Manufactured Beauties ’s Integration into the Global Industry  Susan Runkle This article, based upon my participant observation as an academic researcher and unpaid consultant at the Miss India pageant’s six week intensive training program for contestants, addresses how the pageant has emerged as a site for the creation of a new kind of woman in post-liberalization India. Under the guidance of leaders of the Indian , film and beauty industries, Miss India contestants learn how to construct gendered identities.

hroughout my presence at the The literature that surrounds serve as a valuable contribution to 2003 Miss India training as an beauty pageants largely focuses understanding not only what Tanthropologist conducting upon the pageant as a space within pageants as a cultural phenomenon research as well as assisting in which either popular culture (eg; mean, but also as a means by which simple tasks such as writing Banet-Weiser 1999; Riverol 1992; to gain a clearer picture of what questions for contestants, I was Lovegrove 2002) or globalization gendered experience actually means consistently struck by similarities (Cohen et al 1995) are critiqued. I in the whole spectrum of women’s between the creation of beauty contend that recognizing that experience. queens and theories of the body that standards of beauty must necessarily Young women enter the Miss stem from the Industrial Revolution. be negotiated by most women in the India pageant fully expecting to Perhaps there has never been a more course of their lived experience would change not only their bodies, but apt example of thinking of the body also to emerge several months later as a machine with parts to be repaired Young women enter the as fundamentally altered human and replaced. Emblematic of gender Miss India pageant fully beings. Under the gaze of the experts as performance (Butler 1994), the expecting to change not at the training programme and later, construction of twenty-six potential only their bodies, but also the judges, individual women try Miss from a group of relatively their best to present the qualities that ordinary young women points to to emerge several months Miss India as a concept is associated ways in which the body is what later as fundamentally with; the qualities, in short, which scholars such as Davis (1995) have altered human beings. ideally are to represent the pinnacle called “cultural plastic.” of its version of Indian womanhood

No.143 14 at international pageants like Miss Guha described as “very secular, very Universe and . cosmopolitan and very modern and Following economic liberalization outgoing.” This is the kind of outlook, in 1991, the Miss India pageant grew which is not based in regional identity, from an event that originally but in a more decentered concept of showcased Indian textiles into a full- self, that is emblematic of what Miss fledged media extravaganza. The most India is today. notable post-liberalization change in The Miss India pageant holds a both the magazine and the Miss India thirty day training seminar in Bombay pageant has been a shift from a focus Every morsel is watched and measured prior to the event itself. During the course of this one month, twenty- on national identity to a focus on young women who will comprise the three contestants are housed, trained individual identity. Current final twenty-three that compete for and made beautiful in what is an editor Sathya Saran was quick to the Miss India . Interestingly, institution with one goal in mind: to describe the Miss India pageant as however, as he described his annual create a Miss World or a Miss a tool with which to promote the search to me in the course of an Universe. Every morning, for thirty magazine and also to, as she put it, interview, he was adamant that as he days, Miss India contestants attend “launch young women into life.” meets with young women in the urban fitness classes twice a day and have Indeed, it was only after liberalization centers that Femina chooses each all of their meals catered by well- that the three winners were chosen year, he is not simply looking for a known dietician Anjali Mukherjee. In each year in the Miss India pageant, Miss India, but for a or fact, every aspect of the pageant titled Miss India-World, Miss India- a Miss World. employs the best-known people in Universe, and Miss India-Asia Yet the concept of Miss India the glamour industry to perform Pacific, were groomed specifically for being exclusively urban is not a new necessary services, thereby helping each pageant. Each title winner then one. Because of the enormous cultural to construct an image of the pageant goes on to compete in the divide that exists between urban and as larger than life. Having the international pageant that her Miss rural India, young women who do not opportunity to meet with the India title decides for her, with Miss live in big cities do not have the same individuals who train them, all of Universe being the most prestigious. kind of access to media images in whom are extremely well known The process of becoming Miss terms of lifestyle that their urban throughout urban India, gives young India begins every year in August or counterparts do. As a result, according women who compete in the pageant September, when Femina magazine to Pradeep Guha, they do not have the chance to create a social network prints entry forms in both its pages the kind of knowledge required to that will allow them to build careers present themselves as beautiful on a and in the pages of the group’s in the glamour industry in India. global stage. flagship newspaper, the Times of Beyond fitness and diet This symbolic capital is most often India. Several thousand young regimens, however, the month-long found in young women who come