Miss World Research Articles

Worlding Miss World, Bangalore, 1996

This essay revisits the much-discussed swarm of protests surrounding the 1996 Miss World pageant in Bangalore, India. It suggests that behind the clamour of clashing opinions regarding the content of the pageant lay a deeper crisis, uninterrogated yet constantly palpable: the absence of a performative dispensation within which the then-nascent project of liberalisation could, paradoxically, be experienced as self-grounding. By organising its discussion around interviews with some of the people most directly involved in trying to manage the meaning of the event – through sponsorship, public relations, policing, and protest – the essay shows how a reconsideration of the pageant can help us understand the delicate relation between commercial publicity and sovereign authority in a globalising age.

Dressing Miss World with Balinese Brocades: The “Fashionalization” and “Heritagization” of Handwoven Textiles in Indonesia

On the basis of extensive field research in a weaving village located in Eastern Bali, Indonesia, the present study aims to explore the changing meanings and practices involving handmade textiles in Indonesia, especially those of Bali, within the spectrum of the producing and consuming ends in relation to the framework of “fashionalization” (the process of appropriating traditional, non-Western dress styles or materials by fashion experts) and “heritagization” (the process in which the diverse elements constituting the cultural pluralism of Indonesia are consciously put together to create a category of common heritage).The cloth to be discussed is called songket: a supplementary weft ikat with metal-wrapped thread, woven on a traditional handloom and constituting the special ceremonial attire of local Balinese. While deeply embedded in local cultural norms and hierarchies, its production and consumption were subject to external forces such as economic change, the formation of national as well as regional identity, and the dynamics of contemporary fashion. In the course of the development of the tourist industry, this sumptuous cloth became particularly appealing for the urban well-to-do, precisely because of its historical link with aristocratic prestige and its expensive price. By clothing themselves and their families with songket at ceremonies, they could demonstrate their economic standing in “respectable” ways and express their identity as Balinese.The more recent expansion of the market for songket beyond Bali, due to the renewed interest of Indonesian designers in appropriating local textiles into their creations, may jeopardize historical and cultural ties between local weavers and urban consumers who shared cultural traditions in which they both understood the meaning and original purpose of the cloth being produced.

Images that Sense Us

Miss World Peace, the ‘alter ego’ of Melbournian artist Jane Korman, travels to ‘sites of conflict’, inviting dialogue and raising an awareness of prejudices, inviting dialogue and proposing peace. This article considers Miss World Peace as an affective assemblage of people's desires, longings, fantasies and projections, and, as such, as a de- and re-remediation of performance's entangled relationship with the neoliberal dramaturgies of contemporary visual culture. It thinks through the post-performative politics of Korman's images, which offer a doubled glance towards the roles of the visual and the embodied in rupturing the political. That is, they are neither performative nor non-performative, but afformative in how they engage relations between the subjunctive and the material real.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan: from Miss World to world star

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is one of only a handful of transnational Bollywood stars. Having established herself as Bollywood’s top female star in 2002, the model-turned-actress began to make films in the West in 2004 with Bride & Prejudice (Gurinder Chadha, 2004), followed by The Mistress of Spices (Paul Mayeda Berger, 2005), Provoked: A True Story (Jag Mundhra, 2006), The Last Legion (Doug Lefler, 2007) and The Pink Panther 2 (Harald Zwatt). With these international co-productions, Rai Bachchan achieved a greater level of international exposure than any other Bollywood star during the 2000s. This article explores Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s roles and performances in all five of her non-Bollywood productions, exploring the ways in which these Anglo-American, Anglo-Indian, European and Hollywood co-productions have enabled her to expand her range of characters and performance methods.

