Pageant: The Beauty Contest (Paperback)

by Keith Lovegrove (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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

From the Publisher
* 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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Te Neues Publishing Company (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3823855697
• ISBN-13: 978-3823855699
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,763,094 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GLAMOUR, GLITZ, AND YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!, December 19, 2002

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Keith Lovegrove, author of "Airline: Identity, Design and Culture" and founder of a London based design consultancy firm, opens his take on the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the preposterous in beauty contests with "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."

This lavishly illustrated volume (150 color and 100 black and white illustrations) proves the above to be almost an understatement, whether the author is focusing on the Miss Illinois contestants who happily pay $1,000 for the privilege of competing or the eye popping Miss Nude UK contest. (Don't worry, we haven't been outdone by the Brits - as the author notes in the U.S. The Ponderosa Sunclub in Indiana has sponsored the Nudes-A-Poppin pageant for some three decades).

Lovegrove divides his book into three parts. "Foundation," the opening segment is a history of the beauty pageant; "Parade" features the variety (and sometimes the oddities) in contests; and the closing section, "Close-Up" takes a look at the author's up-close-and-personal experiences with three disparate contests.

From The Sausage Queen adorned with jewelry fashioned of sausages and frankfurters to the Alternative Miss World to Miss America, they're all here for your enjoyment and incredulity.

- Gail Cooke