women from all parts of the country seminar also includes a heavy focus from backgrounds that have allowed submit the form along with on the worlds of modeling, fashion them a great deal of independence. photographs of themselves, one a full and cinema. As these are the fields Many come from military families, body shot and one a close-up of the into which most Miss India whose constant mobility in terms of face. Based on these photographs, a contestants go after the pageant is lifestyle places them as what Pradeep more limited number of young women over, it is only appropriate that the are summoned to participate in the seminar is weighted in this direction. pageant if they fall within the Young women who do not As such, simply being able to make parameters of being above 5’7’’ in live in big cities according it into the pageant itself can serve height and under 25 years of age. to Pradeep Guha do not as a life changing experience for Pradeep Guha, the publisher of have the kind of knowledge many young women, who compete Femina and manager of the pageant, with one another in a process, then conducts a tour of major urban required to present undertaken by experts in the Indian areas in India during which he themselves as beautiful fashion, film and beauty industries, personally meets with every aspiring on a global stage. which Pradeep Guha referred to as contestant in order to select the “chiseling”.

No.143 15 Ingredients of Miss World experts are treated with deference  A suburban Mumbaiite both at the pageant and in popular  The pageant culture at large. for marination Experts who Recreate  The essence of a diet, a la Anjali The panel of experts who Mukherjee comprised the 2003 training staff did  A powder blue concoction from not vary much from years past. Hemant ‘Sheetal’ Trivedi Large Comprised of a list of celebrities and helpings of Mickey Mehta/Rama individuals well known in the field of Bans workouts media in Bombay, they are chosen to  Dermatologist Jamuna Pai’s impart knowledge to the contestants skincare, peeled to perfection as part of the gurukul system that  Finely grated talk by the high Mr. Parigi envisions. These included priestess of politesse Sabira Making assembly line products a fashion designer, dermatologist, Merchant a network would ordinarily otherwise dietician, two hair stylists, a make up  A dash of timely marketing be impossible for a young woman not artist, a self-styled ‘grooming expert’,  Swarovsky to sprinkle a personal trainer, a cosmetic dental from an elite background, although  Sundry advice (optional) surgeon, a spiritual guide, a diction some contestants certainly do come (Times of India Dec 27, 1996). coach, the head of an art foundation, As the ‘recipe’ above clearly from upper class families. Citing the and a photographer. illustrates, the contestant herself is benefits that simply participating Being an expert brings with it a discursively constructed as in the training programme provides variety of privileges and contributing rather little to the to young women, Mareesha responsibilities, the most striking of process of becoming Miss World. underscores the way in which Miss which is the right to be exceedingly Rather, it is ‘the experts’ who do the India acts as a gateway to social rude without cause. One fashion majority of the work by sculpting her mobility. designer, who designs the clothing into the ideal of what Miss World The culture of celebrity that the contestants wear at the pageant, should be. The initial ingredient, “a positions those deemed the experts is an excellent example of this. A suburban Mumbaiite”, followed as it as authorities on everything from their choreographer and designer had to is by the names of the experts, is a actual field to what constitutes warn the contestants to be rather snide reference to the symbolic capital is largely the result exceedingly polite to her, noting: enormous class divide that exists of economic liberalization, which “She may not be the warmest between a young woman from the necessitated the development of a person in the world, but that does not suburbs and the elite, South Bombay- group of individuals who could mean you give her any bad vibes. Be dwelling experts. translate between international trends gracious, as she is our most senior However, it is precisely this class and an urban Indian context. and respected designer.” difference that allows for social Positioned as cosmopolitan As an expert, all those who are mobility on the part of the Miss India individuals of the highest caliber, the not experts are expected to defer to contestants at the pageant. As her temperament. Mareesha, a 2003 contestant, noted. The contestant herself is The contestants are consistently Even if you don’t win, you gain reminded of how they should behave something, so it’s not a wasted effort. discursively constructed with the experts, even by other experts You make so many contacts, by the as contributing rather little themselves. As makeup artist Cory end of it you have fifteen different to the process of becoming Walia explained to the contestants options - serials, ramp, whatever. Miss World. Rather, it is during a session, one must never Mareesha’s statement points to ‘the experts’ who do the presuppose that one has knowledge the way in which the training that the expert does not, even if it majority of the work by programme gives contestants the concerns oneself. “Do not tell the opportunity to create a social network sculpting her into the ideal makeup artist what suits you” he that allows them to enter numerous of what Miss World insisted, “that person is a fields in media. India is so incredibly should be. professional - you will end up in tears socially stratified that building such and you may even get a slap.”

