#66119
Mentioned in 1 episodes
Southern Beauty
Book • 2022
Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd's 'Southern Beauty' examines how performances of femininity—like sorority rushes, beauty pageants, and Confederate pageantry—have constructed and sustained white Southern identity.
Boyd traces these rituals from the antebellum period through Reconstruction and the 20th century, showing how nostalgia and pageantry enforced racial hierarchies and gender norms.
She argues that beauty practices functioned as mechanisms of commemoration and exclusion, embedding racial supremacy in everyday social life.
Using archival research and ethnographic observation, Boyd explores the cultural and political meanings attached to Southern beauty ideals.
The book connects historical pageantry to contemporary aesthetics and politics, revealing continuities with modern conservative and MAGA visual culture.
Boyd traces these rituals from the antebellum period through Reconstruction and the 20th century, showing how nostalgia and pageantry enforced racial hierarchies and gender norms.
She argues that beauty practices functioned as mechanisms of commemoration and exclusion, embedding racial supremacy in everyday social life.
Using archival research and ethnographic observation, Boyd explores the cultural and political meanings attached to Southern beauty ideals.
The book connects historical pageantry to contemporary aesthetics and politics, revealing continuities with modern conservative and MAGA visual culture.
Mentioned by
Mentioned in 1 episodes
Mentioned by 
B.A. Parker
From the Confederacy to the White House: How Southern beauty traditions went MAGA
