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

Hardcover (Print)
Buy New
Buy New from BN.com
$19.11
(Save 29%)
Used and New from Other Sellers
Used and New from Other Sellers
from $12.15
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
(Save 54%)
Other sellers (Hardcover)
  • All (6) from $12.15   
  • New (4) from $16.65   
  • Used (2) from $12.15   

More About This Textbook

Overview

For almost half a century, the Miss India competition has been a prominent feature of Indian popular culture, influencing, over time, the conventional standard for female beauty. As India participates increasingly in a global economy, that standard is gradually being shaped by forces beyond the country's borders. Through the unexpected lens of the 2003 beauty pageant, Susan Dewey's Making Miss India Miss World examines what feminine beauty has come to mean in a country transformed by recent political, economic, and cultural developments.

Dewey offers readers an up-close view of the beauty pageant through her discussion of the contestants' intense training program, a process that involves extensive physical, emotional, and cultural transformations. Covering everything from proper table etiquette to preferred skin tone, the author reveals the exacting standards set by pageant officials and reflected in Indian society. Yet she also recognizes the empowerment these women are afforded by their status as beauty symbols in a culture increasingly shaped by the visual influence of national and international media.

Making Miss India Miss World constitutes an important cultural critique and an enlightening take on how macroeconomic change affects cultural identity at the individual level.

Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780815631767
  • Publisher: Syracuse University Press
  • Publication date: 4/28/2008
  • Series: Gender and Globalization Series
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Pages: 280
  • Product dimensions: 6.30 (w) x 9.30 (h) x 0.80 (d)

Meet the Author

Susan Dewey is a cultural anthropologist specializing in macroeconomic policy and Indian culture, particularly women's culture. She is the author of Invisible Agents, Hollow Bodies: Institutional Responses to Sex Trafficking in Armenia, Bosnia, and India and of articles in the Journal of Ethnography and Education Quarterly and the Journal of South Asian Popular Culture.
Read More Show Less

Table of Contents

Illustrations     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Beauty as Cultural Performance     1
The Lower of the Gaze
Women of Substance?: Situating Self under the Gaze     51
Watching Miss World     91
Gender
Stri Sakti and the Rhetoric of Women's Empowerment     127
Globalization
Structural Adjustment and "International Standards"     157
Miss India and National Identity     195
Conclusion: Miss India in the Postliberalization Candy Store     220
Glossary     227
Works Cited     229
Index     235

Read More Show Less

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review
( 0 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(0)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identity on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

 
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously
    If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
    Why is this product inappropriate?
    Comments (optional)