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

Allure and the spatialities of nationalism, war and development: Towards a geography of beauty

“…One central focus of this work is how norms of beauty, are rooted in particular historical-geographies of place, and how those norms travel (Barnes, 1994;Gordon, 2013;Kempadoo, 2004;Figueroa, 2012Figueroa, , 2013Figuero & Rivers-Moore, 2013;Nasser de la Torre, 2012;Tu, 2021). For example, work on "cosmopolitan beauty" examines coloniality, whiteness, and colorism in producing and reproducing aspirational beauty ideals (Ahmed-Ghosh, 2003;Balogun, 2012;Lloréns, 2013;Nasser de la Torre, 2013;Parameswaran, 2011;Phoenix, 2014;Reddy, 2011;Saraswati, 2010;Shrestha, 2013;Tate, 2009). Scholars have powerfully linked these colonial foundations to the past and present ways that beauty is bound up powerfully with economic and social value (Balogun & Dodds, 2021;Oza, 2001;Parameswaran & Cardoza, 2009;Pierre, 2008;Thomas, 2020).…”

“…Indeed, while these hegemonic norms operate between, and connect, national and international pageant circuits, feminist scholars bring a sensitivity to scale and place here. Careful studies have shown how corporeal value operate differently across local, regional, national, and international pageants (Bardsley, 2007;Barnes, 1994;Cohen, 1996;Wilk, 1996) or within nation-states (Ahmed-Ghosh, 2003;Banet-Weiser, 1999;Bardsley, 2007). More rarely, but instructively, scholars have examined how some competitions seek to valorize blackness or indigeneity to distance themselves from, and challenge, colonial rulers.…”

Scales of care and responsibility: debating the surgically globalised body

“…Aesthetic surgery has been linked to the normalising and responsibilising roles of the media, a media that is increasingly globalised (Heyes 2007), but there is little empirical study beyond speculation of this process outside -the USA (Kaw 1997). There is limited exploration of the mobilisation of female beauty as part of national and cultural imagery which potentially positions aesthetic surgery into a broader geopolitics (Ahmed-Ghosh 2003; Crawford et al 2008). The prominent voices and studies in these debates are reviewed both to summarise the issues for a geography readership and to draw out the intellectual purchase for a geography of care related to the self.…”

“…This work moves away from individual practice and considers beauty performance in relation to status and competition. Ahmed-Ghosh (2003) and Crawford et al (2008) both highlight the geopolitics of beauty through the role of beauty pageants in India and Nepal, respectively: ‘women are being defined by a nation that simultaneously wants to revert to an image of the ‘Sita/Savitri’ woman to reflect India’s ‘traditional’ (read: Hindu) roots and also show the world that India is a liberal, modern nation. The projection of Miss Indias to attract global attention necessary for expanding trade, business, and international recognition is crucial to this trade’ (Ahmed-Ghosh 2003: 224).…”

“…Ahmed-Ghosh (2003) and Crawford et al (2008) both highlight the geopolitics of beauty through the role of beauty pageants in India and Nepal, respectively: ‘women are being defined by a nation that simultaneously wants to revert to an image of the ‘Sita/Savitri’ woman to reflect India’s ‘traditional’ (read: Hindu) roots and also show the world that India is a liberal, modern nation. The projection of Miss Indias to attract global attention necessary for expanding trade, business, and international recognition is crucial to this trade’ (Ahmed-Ghosh 2003: 224). Negotiating the tensions involved in national identities between traditional and modern gives far greater attention to a global geopolitics and to class relations than is typically the case in debates around aesthetic surgery.…”