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