A review by paisleygreen
Looking for Miss America: A Pageant's 100-Year Quest to Define Womanhood by Margot Mifflin
4.0
Something you may not know about me: two of my favorite movies are Miss Congeniality and Drop Dead Gorgeous, two films that poke fun of pageantry. So when I saw this book up on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read more about the pageant that inspired it all.
As we approach the centennial of the Miss America pageant, Looking for Miss America is a fascinating and eminently readable decade-by-decade history of the titular pageant, its organizers, its notable winners, and its entanglements with historical movements, most notably feminism. Mifflin expertly synthesizes interviews and research throughout the decades to craft an image of a pageant constantly in flux about its own image: is it a bathing beauties showcase? a scholarship vehicle? a swimsuit-centric objectification invitation? a place for beautiful women to showcase their talents and platforms?
For me, the most compelling parts of this book were when Mifflin discussed the intersections of emergent feminist movements with the Miss America pageant and how many of the "progressive" changes to the pageant (excuse me: competition) came from the women competing. She also nicely captures the tensions of the pageant itself: it obviously prizes beauty but awards scholarships; it requires women to be unmarried and childless Madonnas but (until recently) judged their bodies in an objectifying bikini contest; it claims to empower women but implicitly and explicitly discriminated (and discriminates) against women of color.
Overall, a compelling and well-researched read!
As we approach the centennial of the Miss America pageant, Looking for Miss America is a fascinating and eminently readable decade-by-decade history of the titular pageant, its organizers, its notable winners, and its entanglements with historical movements, most notably feminism. Mifflin expertly synthesizes interviews and research throughout the decades to craft an image of a pageant constantly in flux about its own image: is it a bathing beauties showcase? a scholarship vehicle? a swimsuit-centric objectification invitation? a place for beautiful women to showcase their talents and platforms?
For me, the most compelling parts of this book were when Mifflin discussed the intersections of emergent feminist movements with the Miss America pageant and how many of the "progressive" changes to the pageant (excuse me: competition) came from the women competing. She also nicely captures the tensions of the pageant itself: it obviously prizes beauty but awards scholarships; it requires women to be unmarried and childless Madonnas but (until recently) judged their bodies in an objectifying bikini contest; it claims to empower women but implicitly and explicitly discriminated (and discriminates) against women of color.
Overall, a compelling and well-researched read!