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Feminist Theory
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‘I just want to be me again!’

Beauty pageants, reality television and post-feminism

Sarah Banet-Weiser

University of Southern California

Laura Portwood-Stacer

University of Southern California

This essay examines the connections between the Miss America pageant and reality makeover television shows. We argue that televised performances of gender have shifted focus from the intensely scripted, out-of-touch Miss America to reality makeover shows that normalize cosmetic surgery as a means to become the ‘ideal’ woman. While both spectacles offer their viewers performances of femininity, these performances need to be understood as emerging from the cultural and political conditions in which they are produced. This difference in presentation of the subjects of beauty pageants and makeover programmes speaks respectively to the changing role of media in the normalization of performances of femininity, as well as to the affiliation of many young women with post-feminist politics in the United States.

Key Words: beauty pageant • makeover shows • post-feminism • reality television

Feminist Theory, Vol. 7, No. 2, 255-272 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1464700106064423
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[Abstract] [PDF]