Monday, 13 April 2009

Globalization and the Femina: Making Sense of 'Making India Miss World'

http://missosology.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5298
When academic constipation strikes, I take the beauty pageant pill! I am under the impression that writing about what interests me would push me to write about what I should be writing (with emphasis on the final clause).

Thanks to Susan Dewey's 'Making India Miss World' (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008) - a marvelous acquisition of the NUS library, my little neurons have just had their much needed exercise and hopefully, have been activated to do what they're supposed to be doing!

2 comments:

  1. Gene, does the beauty pageant mania only happen in third world countries? My friends (Mexican, Costa Rican and a Canadian) used to tease me about my fascination with the Misses...it was then that I realized it might be just us and the Latin Americans plus India who are into beauty pageants?

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  2. Dang, sa tingin ko pageant mania is most prevalent in Third World countries. I'm sure the majority of the people there in London couldn't care less about Miss World or Miss Universe. I guess in most affluent states/ countries, beauty pageants are no big deal because women have actually a lot of options or opportunities for personal growth or social mobility.

    For Third World countries like India and the Philippines, beauty pageants are the easiest way for some women to enter the media industry where they can earn not only money but also attention and an "opportunity to be heard." Also people in countries like ours need such spectacles as beauty pageants (that celebrate idealized femininity and evoke national pride) to gloss over the harsh realities of life (re: poverty, social inequity). Consequently, this glossing over our painful realities keeps us sane, I guess.

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