No.143 16 Positioning the For one month, the contestants’ threat of physical lives are controlled and dictated by Fair skin is really an violence as a the experts. From skin care to diction obsession with us, it’s response to to diet to spirituality, the training is a fixation. Even with questioning the designed to provide what Femina the fairest of the fair, knowledge of the consistently describes as “a they feel they want to experts, Cory comprehensive crash course in life”. illustrates just how Of course, the kind of life that the be fairer. entrenched the training programme cultivates is one culture of celebrity is that revolves around physical “Fair skin is really an obsession entrenched in urban appearance. Although the body and with us, it’s a fixation. Even with the India. Once an diet were consistent points of fairest of the fair, they feel they want individual has achieved a certain attention, the most striking focus of to be fairer. It isn’t important anymore, amount of social recognition for his the programme was on skin colour. because the international winners are or her work, they are perceived as Only Fair is Lovely getting darker and darker.You being entitled to behave according to I sat in on weekly individual wouldn’t notice our obsession, their whims. I often marveled at the sessions that dermatologist Dr. because you have such beautiful contestants’ ability to tolerate the Jamuna Pai held with the contestants white skin, but I feel it’s ingrained in sometimes downright insulting in order to examine their skin. Every us. When an Indian man looks for a behaviour on the part of the bride, he wants one who is tall, experts. Had I been spoken fair and slim, and fairer people to by anyone as some of the always get jobs first. Today, contestants were by the this is being disproved experts, I would have to because of the success been unable to avoid internationally of dark-skinned bursting into tears. models, but we still lighten Over and again, I their skin here because it gives watched one organizer the girls extra confidence chastise the contestants for when they go abroad.” their behaviour. During the In the name of confidence, auditions for the ‘Miss Talent’ title, to be performed then, the contestants undergo at the final pageant, she chemical peels and daily snapped at a contestant medication, some of which have rather unpleasant side who, in her opinion, was Starved and emaciated beauties giggling too much. “You’re effects. Harsimrat, for example, a Femina Miss India contestant now, single one of the young women was often complained to the doctor and you need to behave like one! Be taking some sort of medication to alter that she felt nauseous and weak as a more ladylike.” Archana’s harsh tone her skin, particularly in colour, in the result of the medication prescribed to made the contestant, who had been training programme in 2003. In a lighten her South Indian skin. under an enormous amount of strain disturbingly casual manner, Dr. Pai The contestants also received throughout the previous week of emphasized the need for all the supplements in order to make their skin training, almost cry. contestants to bleach their skin by appear healthier. prescribing the peeling agent Retin- However, Every single one of the A as well as glycolic acid and, in the sometimes these young women was taking case of isolated dark patches, a laser did not work; in treatment. one contestant’s some sort of medication to When I asked Dr. Pai, who trained case, Dr. Pai alter her skin, particularly as a plastic surgeon in London, why sighed and said in colour, in the training fair skin was such a concern at the “I’m giving you programme. pageant, she offered the following ten multivitamins, explanation. but you’re still not

