Writing the Nation on the Beauty Queen's Body: Implications for a "Hindu" Nation

Objectified Body Consciousness in a Developing Country: A Comparison of Mothers and Daughters in the US and Nepal

“…As Western standards of beauty spread internationally, women in developing countries are under increasing pressure to meet White American beauty standards. Indeed, subjecting a developing country's women to Western standards of beauty may become a nationalistic endeavor signifying modernity and a country's presence on the global stage (Ahmed-Ghosh 2003;BanetWeiser 1999;Cohen et al 1996;Oza 2001).…”

Hindutva Meets Globalization: The Impact on Hindu Urban Media Women

“…Post colonial feminist scholars like Parameswaran (2001), Ahmed-Ghosh (2003) and Oza (2006) have used a theoretical framework of masculine domination while examining the identity of the Indian woman as the site of contestation and inscription for the definition of citizenship, morality and nationalism. Feminist theory asserts that women's bodies and sexuality became the "material and discursive sites where nation was performed, values were contested, and borders and boundaries were policed and controlled" (Oza 2006).…”

“…They have been historically constructed as guardians of (Hindu) tradition, transmitters of culture, and the reproducers of community who therefore needs to be pure, their bodies protected from the foreign (Ahmed-Ghosh 2003). It is upon this 'class', this constructed identity that most social phenomenon, whether nationalism or globalization, are enacted.…”

“…The extravagant spectacle surrounding the various Miss India performances on the global stage has resulted in widespread cultural backlash (Ahmed-Ghosh 2003 (Mishra 2001:9). His usage of historically eminent female figures is a common strategy of religious nationalists who define family-community respectability through women's bodies and behaviors.…”

“…In other words, the globalized pageant stage which claims female empowerment by catapulting a narrow spectrum of women to immense fame and possible wealth, quietly reinforces the same notions of gendered discipline that define religious nationalism (Dewey 2008). The construction of such 'docile' and 'useful' bodies is foundational to the processes of globalization (See Foucault 1977, Dewey 2008, Ahmed-Ghosh 2003, Banet-Weiser 1999. The HUMM women recognized the stereotyping and scripting that occurred in extraordinary grooming of the contestants into Ms. India.…”