Since the dawn of humanity, women have been trying to achieve their personal idea of what beauty is. In the book “Pageants, Parlors, and Pretty Women”, one sees the author, Blaine Roberts, show the racial division between white women and black women as their idea of what beauty appeared as was completely opposite. Women of different color, size, attitude, mindset, and dreams all concurred that beauty was an important aspect for the Civil Rights movement. Roberts’ thesis, black and white perceptions of beauty both played a crucial role during the civil rights movement while the road that led them there was life changing, is depicted throughout her book. While things like the Jim Crow laws tried to put a gate on specific groups voicing their …show more content…
Characters Lynda Lee Mead and Anne Moody both had one goal, even though they agreed on nothing else— that beauty had a place in the civil rights movement. Mead was a student at the University of Mississippi, meaning one could assume that she had a very southern state of mind. In 1959, she was crowned Miss America and traveled all over the United States and beyond during the first three months of her reign. After returning home, she made a public announcement in front of the media at a prestigious luncheon honoring herself stating that she would not apologize for Mississippi’s actions during the civil rights movement. “The Jackson Daily News was happy to report that, as its headline read, ‘Lynda Lee Takes Up For Her State.’” She was grateful to come from the land of Dixie, and quick to defend her home and its people. On the other hand, a new Mississippi Queen was risen three years after Mead’s reign. Her name was Anne Moody— who gained her majesty whenever she was named ‘homecoming queen’. She later led a sit-in at her college, Tougaloo College, in 1963. She trudged through harsh treatment as condiments were thrown onto her during the sit-in, but she did not allow these actions to change her mind on taking a stand for what she believed in. While both characters— beauty queen and passionate, had a common goal, they both took different, yet similar approaches. The reactions that each woman received from society however, were totally opposite. In Mead’s case, one could assume that she was a very respected, iconic woman. Before Mead, the only other Mississippian crowned Miss. America was Mary Ann Mobley who crowned Lynda Lee Mead (I know this thanks to my experience and passion in pageants). It could be speculated that Mead was also highly favored since she kept the crown in the Magnolia State. Whenever she made her public proclamation, her statement was accepted and theorized into being something
In “Decolonizing Desire: The Politics of Love,” Dalia Gebrial discusses how one’s race structures one’s experience of desirability, emotional labour, support, and commitment in regards to love. The article centers around the idea of love and how as a society, we have created “codes” as for who is lovable or who is deserving of our love. Throughout the article, Gebrial focuses on how colored women were seen as “animalistic” and undeserving of love and fair treatment as opposed to white women, using the fact that colored women couldn’t even get into a court room as an example of this. This article brings importance and attention to how colored women did not receive something as simple as love the same way that white women did. This made me think
Anne Moody, a young African American woman in the novel The Coming of Age in Mississippi advocates changing the oppression African Americans had to face in her community and in other states. The importance of the civil rights movement sparked a change in her family, social life, her friends and most importantly her identity. The lives that we live depending on our decisions and how we express ourselves are a form of identity. Like Anne Moody, our own beliefs and qualities become recognized when we create this identity.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, the long-lasting effects of slavery have taken a toll on Janie Crawford. Janie’s grandmother was raped by her master and had a child named Leafy. Leafy, although not born into slavery, endured a similar fate, which led her to run away, leaving her mother to raise her child, Janie. Janie’s appearance, showing strong European features, was both praised and shamed by society. This double standard was created by racism and was able to remain present due to segregation.
In Material Girl, Susan Bordo argues that fashion is generally conceived as “free play”, a way to express one’s creativity, but is also seen as a necessity to many females (Bordo 389). The free will in regard to fashion effaces social and material inequalities. Basically, certain “choices” of fashion are not really choices, due to historical discriminations based off factors such as gender, race, and social position. An example of these effacements can be found in the film Good Hair, which explores primarily African American women and their “choice” to change their hair to match cultural beauty standards. I am going to explicate black women’s choice to change their “big” hair (afro) to long, straight, silky, and flowing hair and show how it effaces economic racial inequalities, .
Gender Issues Poetry Analysis There has always been discrimination against one group or another. Some of the most prevalent issues are gender based - society places body standards for men and women alike. Katie Makkai’s poem, “Pretty,” paints a vivid picture about such standards through the perspective of a young women. The narrator in the poem is a girl who grows older as the poem progresses who has a mother that is obsessed with body image and it wore off on her daughter. When she was just a young girl, her mother criticized her looks and wanted to have her “imperfections” fixed.
