- Social conditions --- Southern States --- Race relations --- Afro-American women --- Women, African American --- Women, Negro --- Beauty contests --- Beauty shops --- Beauty, Personal --- Cosmetics --- Human skin color --- Black race --- Women --- Awareness --- Ethnopsychology --- Ethnic attitudes --- Social aspects --- Psychological aspects --- Color --- Negro race --- Race --- Color of human beings --- Color of man --- Human beings --- Pigmentation of human skin --- Skin --- Skin color, Human --- Skin pigmentation, Human --- Beauty aids --- Complexion --- Make-up (Cosmetics) --- Makeup (Cosmetics) --- Costume --- Beauty culture --- Toilet preparations --- Beauty --- Grooming, Personal --- Grooming for women --- Personal beauty --- Personal grooming --- Toilet (Grooming) --- Hygiene --- Aesthetics industry --- Beauty parlors --- Beauty salons --- Beauty services industry --- Parlors, Beauty --- Salons, Beauty --- Service industries --- Beauty pageants --- Pageants, Beauty --- Contests