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6. International Spectacles, National Borders: Miss Universe and the "Family of Nations"

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The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
This chapter is in the book The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
CHAPTER 6 INTERNATIONAL SPECTACLES, NATIONAL BORDERS MISS UNIVERSE AND THE "FAMILY OF NATIONS" As we have seen, the Miss America pageant is a place where cultural mean-ings about the local, the national, the typical, and the ideal are produced, negotiated, and circulated. In this chapter, I examine these meanings and their circulation in an international context and focus on pageants pro-duced outside of North American borders. In the Miss America pageant, the formation of national identity depends upon the political structure of whiteness and representation for its articulation. The complex interplay between the local and the national is clearly modeled upon an even broader, international plane, where the national and the international are mutually constitutive in the field of representational politics. Like the Miss America pageant, national pageants such as Miss India or Miss Italy and international pageants such as Miss World or Miss Universe engage is-sues of nationalism, ethnicity, and localism in what are often somewhat trivial—but nonetheless vital—aspects. 181
© 2020 University of California Press, Berkeley

CHAPTER 6 INTERNATIONAL SPECTACLES, NATIONAL BORDERS MISS UNIVERSE AND THE "FAMILY OF NATIONS" As we have seen, the Miss America pageant is a place where cultural mean-ings about the local, the national, the typical, and the ideal are produced, negotiated, and circulated. In this chapter, I examine these meanings and their circulation in an international context and focus on pageants pro-duced outside of North American borders. In the Miss America pageant, the formation of national identity depends upon the political structure of whiteness and representation for its articulation. The complex interplay between the local and the national is clearly modeled upon an even broader, international plane, where the national and the international are mutually constitutive in the field of representational politics. Like the Miss America pageant, national pageants such as Miss India or Miss Italy and international pageants such as Miss World or Miss Universe engage is-sues of nationalism, ethnicity, and localism in what are often somewhat trivial—but nonetheless vital—aspects. 181
© 2020 University of California Press, Berkeley

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. CONTENTS VII
  3. ILLUSTRATIONS IX
  4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XI
  5. INTRODUCTION 1
  6. 1. "A Certain Class of Girl": Respectability and the Structure of the Miss America Pageant 31
  7. 2. Anatomy of a Beauty Pageant: The Swimsuit Competition 58
  8. 3. "If You Were a Color, What Color Would You Be?": The Interview and Talent Competitions in the Miss America Pageant 87
  9. 4. Bodies of Difference: Race, Nation, and the Troubled Reign of Vanessa Williams 123
  10. 5. The Representational Politics of Whiteness and the National Body: Bess Myerson, Miss America 1945, and Heather Whitestone, Miss America 1995 153
  11. 6. International Spectacles, National Borders: Miss Universe and the "Family of Nations" 181
  12. CONCLUSION 205
  13. NOTES 211
  14. BIBLIOGRAPHY 241
  15. INDEX 265
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https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520922600-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. CONTENTS VII
  3. ILLUSTRATIONS IX
  4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XI
  5. INTRODUCTION 1
  6. 1. "A Certain Class of Girl": Respectability and the Structure of the Miss America Pageant 31
  7. 2. Anatomy of a Beauty Pageant: The Swimsuit Competition 58
  8. 3. "If You Were a Color, What Color Would You Be?": The Interview and Talent Competitions in the Miss America Pageant 87
  9. 4. Bodies of Difference: Race, Nation, and the Troubled Reign of Vanessa Williams 123
  10. 5. The Representational Politics of Whiteness and the National Body: Bess Myerson, Miss America 1945, and Heather Whitestone, Miss America 1995 153
  11. 6. International Spectacles, National Borders: Miss Universe and the "Family of Nations" 181
  12. CONCLUSION 205
  13. NOTES 211
  14. BIBLIOGRAPHY 241
  15. INDEX 265
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