Clash of Civilization or Clash of Newspaper Ideologies? An Analysis of the Ideological Split in British Newspaper Commentaries on the 2002 Miss World Riots in Nigeria

Riots that erupted in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna over a newspaper article that some Muslims interpreted as blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad on account of Nigeria’s decision to host the 2002 edition of the Miss World beauty pageant captured the attention of the world’s media. This article investigates how the British press framed the riots in their opinion columns and editorials. Through an interpretive textual analysis of the opinion pages, the study shows that while the ideological persuasions of left-leaning British press predisposed them to express opinions on the Miss World riots that resonated with what might loosely be characterized as the ‘Islamic perspective’, those of the conservative British press shared ideological similarities with the standpoints of the ‘liberal’, predominantly Christian, southern Nigerian newspapers. This highlights the limited utility of such facile labels as ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ in describing the ideological temperaments of the press. It also problematizes notions of media imperialism and exposes the theoretical and empirical inadequacy of gazing at local religious conflicts from the perspectives of international religious contexts.

Cultural and Cosmopolitan

This article uses a comparative-case research design of two different national beauty pageants in Nigeria to ask how and why gendered nationalisms are constructed for different audiences and aims. Both contests claim to represent “true Nigerian womanhood” yet craft separate models of idealized femininity and present different nationalist agendas. I argue that these differences stem from two distinct representations of gendered national identities. The first pageant, “Queen Nigeria,” whose winners do not compete outside of Nigeria, brands itself as a Nigerian-based pageant, centered on a cultural-nationalist ideal, which is focused on revitalizing and appreciating Nigerian culture to unify the nation. In contrast, the second contest, “The Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria,” utilizes “international standards” to select and send contestants to Miss World and Miss Universe, the top pageants in the world, and promotes a cosmopolitan-nationalist ideal, which remains concentrated on propelling and integrating Nigeria into the international arena.

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

Reviewed by: Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power and the Nation in Postliberalization India Debarashmi Mitra Susan Dewey. Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power and the Nation in Postliberalization India. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2008. 245 pp. In Making Miss India Miss World, Dewey provides a persuasive account of the complex interconnection between globalization, nation and gender through the detailed analysis of Miss India pageant, particularly in the years following the economic liberalization in India. Dewey’s analysis in this book is drawn on a careful distinction between “beauty as an oppressive and hegemonic concept and beauty as empowering practice” (4) as these seemingly contradictory and yet complimentary performances are enacted within the institution of beauty pageants. Focusing on Miss India pageant as a site of “beauty, power, and class” (6), Dewey examines the ways in which femininity as a cultural performance and a capitalist phenomenon is manifested and reinforced through the interaction between global standards of beauty and national identity. The book’s central argument is that Miss India pageant in post-liberalization era has made available a socially approved space to urban middle and upper-class women, who challenge their identities, negotiate their feminine beauty, and exercise [End Page 1097] their agency to achieve social mobility, although such opportunities only last for a short period of time. The seven chapters in this book present an in-depth and well documented analysis of cultural performance of beauty as an embodiment as well as commodification of national identity and femininity. Organized around three key themes, part one of this book includes two chapters on the central idea of the “power of the gaze.” Part two focuses on “gender,” and part three is organized around the main issue of “globalization.” Dewey brings these three themes together in her analysis by drawing on rich ethnographic data collected through participant observation and several interviews conducted during her field visits to India. The book also includes visual illustrations of the performative nature of beauty as embodied by former Miss India contestants, Miss World, and Miss Universe. In Chapter One, Dewey briefly presents a historical overview of the Miss India pageant and highlights the growing popularity of the pageant in recent years which was especially apparent following the success of a few contestants in winning the coveted Miss World and Miss Universe titles. With her focus on Miss India 2003 pageant, Dewey sheds light on the process through which standards of beauty are created, shaped, and reproduced in defining “what a Miss India should be” (23). This chapter also provides a closer look at the rigors of Miss India training program that transforms young women to beauty queens. Dewey emphasizes that the contestants of Miss India pageant make conscious efforts in creating beautiful bodies with a thorough awareness of cultural performance of beauty and gender identity that conforms to both international standards and established gender norms within Indian national culture. In Chapter Two, Dewey points to the importance of the “power of gaze” and analyzes the influence of cultural performance of beauty as it shapes the lives of contestants. This chapter draws attention to the process in which beauty is cultivated and constantly performed by the contestants in their pursuit to construct and present the “self” as Miss India. Dewey explains the struggle of contestants by analyzing the simultaneous processes of the framing of success as an individual accomplishment and the promotion of predefined objective standards of beauty, which are internalized by the contestants. The chapter also illustrates how Miss India contestants undermine the culturally constructed models of idealized femininity and use the available social networks in achieving success and autonomy. [End Page 1098] Chapter Three continues to discuss the power of the gaze, and looks at the Miss India pageant as a “Foucauldian total institution” (99), as being central to the creation of Miss India. As the contestants participate and navigate through the training program under the observation, control, and supervision of their chaperones, Dewey explores the ways these contestants negotiate identities and realize their agency. Discussing the connection between technological innovation and the growing consumption of beauty products in post-liberalization India, Dewey compellingly argues that...

Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power, and the Nation in Postliberalization India. Susan Dewey. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. 2008. ix+224pp.

Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power, and the Nation in Postliberalization India. Susan Dewey. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. 2008. ix+224pp.

Making Miss India Miss World: constructing gender, power, and the nation in postliberalization India

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 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.

Ash‐coloured whiteness: The transfiguration of Aishwarya Rai

This paper seeks to discuss the matrix of elements that enable the transnational circulation of Aishwarya Rai, Bollywood actress and former Miss World, in the context of embodied notions of gendered beauty and skin‐colour. Reading beauty contests, advertising campaigns and blog sites, this paper explores how representations of Rai's beauty and skin‐colour appear to resonate with investments in an aesthetics of whiteness, which govern gendered notions of beauty especially in Western locations. This paper addresses the following questions: How is an Indian cosmopolitan femininity as represented by Aishwarya Rai circulated and transfigured in a transnational context? How do racialised ideals of white beauty shift as well as entrench, include and exclude ‘multicultural’ ‘cosmopolitan’ femininities? How do transnational discussions of the privileging of light skin in the Indian context transfigure the politics of race, skin‐colour and whiteness?

Damning the Flow

Damning the Flow

Global queens, national celebrities: tales of feminine triumph in post‐liberalization India

This paper's analysis of print media texts about India's six Miss World and Miss Universe title‐holders maps the cultural production of the global beauty queen as an emerging hero whose tale of ascent circulates in a nation that is renegotiating its marginal position in the global economy. News and magazine texts celebrate global beauty queens' bodily discipline and devotion to fitness and grooming programs as evidence of the meritorious hard work of committed professionals. Popular biographies construct beauty queens as humble and ordinary women, who have struggled to overcome adversities in their pursuit of global fame. Media accounts navigate the boundaries between modernity and tradition when they represent beauty queens as hybrid—wholesome, patriotic, and cosmopolitan—young women, who preserve their authentic national identities despite their success in the global arena. Unpacking the mythical tales of class, gender, and national ascent that are smuggled into the public profiling of the global beauty queen, I argue that such representations of feminine agency in popular print culture authorize the ideological interests of India's consuming classes.

Spectacles of Gender and Globalization: Mapping Miss World's Media Event Space in the News

The 1996 Miss World pageant in India turned into a controversial event when activist groups launched protests against globalization and cultural imperialism. Approaching news texts as portals into the larger moral order, this article examines the Times of India’s representations of the Miss World controversy. The newspaper's colorful photographs of Miss World's organizers, sponsors, and beauty contestants resuscitated the hegemonic cultural politics of consumer modernity while the visual imaging of activist groups inscribed protesters within paradigms of delinquency and disorder. The crafting of news through objectivist signifiers of consent for Miss World legitimized the authority of state and consumer discourses, excluded the poor, and marginalized activists’ voices. News stories on Miss World's charitable support for handicapped children inserted institutions of global/local capital into sympathetic templates of Third World salvation. In concluding, the article situates my textual analysis within the economics and professional routines of media production and the discursive inheritances of colonialism.