No.143 17 glowing. I’m afraid that the only While Anjali’s diet plan helped in solution is to eat more.” The notion the project of creating the Miss India of being “afraid” to tell a contestant body, fitness expert Mickey Mehta to eat more, and that contestant focused on the realization of that body. actually looking concerned at the A fitness trainer for twenty-one years, prospect of having to do so in order Mickey has had the longest association to make her skin healthier, points to a with the pageant of any of the experts. deeply flawed system of gender Every day, he led the contestants with which positions women’s bodies as an exercise regimen that began at seven never being beautiful enough. am every morning. It involved mostly The Human Machines aerobic exercise, which allows the body As part of the project of to maintain a lithe form without building constructing the Miss India body, the up muscle, which is not a part of the contestants were given a diet Miss India body. designed by nutritionist Dr. Anjali A Touch of Spirituality Mukherjee, best known in Bombay for Unusually focused on the totality her weight loss centers and health of being, Mickey takes a spiritual Making men drool is part of the game food. Utilizing a combination of approach to fitness. Making use of ayurveda and allopathy, Anjali’s struggle with eating disorders which an eclectic and syncretistic cocktail of different beliefs, he guides the advised each young woman on how no one attended to, although other contestants as whole persons, not to eat to suit one’s constitution. contestants did mention them as Interestingly, her description of the just bodies. problematic in terms of their eating diet plan to contestants sounds much “I take what I like from different patterns. like the concept of the body as a religions - Dao, Tao, Zen, yoga - the Perhaps aware of my consistent machine. focus is on holism. I don’t believe in concern with what the contestants “The blood becomes purer and branded spirituality. I believe in were eating, Anjali Mukherjee was cleaner with the diet that we’re giving, oneness, everything is just one. quick to note that the contestants and your machinery is working better When a person looks into the mirror were being well nourished when I with it. The body is like a car that and sees himself and not an illusion, asked her how she defines ideal body needs servicing, it’s that simple.” they are deluded. The lotus is the weight. Although she noted that Anjali’s use of a vehicular illusion, mud is the reality. This has “ideal body weight has a range”, she metaphor to describe the body is nothing to do with weight loss - a curiously defined that range in terms particularly apt in the case of the beautiful body is a body that is in of how much weight the young training programme. In her conception proportion, not a thin body.” women needed to lose, which ranged of diet, each young woman needs to Although his charismatic mélange from four to twelve pounds. It is improve the “machinery” of her body. of spiritual beliefs is fascinating, and important, however, to note that there Like Anjali’s concept of the car, each on one occasion I found myself was one contestant who was put on contestant’s body is envisioned as a listening to him for two hours without a weight gain diet: Anjali deemed her machine whose functioning can be my noticing the time that had gone fourteen pounds underweight when improved under the guidance of the by, the fact remains that Mickey’s job she entered the pageant. experts. is to cultivate a body which is thin, The question of how thin is thin rather than spiritually pure. enough remained with me throughout Anjali’s description of the Weight Loss Ordeals the pageant. While most of the young diet plan to contestants When I questioned him further women were already underweight in sounds much like the about his views of the kind of body my estimation when they tried out for concept of the body he was being asked to help engineer the pageant, only two of them, who as a machine whose for the contestants, he confessed that were severely undernourished, were this body was a prerequisite for the put on a diet which allowed them to functioning can be world of media. As the following gain weight during the training. improved under the passage illustrates, Mickey Indeed, throughout the training, I guidance of the experts. conceptualizes of thinness as watched two young women clearly something of a necessary evil.

