Term of Award
Fall 2007
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Curriculum Studies (Ed.D.)
Document Type and Release Option
Dissertation (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
Committee Chair
William E. Reynolds
Committee Member 1
Delores D. Liston
Committee Member 2
John A. Weaver
Committee Member 3
Shirley R. Steinberg
Abstract
Child beauty pageants are a phenomenon in rural communities throughout Georgia. My belief is that most of those who compete in these pageants are from the lower socio-economic bracket, participating for a multitude of reasons. A bricolage of post-structural feminism, critical ethnography, critical hermeneutics and cultural studies lenses will analyze how the performances of participants and the power exercised by the beauty pageant culture work to formulate girls' identities. Analysis will also include how power operates to perpetuate this subculture and its right to dictate norms for beauty and acceptance and will be situated in the culture of girlhood. Examination of what is depicted in popular culture through videos, documentaries, and television shows will also occur. I suggest that the rural beauty pageant culture does work to create girlhood identity and a way in which the participants view the world and themselves. In fact, I believe that the rural beauty pageant culture does intricate cultural work in terms of gender and class.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Elisabeth Blumer, "Trailer Park Royalty: Southern Child Beauty Pageants, Girlhood and Power" (2007). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 471.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/471
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No
