Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power, and the Nation in Postliberalization India

264 Pages·2008·3.27 MB·English

by  Susan Dewey

making miss india miss world
Gender and Globalization
Susan S. Wadley, Series Editor
Diana Hayden’s homecoming.
Making
Miss
India
Miss
World
Constructing Gender,
Power, and the Nation
in Postliberalization India
s u s a n d e w e y
Syracuse University Press
Copyright © 2008 by Syracuse University Press
Syracuse, New York 13244-5160
All Rights Reserved
First Edition 2008
08 09 10 11 12 13 6 5 4 3 2 1
All photographs are courtesy of Pradeep Guha on behalf of The Times of India and are
reproduced with permission.
Portions of this text appeared in “Are Beauty Pageants Empowering?” in Gurlz
http://www.gurlz.net/MAGZIN%20ISSUE/APRIL-MAY/Files/beauty
%20queen.html. Reprinted with permission. Parts also appeared in “Making
‘Miss India,’” South Asian Popular Culture 2, no. 2 (October 2004): 145–59.
http://www.informaworld.com. © Taylor & Francis Ltd. Reprinted with permission.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. ™
∞
For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press,
visit our Web site at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu
ISBN-13: 978-0-8156-3176-7 ISBN-10: 0-8156-3176-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dewey, Susan.
Making Miss India Miss World : constructing gender, power, and the nation in
postliberalization India / Susan Dewey. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Gender and globalization)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8156-3176-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Women—India—Social conditions. 2. Women in development—India. 3. Miss
World Pageant. 4. Beauty contests—India. 5. Beauty contestants—India. 6. National
characteristics, East Indian. 7. Ethnicity—India. 8. India—Social conditions. I. Title.
HQ1743.D49 2008
306.4'613—dc22
2007037079
Manufactured in the United States of America
¡
To Susan and Robert
Dil Se
SuSan Dewey is a cultural anthropologist with a specialization in India.
She received her doctorate in anthropology from Syracuse University in 2004.
Dr. Dewey has worked as consultant on gender and counter-trafficking for the
International Organization for Migration in Yerevan, Armenia, and Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Her broader research interests lie in how changes in macro-
economic policies at the state level impact individuals, particularly women. She is
the author of the upcoming Hollow Bodies: Institutional Responses to Sex Trafficking
in Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and India (to be published by Kumarian Press),
and she is a contributor to Ethnography and Education Quarterly, South Asian Popular
Culture, Labrys, and Manushi. She has also been a contributing writer for several
years for the Mumbai-based women’s magazine Gurlz. She is currently the princi-
pal investigator for a National Science Foundation–funded project in Fiji entitled
“Learning Difference: The Politicization of Ethnic Identity in Educational Institu-
tions in Viti Levu,” which examines conceptions of cultural autonomy among
Indo-Fijians and indigenous Fijians in the wake of four coups in Fiji.
Contents
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
1. Beauty as Cultural Performance 1
The Power of the Gaze
part one |
2. Women of Substance?
Situating Self under the Gaze 51
3. Watching Miss World 91
Gender
part two |
´
4. Str¯ı Sakti and the Rhetoric of Women’s
Empowerment 127
Globalization
part three |
5. Structural Adjustment and
“International Standards” 157
6. Miss India and National Identity 195
7. Conclusion
Miss India in the Postliberalization Candy Store 220
viii  /  Contents
Glossary 227
Works Cited 229
Index 235