No.143 18 “I think that some of them young women ‘work hard’ to are too thin, but that’s not me, become underweight and use that’s the demands of the line their ‘confidence’ to answer of work that they’re getting largely vapid questions, they into after this…Some girls were subscribe to a vision of so huge around the hips that femininity that undervalues they needed to lose weight; womanhood in general. otherwise they would look out However, Mickey softens of place and probably spoil the the obvious imperative to lose show for the other girls.” weight with his use of As an actively involved spirituality. He was insistent participant from the very that “we are not looking at FTV beginning of the pageant, I here, we are looking at women was very aware of the fact that who will make changes and be there never were any young positive.” Referencing the women who were, in Mickey’s Body treated as a gadget and ‘fixed’ with gadgets Fashion TV channel, which words, “huge around the through torturous exercise sessions broadcasts twenty-four hour hips”. All of the young women within a rhetoric of achievement at the images of fashion shows who tried out for Miss India were of training. Mickey Mehta noted with around the world, Mickey constructs normal weight, and many of them had pride that it was the young women who the training programme as set apart been underweight before they even worked the hardest to lose weight who from the purely superficial world of came to the training programme. often went on to win: modeling. In the following passage, he As we walked around the grounds “The ones who keep working hard describes why it is important to of the hotel where the contestants despite everything are the ones who cultivate one’s spirituality in order to were getting ready to begin their win. I’ve seen many such girls. I do well at the pageant. exercise routine for the morning, worked the hardest with Diana “People can go paranoid about Mehta pointed to Swetha, who went Hayden, who lost almost fifteen kilos, winning the crown.. The primary drive on to win the Miss India-Universe title, and then there was , for them is to make it big, but after they as an example of someone who had who was so huge that people just meet me, they may think they should worked very hard. She was slumped wrote her off completely, but during become nuns. Some of them don’t like against a pillar and clearly exhausted; the training she worked so hard she meditation, and they just meditate on Mehta congratulated her on the eight lost twelve kilos and then on her way winning the crown, but I tell them that pounds she had lost in two weeks. She to Miss World she lost more.” spirituality with intent is not smiled and thanked him before dozing spirituality.” Mickey’s association of losing off again, trying to catch a bit more Like Mickey, every expert was very extraordinarily amounts of weight in a sleep before her morning run began. clear about the role he or she had to very short period of time as a result of Indeed, some of the young women play in helping the contestants. Hair hard work is part of the interesting seemed perpetually exhausted stylists Javed Habib and Samantha language of the . As throughout the course of the training. Kocchar noted that “our role is to This, of course, was compounded by prepare contestants for the future, the fact that most were trying to lose Some of the young because most of them are going into weight in order to better their chances women seemed the glamour line, and this is essential of winning. With an inadequate diet perpetually exhausted for them, because sometimes they have and a schedule that demanded fifteen throughout the course of to do their own hair and makeup.” hours of active participation every day, the training...with an Kocchar, who started working in her it was never much of a surprise to see mother Blossom’s posh salon young women propped against chairs, inadequate diet and a after she returned from a beauty school their bodies physically exhausted by schedule that demanded in Chicago in her early teens, was the effort of trying to be beautiful. fifteen hours of active creative director for the Indo-American Yet this effort was highly participation every day film Monsoon Wedding, while Habib is rewarded, contextualized as it was the most well known hair stylist in India.

