Abstract

Beauty pageants clearly construct gendered ideals and norms of femininity. In this article, we analyse how the Miss Sweden pageant constructs intertwined gendered and racialized symbolism of nationhood during the 1950s. This article covers the period between 1949 and 1960, the first 12 years of the competition's existence, when the competition and its institutional practices took shape. We conclude that the Miss Sweden pageant constructs a particular Swedish femininity of the 1950s, denoted by ideals of modernization founded within the development of the Swedish welfare state. The pageant articulates the ethos of the times, with its conflicting discourses on both gathering the nation within and looking outward internationally. In this way, we understand Miss Sweden as a medium to convey a set of stories directed both inwardly, towards a Swedish audience, and outwardly to other nations and an international audience.

Published in

NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research
2007, Volume: 15, number: 4, pages: 233-245

UKÄ Subject classification

Gender Studies


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740701646747

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/114961