In search of a public sphere: the fundamentalist challenge to civil society in Nigeria

Many polities in transition are undermined by what is commonly called a ‘deliberation deficit’, which means the absence from a given social formation of a common ethos that frames the debate on issues of general concern. In a sense, this scenario can be revealing, for it often highlights some of the nagging issues haunting the process of nation-building itself. This arguably is the case in Nigeria where, in November 2002, violence in the northern part of the country over the Miss World 2002 beauty pageant once again exposed the shallowness of the country’s political foundation, and the lack of a mutually defined ‘civil religion’. The argument has been advanced that the secularization of power is a precondition for the establishment of civil society and the nation-state. One implication of this theoretical postulate is that we cannot begin to imagine a secularized civil society or state in Nigeria in the face of the challenge by forces sworn to religious fundamentalism. In fact, if anything at all, the fundamentalist violence over the Miss World beauty pageant has only illustrated some of the basic contradictions in the Nigerian polity that many recent analyses have failed to apprehend. These include: the sharp dissonance in perceptions of public morality, the loss of confidence in the state as the bearer of a moral project, and the disputed nature of the secular framework itself. Using the Miss World affair as a contextual backdrop, Obadare puts these deeply interwoven themes in perspective, arguing that Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria endangers a truly independent public sphere of critical deliberation constituted by equal citizens. He concludes by evaluating the prospects for democratic stability in Nigeria in the face of the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism.

World Piece: What the Miss World Pageant Can Teach about Globalization

World Piece: What the Miss World Pageant Can Teach about Globalization

Who Is Miss World in Cosmetic Earnings Management? A Cross-National Comparison of Small Upward Rounding of Net Income Numbers among Eighteen Countries

Using a sample of approximately 87,000 earnings observations from almost 22,000 firms in 18 countries for the five-year period 1995–1999, we document firms' tendency to exercise cosmetic earnings management (CEM) worldwide. Following prior studies in the area (Thomas 1989, among others), we define CEM by small upward rounding of reported net income that generates more than expected zeros and less than expected nines as second digit of earnings numbers. We partition our sample into positive and negative earnings to see whether the anomalous frequencies are reversed in negative earnings (losses) relative to positive earnings (profits), as predicted by CEM. In addition, we analyze net sales as a control variable. We find that, due to more ample opportunities to accounting manipulation, upward rounding is much more significant on the bottom line than on the top of an income statement. Consistent with prior studies, we find a reversed pattern of CEM for net losses. In addition, we find evidence for our expectation that CEM covaries with some institutional factors. We report that CEM decreases with spending on auditing, whereas it increases with the latitude of country's GAAP, its cultural values (power distance), and the importance of management bonus schemes. Contrary to our expectation, we do not find significant relationships between CEM and some factors commonly considered in related recent studies, such as the degree of shareholder protection or the alignment of financial and tax accounting.

Editor’s Introduction

The position of women in the United States, and in many other places in the West, has improved dramatically in the last 50 years, so that there are fewer and fewer limits on what we can do and how we can live. However, there are many other parts of the world where this is not the case. In some of these places, not only has the position of women not improved, it has significantly deteriorated . Thanks to the tireless work of women’s groups worldwide , a number of the most flagrant violations of women’s civil and human rights now make the front pages of our newspapers— grim publicity that may prevent the worst from happening. A recent instance of this is the case in Nigeria of Safiya Hussaini, who was accused of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. In March 2002, her sentence was overturned on a technicality, and there is little doubt that the reversal was a consequence of the world watching and caring about what was happening. But as this issue goes to press, the fate of another Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, similarly accused and sentenced, still hangs in the balance. This case too is drawing international attention, including an appeal on Lawal’s behalf from Mexican President Vicente Fox and possible cancellation of the Miss World contest that is scheduled to held in Lagos this November. This issue of Social Research is devoted to essays on the position of women in developing countries. It is by no means comprehensive , nor could it be, given our space limitations. In my invitation to authors, I asked that they try to describe the current conditions of women’s lives in particular countries and regions and to comment on the role, if any, played by globalization, geopolitics, war, and, of course, history. As a result, the papers have a different character than those that usually appear in these pages, reading more like reports than reflections on complex ideas. Each article informs the reader about the ways women live in a particular place at this particular time, and how and why their situations Editor’s Introduction may be changing. Together, these papers paint a picture of a continuing struggle abetted by the proliferating transnational groups linking women to each other and increasing the likelihood of change. While “feminism” in one location differs from what it is in another, universal threads do emerge in this picture, one of which is the complicated interplay between the global and the local. I would like to express my gratitude to Mahnaz Afkhami, president of Women’s Learning Partnership, who connected me to many of the women writing in this issue and who has been a continuing source of advice. Because of the pressure of her own schedule she found it impossible to write a paper for the issue, but instead organized and chaired the interesting and important discussion on human security that initiates the issue. Arien Mack Editor vi SOCIAL RESEARCH ...