No.143 19 and other international pageants. “No one gets up in the For nearly three hours every day, the morning and does puja young women would sit in chairs or namaaz....first you around a ramp as choreographer look in the mirror Hemant Trivedi sat with a microphone at a table directly in front and try to worship of the ramp. As they practiced yourself.” answering questions that I had written for them as a consultant to Cultivating Narcissism the pageant, Trivedi advised them Both Kocchar and Habib were on how to improve their clear that beauty is serious responses.When contestants were business. “No one gets up in the not able to answer quickly enough, morning and does puja or namaaz,” he would note, “when you hesitated, Habib noted, “first you look in the it showed you were unsure, which mirror and try to worship yourself.” also makes me unsure about your Habib’s equation of the cultivation sincerity.” of beauty with religious experience With the crown open avenues of Faking Intelligence is particularly apt in this case. upward mobility As contestants tried to answer Involved in the pageant for the first questions about which person they time this year, Samantha is the teach these things. They can take it most admired and what their views spokesperson for Sunsilk shampoo, or leave it, but after this they’ll be able were on subjects as diverse as while Javed endorses hair colour to sit with diplomats and heads of abortion and reincarnation in an from L’Oreal. state and know what to do. That’s apolitical, audience-pleasing manner, While I made sure to attend most important.” I saw how difficult it is to present of the training sessions, those Although Rukshana’s emphasis views that seem to be the products of conducted by former flight on teaching the contestants manners an independent, thinking woman, but attendant and ‘grooming expert’ which are largely foreign to most are in fact platitudes. For example, Rukshana Eisa were by far the most urban Indians seemed comical at first, Kauveri, a contestant who often interesting, as well as entertaining it began to take on a more serious tone answered questions exceptionally in a way which almost mocked the as I watched young women struggle well, named Hillary Clinton as the urban South Asian admiration of the to remember the complexities of, for woman she most admires, “because foreign. In these sessions, she used example, cutlery, which will be she’s a paragon of love, power and strength even though she’s had a the symbolic capital that being a discussed later in this chapter. disastrous personal life.” By naming flight attendant in India still Equally important is the ability of Clinton, who so clearly reaffirmed commands as a way to teach the the contestants to answer questions contestants etiquette. As a trainer likely to be asked in the Miss India for Delta Airlines, Rukshana flies to I saw how difficult it is Paris three times a week, and also to present views that seem runs her own grooming school, called Image Incorporated. to be the products of an The Many Don’ts independent, thinking In a style characterized by a series woman, but are in fact of exhortations for proper behaviour platitudes...development which begin with ‘you should’ and of a certain accent as ‘you must never’, she advised the a class marker is contestants on how to conduct discursively constructed themselves. Rukshana was clear that her training was absolutely essential as essential for success for the contestants: at international beauty “This is important for the girls, pageants like Miss World. because our own culture doesn’t Film stars and celebrities as judges

No.143 20 patriarchal values by staying married contestants. Positioned as the ultimate enshrined in urban popular culture as to her philandering husband, as a role authorities on how to win, the the demi-gods of post-liberalization model, Kauveri answered the question contestants were absolutely absorbed Indian, only serves to further perfectly in the context of the pageant: by the advice of international pageant legitimize this project. she named a woman in a position of winners. Although they were advised on power as a result of her marriage, which Miss World 1996 Yukta Mookhey how to improve themselves at all is rather non-threatening, and a woman served as a consultant throughout the times in order to better their chances who has sacrificed in order to keep her pageant, and spent two hours advising at winning, the rhetoric of never being marriage together. Trivedi was the contestants on the amount of work good enough was further entrenched extremely happy with this answer, they should put into both themselves by the obvious reality that only three noting that “it’s correct not to be and the pageant: young women would win in the final specific about her problems.” “There is never enough - compare pageant. As such, while the main To be specific about Clinton’s yourself to yourself and think ‘I can focus of the experts was obviously problems, of course, would have do better than that’. Here you are, just to prepare and advise contestants on brought an element of negativity to 26, and there are 94 girls at an how to win an international pageant, the stage that would not have been international pageant. Believe that several sessions were also conducted audience-friendly. Contestants were you’re better than the best.” on career-related subjects. In this way, warned to monitor every part of their being as they answered the question Positioned as the ultimate role even the young women who did not posed to them, from their words to their model for the contestants, Yukta was win were provided with a social posture to where they held their hands. clear that the competition would network which