1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910788314803321

Autore

Stanfield Michael Edward <1957->

Titolo

Of beasts and beauty [[electronic resource] ] : gender, race, and identity in Colombia / / by Michael Edward Stanfield

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, : University of Texas Press, 2013

ISBN

0-292-74559-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (293 p.)

Disciplina

305.409861

Soggetti

Feminine beauty (Aesthetics) - Colombia - History

Beauty contests - Colombia - History

Women - Colombia - History

Nationalism - Colombia - History

Colombia History 1810-

Colombia Social conditions

Colombia Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

"La mujer reina pero no gobierna," 1845-1885 -- Bicycle race, 1885-1914 -- Apparent modernity, 1914-1929 -- Liberal beauty, 1930-1948 -- Exclusive beasts, 1948-1958 -- From Miss Universe to the anti-reina, 1958-1968 -- Static government, social evolution, 1968-1979 -- Pulchritude, the palacio, and power, 1979-1985.

Sommario/riassunto

All societies around the world and through time value beauty highly. Tracing the evolutions of the Colombian standards of beauty since 1845, Michael Edward Stanfield explores their significance to and symbiotic relationship with violence and inequality in the country. Arguing that beauty holds not only social power but also economic and political power, he positions it as a pacific and inclusive influence in a country “ripped apart by violence, private armies, seizures of land, and abuse of governmental authority, one hoping that female beauty could save it from the ravages of the male beast.” One specific means of obscuring those harsh realities is the beauty pageant, of which Colombia has over 300 per year. Stanfield investigates the ways in which these pageants reveal the effects of European modernity and



notions of ethnicity on Colombian women, and how beauty for Colombians has become an external representation of order and morality that can counter the pathological effects of violence, inequality, and exclusion in their country.