Pageant: The Beauty Contest

One day humankind discovered aesthetics and we have been preening ourselves ever since. But only a few of us dare to declare that we are more beautiful than the next person. The beauty contest in all its forms, whether it be a competition to find the most beautiful woman in the world or to find the man-or woman- with perfectly formed pectorals, must be the most blatant display of peacockesque attention-seeking, unmatched in its glamour, glitz and sheer exhibitionism.

Pageant celebrates the culture of the beauty contest, from the well-know spectacles of Miss World and Mr. and Miss Universe to the flamboyance of Alternative Miss World; from subculture contests, such as Miss Hell's Angels, to the bizarre, for example, the crowning of Miss Sausage Queen to promote National Hot Dog Week. In America alone, 35,000 beauty pageants are held through the year, but the beauty contest is a truly international phenomenon. Pageant features contests from around the world, ranging from the National Beauty Contest to crown Miss Tanga in Colombia to the beauty pageants of the Russian Army; from Miss Malaysia Petite 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.

* Great companion volume by the author of Airline Identity Design and Culture (3-8238-5460-7, teNeues)

* A nostalgic trip through time with pageants such as Miss America and Miss USA and including more unusual contests like Miss Car Wash (California), Miss Kansas Turnpike, Mr. America and Miss Nude UK.

* Attractively designed with French fold flaps