would enable them to When Trivedi warned the contestants enter media-related fields. not to position their hands in front of The rhetoric of never Although films are normally the next step for Miss India their bodies, “lest it look like you are being good enough was contestants, director , holding your crotch” I marveled at how further entrenched by the young women could manage to who completed the enormously think at all with the sheer amount of the obvious reality that successful Kabhi Khushi Kabhi scrutiny surrounding their every only three young women Gham when he was just twenty-six action. would win in the years old, advised contestants that The very formation of their final pageant. films were not the only option for sentences, as well as their tone of them. voice, was also the subject of daily become even tougher at the “I don’t know how many of you sessions for the contestants. Sabira international level. The rhetoric of want to be actresses, but if you want Merchant is a diction coach who achievement and work evinced by to act, please act! Now there are about speaks with an accent that is the Yukta ran through the entire pageant; three hundred other platforms out amalgamation of British inflections young women were consistently and there. I feel sad when I see so many and American usage that is generally implicitly advised, whether in the form beautiful faces and they all want to marked as elite in urban India. As it is of medication to lighten their skin, be actresses - it hurts me that they elsewhere, accent is a major indicator just want to do it for the money and of class in India, and the development exercise to make them thinner, or recognition. You should want to do it of a certain accent as a class marker is classes to lessen their Indian-accented for the art. I know that most of our discursively constructed as essential speech, that they were simply not actresses cannot be models, but for success at international beauty good enough. pageants like Miss World. Objectification of Women models cannot be actresses.” In addition to the other experts, I contend that such rhetoric In making a dividing line between several past Miss India winners were allows for the masking of the different career options, Johar called in to speak to contestants about pageant’s absolute objectification of expressed the clear difference how to win. These young women were women, and is therefore necessary. between being a glamorous figure accorded the greatest amount of After all, if everyone consistently and being an actress. In a film attention by the contestants, and also contends that the empowerment of industry in which women are often often requested to pose for women is its ultimate goal, this decorative objects, Johar’s photographs with the past winners message becomes accepted as fact. exhortation to the contestants to after they were done addressing the The participation of experts, who are ‘please act!’ was interesting, as it

No.143 21 As a concept, Miss India is actually fall into the category of Panopticon, which refers gender inequality writ unabashedly fattening, because “it’s more of a to a process by which large. The contestants are watched maintenance food”. individuals are so closely every minute by chaperones, some Fear of Eating observed that they begin of whom are their age or younger, The disturbing intensity with to monitor their own who make sure that they eat, sleep which the young women discussed and do what they are told. behaviour in much the their consumption patterns points Although I never witnessed a to the way in which the total same way that broader confrontation between a contestant institution of the training social institutions do. and a chaperone, I was constantly programme enforces a kind of self- aware of the pressure of being monitoring. However, the pointed to the way in which options always watched. One chaperone monitoring of contestants’ in media have increased mentioned the responsibility of consumption of food also extended exponentially since liberalization. making sure the contestants follow to outright policing at times. When Miss India training serves as a the regimen assigned to them: the young women were taken to the site in which young women are able Every week they get a new diet Amby Valley to meet the press, their to decide their future, or at least assigned in a private consultation first time outside of the hotel in a expand their options in terms of with Anjali. I have to make sure they month, a pageant organizer warned, media-related careers. However, the stick with it. One girl is seven kilos “there will be normal food there, but training is extremely emotionally underweight, so she’s on a weight control yourselves. I don’t want to taxing, as it involves a rigorous gain diet, and she can eat pastries have to come up to you and ask you fifteen hour schedule each day as and cake in front of everyone, which to stop eating.” well as the constant, unrelenting bothers them. The politics of eating were the supervision of each young woman’s Put in the odd position of subject of much discussion behaviour. supervising grown women, the throughout the training period. Politics of Miss India Training chaperone’s complaint points to the Contestants ate every meal from a Remember, the moment you’re way in which contestants are buffet table on which three large out of this hotel, you’re onstage always being observed. Yet, the tureens of food were arranged for twenty-four hours (Hemant Trivedi contestants also observe them. For breakfast, they had cereal to contestants). themselves and each other, thereby or fruit as an option, while for lunch Eerily resembling Foucault’s internalizing the process of they had two vegetables and