Organ Donation and Transplantation in India: An Inquiry in Kerala

Until recently, financial incentive was the prinl,e motivation in transplantation of kidneys from nonrelated living donors in India. Prior to the Human Organ Transplantation Act of 1994, it was legal in all states of India to purchase and merchandise organs, eliminating the opportunity for black markets currently created by the enormous demandfororgans..Eightyears later, the question remains on how if at all The Act has changed the way organ donation is viewed and conducted in India. This study reveals attitudes and beliefs about organ donation in Indiafrom the perspectives of the doctors and the public. Interviewees expressed concerns and fears over the implementation of The Act. Mistrust of the medical profession and concerns about illegal buying and selling of organs were some major issues brought forth by the public. Additional issues were the need for public education, advertisement, and role models to promote organ donation in India. All interviewees hadprior knowledge of organ donation and did not require explanation of the concept. No one interviewed was opposed to organ donation. Many participants were aware of organ donation through Ashwaria Roy, aformer Miss World who does advertising campaigns promoting cornea donation in India.

Who Is Miss World in Cosmetic Earnings Management? An Analysis of Small Upward Rounding of Net Income Numbers among 18 Countries

Using a sample of approximately 87,000 earnings observations from almost 22,000 firms in 18 countries for the five-year period 1995-1999, we document firms' tendency to exercise cosmetic earnings management (CEM) worldwide. Following prior studies in the area (Thomas, 1989, among others), we define CEM by small upward rounding of reported net income that generates more than expected zeros and less than expected nines as second digit of earnings numbers. We partition our sample into positive and negative earnings to see whether the anomalous frequencies are reversed in negative earnings (losses) relative to positive earnings (profits), as predicted by CEM. In addition, we analyse net sales as a control variable. We find that, due to more ample opportunities to accounting manipulation, upward rounding is much more significant on the bottom line than on the top of an income statement. Consistent with prior studies, we find a reversed pattern of CEM for net losses. In addition, we find evidence for our expectation that CEM co-varies with some institutional factors. We report that CEM decreases in spending on auditing, whereas it increases in the latitude of country's GAAP, in its cultural values (power distance) and in the importance of management bonus schemes. Contrary to our expectation, we cannot find significant relationships between CEM and some factors commonly considered in related recent studies, such as the degree of shareholder protection, the alignment of financial and tax accounting, or the value relevance of earnings. Finally, we document a dramatic difference in CEM between US firms listed on the NYSE and the NASDAQ. Potential explanations for this finding relate to differences in firm size and audit quality.

Showcasing India: Gender, Geography, and Globalization

n a cool late November evening in Bangalore, India, a city held under siege by a 12,500-strong security contingent, Irene Skliva from Greece was crowned Miss World 1996. Since August of 1996, when it was announced that India was to host Miss World Pageant, controversy and debate had surrounded issue. Members of political parties and particular national and local women's organizations, farmers, students, and trade unions from various parts of country demonstrated, wrote petitions, filed public interest litigations in court, and threatened to damage venue of pageant. Opposition to pageant spanned a broad enough spectrum to accommodate an entire range of concerns. For instance, opposition to imperialism, resentment against retreating role of state, high inflation, threatened Indian culture, and an anxiety with foreign all crystallized in response to pageant. Conversely, for state and domestic capital, pageant provided an international opportunity to new, liberalized India to world. The pageant, therefore, was a site at which political protest and anxiety with globalization as well as opportunity to showcase India to world were articulated. It is in this tension between sentiments of proving national worth, on one hand, and protests against pageant, on other, that I examine staging of discourses of gender, nation, sexuality, and place in this article. A month prior to event, in Times of India, a major Englishlanguage newspaper, an advertisement for pageant read the time has come for world to see ... what India is all about, Indian hospitality, Indian culture, Indian beauty, Indian capability.' What is striking about advertisement is statement that real India-its capability