Pageant

Pageant celebrates the culture of the beauty contest, from the well-known spectacles of Miss World and Miss Universe to the flamboyance of the Alternative Miss World; from subculture contests, such as Miss Nude UK, to the bizarre – for example, the Woman and Cat competition, held in Moscow, where extra marks are awarded to entrants who physically resemble their feline friends. In America alone, 35,000 beauty pageants are held throughout the year, but the beauty contest is a truly international phenomenon. Pageant features contests from around the world, ranging from Miss Tiffany’s Universe competition in Thailand, for transvestites and transexuals, to the Santa Monica Prison in-house pageant in Peru; from Miss Arizona Teen US to Mr Gay UK. An irresistible combination of nostalgia and contemporary kitsch, the book is a unique study of our human obsession with the beautiful.