The southern beauty is alive and well in the twenty-first century American South - and so is a particular silence. All across the region young white women routinely turn-in renditions of femininity more in keeping with nineteenth century gender ideals than twenty-first. In popular performances that gestured toward the southern past, the southern beauty performed choreography of exclusion, consolidating privilege and reiterating race in a near absence of scrutiny. Chances are, you never noticed. That is precisely the point.

Southern Beauty explains the long presence of this unlikely figure - and the widespread studied attempts over time to ignore her. Built on a foundation of ethnographic-including more than sixty interviews-and historical research, Southern Beauty explores three popular feminine rituals: sorority rush, the beauty pageant, and an Old South tourist production. All feature a cast of southern beauties with distinct traces of an imagined past. Boyd investigates these rituals for their cultural memory work over time - for the role they played in promoting particular remembrances of the southern past.

About the Author
Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd is an independent scholar who lives and writes in Takoma Park, Maryland.


Book Information
ISBN 9780820362328
Author Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd
Format Paperback
Page Count 210
Imprint University of Georgia Press
Publisher University of Georgia Press
Weight(grams) 151g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 152mm * 13mm