Here She Is
Book Feature - Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America by Hilary Levey Friedman
HBL Note: Many girls my age remember watching pageants on television, getting excited to see their state represented in the top finalists, admiring the beautiful dresses. But with age, we’ve looked at these pageants in a different light. Wondering if they really promote healthy ideals or extreme dieting, are they really putting emphasis on scholarship and achievement or appearance. I have mixed feelings myself, which is what attracted me to this account of the pageant world. It touches on the historic context, the good pageants have done, as well as the harm they have caused. Scroll down to read more.
Book Feature - Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America by Hilary Levey Friedman
From the publisher:
A fresh exploration of American feminist history told through the lens of the beauty pageant world.
Many predicted that pageants would disappear by the 21st century. Yet they are thriving. America’s most enduring contest, Miss America, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2020. Why do they persist? In Here She Is, Hilary Levey Friedman reveals the surprising ways pageants have been an empowering feminist tradition. She traces the role of pageants in many of the feminist movement’s signature achievements, including bringing women into the public sphere, helping them become leaders in business and politics, providing increased educational opportunities, and giving them a voice in the age of #MeToo.
Using her unique perspective as a NOW state president, daughter to Miss America 1970, sometimes pageant judge, and scholar, Friedman explores how pageants became so deeply embedded in American life from their origins as a P.T. Barnum spectacle at the birth of the suffrage movement, through Miss Universe’s bathing beauties to the talent- and achievement-based competitions of today. She looks at how pageantry has morphed into culture everywhere from The Bachelor and RuPaul’s Drag Race to cheer and specialized contests like those for children, Indigenous women, and contestants with disabilities. Friedman also acknowledges the damaging and unrealistic expectations pageants place on women in society and discusses the controversies, including Miss America’s ableist and racist history, Trump’s ownership of the Miss Universe Organization, and the death of child pageant-winner JonBenét Ramsey.
Presenting a more complex narrative than what’s been previously portrayed, Here She Is shows that as American women continue to evolve, so too will beauty pageants.
