Girlhood, Beauty Pageants and Power

Child beauty pageants are a phenomenon in rural communities throughout the American South. Girlhood, Beauty Pageants and Power: Trailer Park Royalty explores the participants who compete in these pageants and shows that most are from the lower socio-economic bracket. A bricolage of post-structural feminism, critical ethnographies, critical hermeneutics, and cultural studies lenses analyzes how the performances of participants and the power exercised by the beauty pageant culture work to formulate girls' identities. Analysis in Girlhood, Beauty Pageants and Power will also include how power operated to perpetuate this subculture and its right to dictate norms for beauty and acceptance and will be situated in the culture of girlhood. Examination of what is depicted in popular culture through film, videos, documentaries, and television shows will also add to the dialogue. I suggest that the rural beauty pageant culture does work to create girlhood identity and a way in which the participants view the world and themselves. In fact, I believe that the rural beauty pageant culture does intricate cultural work in terms of gender and class. This book is intended for students and teachers who are interested in dissecting rural girlhood and development, Southern American beauty standards, and the effect of the media on girls' identities.