The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and National Identity Paperback - 1999 - 1st Edition

First line

Every year at least 7,500 beauty pageants in the United States are franchised by either the Miss America Scholarship program or the Miss USA pageant.

From the rear cover

The Miss America pageant has assumed a recognizable, if not uncontroversial, place in American culture. In this nuanced study of the politics and culture of beauty pageants, Sarah Banet-Weiser moves beyond standard feminist rhetoric. From interviews with contestants and extensive fieldwork, she finds that most pageants are characterized by the ambivalence of contemporary "liberal" feminism, encouraging individual achievement, self-determination, and civic responsibility while promoting very conventional notions of beauty. Banet-Weiser convincingly argues that beauty pageants are sites of complex cultural work, where ideas of race and nationalism often take center stage.

Drawing on ethnographic research, feminism, and cultural criticism, this book is situated at the center of contemporary debates on what constitutes a distinct "feminist" methodology. To this end, it explores 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.