race, nation and beauty competitions, 1929-70
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Rowe, Rochelle
- Publish Year
- 2013
- Shelfmark
- LAT 3 2015 - B
- Thesaurus
- vrouwenlichamen, vrouwelijkheid, uiterlijk, etniciteit, Caraïbisch gebied, Trinidad en Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica
- Description
- This book examines the links between beauty and politics in the Anglophone, 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 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 discussion surrounding beauty competitions reveals that femininity was used to shape ideas about Caribbean modernity, citizenship, and political and economic freedom.