It is not surprising that mirrors in Morrison’s novel carry multiple meanings whether as physical or metaphorical mirrors. For Morrison’s implication of the second type, we are exposed to women wearing sunglasses as Gigi and Connie. However, the effects of Gigi’s use of the sunglasses are different from Connie’s one in that it is limited only to beauty needs. Connie’s utilization of the sunglasses takes another dimension since it holds more than it denotes. Connie at the age of nine years old finds herself lost “In the street garbage” (223).
As a child, I was always the kid that would much rather ride bikes with the boys then play with dolls. I remember one girl from my class asked me “ are you a boy or a girl”, when I said that I did not want to play house and that I would rather play cars with the boys. I saw the other girls in my class and I realized I was different from them. They did not like anything I enjoyed doing and vice versa. I grew up never fitting in with the other girls in my school.
The movie “Little Miss Sunshine” brings up lots of issues that relate to controversial issues in our culture the biggest issue that arises is related to beauty pageants. Putting young girls in beauty pageants over sexulizes them because the large amounts of makeup, hair, and skimpy outfits. When we follow Olive through this process of going into pageantry we see issues arise about body image and exploiting young girls. “The broken Hoover family focuses on the one bright spot in their lives, the unexpected opportunity for the youngest, least damaged, most hopeful member to ascend to a kind of royal status, the title of Little Miss Sunshine.” (Beck 4)
Morrison states, “The assertion of racial beauty was not a reaction to self-mocking, humorous critique of cultural/racial foibles common in all groups, but against the damaging internalization of assumptions of immutable inferiority originating in an outward gaze” (11). African- American women had to reclaim their own beauty in a society that not only told them that they weren’t beautiful, but also in one that loathed them completely. The dampening of the African-American woman’s self-value did not originate in
Oprah Winfrey interviews Mari Wilensky, a former pageant competitor, and her pageant mom Cathy Wilensky about how pageantry affected Mari’s life. Mari and Cathy are credible for providing facts on pageantry because they have participated in pageantry since Mari was the age of four and she is now thirty. This interview occurred in 2014 which makes is reliable because Mari was thirty years old and was able to explain how pageantry had affected her childhood, young adult, and adult life. This interview video is biased because Mari and Cathy did pageants, so they only seen the positivity of them, so this is one sided. Kassidy O’Connell is the author of “The Odyssey,” article, and she is credible on the topic of effects of pageantry because she is a college student who is very active in pageants and has first-hand experience on this subject.
In Making Faces: The Cosmetics Industry and the Cultural Construction of Gender, Kathy Peiss argues that cosmetics transformed society’s criteria and standard of beauty which segmented the industry and heightened cultural constructions of gender, class, and race. Before cosmetics were commercialized, make-up was solely worn by prostitutes, thus it was considered offensive, degrading, and improper. As the market grew, it began to represent sexuality, femininity, and womanhood. The cosmetic industry popularized the idea that beauty could only be achieved by wearing specific products, thus persuading women to believe they needed to wear makeup at all times. It led to the assertion it was a woman 's duty to be beautiful to her husband, the world,
Color and Tensions Racial Tensions in the United States Some people say that beauty only goes skin deep, and others say to not judge a book by its cover. However, it seems that more people go with the former piece of advice rather than the latter. People tend to judge others off of first impressions, and because of this, racial stereotyping may incur leading to racial tensions. Such tensions have existed throughout history, ranging from Rome and Carthage to the Native Americans and the Colonists.
According to Simon Robinson, of the Time International, in “A Pageant with a Purpose”, the twelve contestants that entered the Miss HIV stigma free pageant were competing to show people from around the world, that this disease does not have to make you different. From Robinson’s view description, the reader can gather ideas that using beauty pageants was not the best way to prove that people infected with HIV do not have to be looked at in a different light. In America, we view beauty queens in a very different manner than we do everyday people. They are setup on stage, given a hair and makeup specialist, and their purpose is to be considered perfect. It would seem that the only thing this pageant would bring is more attention to those with HIV, and not in a positive way.
Self-esteem, self-confidence, family and childhood are the main things that we should value from the film’s perspective. For example, on their way to California, the family stops by for breakfast and when Olive asks for ice-cream; his father tells her that she will be fatter if she eats that and Miss America cannot be fat. Olive is sad that she has to avoid her favorite desert for her dream. Another example is the major differences between Olive and her competitors. The beauty contest’s little girls are hypersexualized, slim and they are portrayed as adults with heavy makeup, lipsticks, swimsuits and glamourous gowns for their performances.
JV Cheer for the Cure October is breast cancer awareness month and the junior varsity cheer coach, Teresa Darden, is sponsoring the JV cheer team with their event. A beauty pageant will be held on Halloween, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm in the school theater. Ladies in kindergarten to college are encouraged to participate and the winner will receive $500 worth of prizes. Students who are interested in participating can reach out to any of the JV cheerleaders, Facebook, or Darden herself.