soup, concept of the Panopticon, which monitoring. The very fact that all and for dinner they had rice and a refers to a process by which meals were eaten as a group, where protein-based dish. From these individuals are so closely observed consumption could be watched by selections, contestants were that they begin to monitor their own all, was in itself part of this. expected to pick out what they had behaviour in much the same way that As I sat with the young women been assigned to eat by Anjali broader social institutions do, over breakfast one morning, they Mukherjee. Trivedi’s comment exhorts entered into a complex discussion contestants to always monitor of the diets assigned to them by the themselves, even when the experts dietician. One girl noted “I’ve lost As a concept, Miss India are unable to do it themselves. As two hundred grams, that’s it. I’m 61 is gender inequality writ emblematic of the Foucauldian total and a half kilos right now, and I want unabashedly large. The institution, the Miss India training to be 60. She says I can’t have fruit contestants are watched programme completely takes over today, because it’s fattening.” every minute by the lives of the contestants for a Another commiserated that she had chaperones, some of whom month, placing them under the gaze been assigned bread and eggs for of experts who are discursively breakfast, followed by two days of are their age or younger, constructed as able to transform the cucumber and chutney. As part of who make sure that they young women into glamorous icons the odd speculations that are eat, sleep and do what which fit the ever-exalted inherent in playing the diet game, they are told. ‘international standards’. the girls decided that fruit does not

No.143 22 conspicuously placed in the center spaces in which this sort of dress is Being beautiful comes of the hotel, which all twenty-four common. to be defined as a floors of the hallways looked down Yet the phenomenon of being condition of being upon. This made it impossible for watched is also complemented by the excessively thin, fair the contestants to express any power of being looked at. In most and tall, and no one can emotions with family members that parts of South Asia, staring is not they may have felt uncomfortable rude; in fact, it is common. If have any of these three expressing in front of others. One someone is different, others will let qualities in excess at chaperone explained the rationale that person know it by looking at him Miss India. behind this policy as “because the or her. The notion of ‘darshan’, or reputation of the pageant is at stake, the holy gaze, is deeply rooted in The fear of overconsumption, as and we can’t have ugly rumors Hindu tradition, and other concepts, well as the pressures of being cropping up.” As a result, she such as ‘boori nazar’, or the evil eye, watched while eating in front of the argued, it was necessary for the are imports from Central Asian competition, in effect, served to contestants to be in full view with cultural contact long predating the make it painfully clear to the chaperones at all times. British colonial period. contestants that the standards of Living in Cocoons Being on Constant Display beauty were dependent upon both When I questioned organizers as Being looked at, then, is a form of their self-control and their attention to why the contestants were not power. One contestant laughed as she to expert advice. Although some allowed outside of the hotel during described how her servants “just young women worked harder than their limited amount of free time, a love” watching her in her thong others at doing this (and some chaperone stressed the fact that the underwear, which she named as her excessively so), the message of outside world is, in a matter of garment of choice when she is at having to struggle to be beautiful speaking, not ready for the kind of home. While this may be out of sheer was a constant at the training. young women that are contestants disbelief about the practicality of Being beautiful comes to be in Miss India: such a garment from a servant’s defined as a condition of being The other day when we took perspective, the opportunity to be excessively thin, fair and tall, and them shopping we had to push them gazed at is a coveted one in Bombay no one can have any of these three onto the bus because all the janta and Delhi. Page Three of the Bombay qualities in excess at Miss India. (crowd, in a negative sense) was Times (or, in Delhi, the Delhi Times), This closely corresponds to gathering to stare at them. In India, a supplement of , Foucault’s concept of how the women can’t wear short things and visually chronicles the nightlife of Panopticon works to force prisoners those things all the girls wear make celebrities and is avidly consumed by to begin monitoring themselves. all the kachra log (literally, ‘garbage a middle class readership. Indeed, Foucault defines power as people’) stare at them. That’s why Shonal, a successful model in her embodied in “the we have to keep them in the hotel native Calcutta before she was strategies…whose general design all the time. selected for the training programme, or institutional crystallization is Utilizing a rhetoric of protection, noted that doing well in Calcutta and embodied… in the various social the chaperone underscores the at Miss India were two completely hegemonies” (1961: 93). As such, sharp division between the world of different things. Miss India serves not only to Miss India and the reality that is “I’ll lose my privacy if I win. In reinforce standards of beauty for India. While the contestants were Calcutta, people know me, and there the contestants, but for the urban free to roam around the hotel in population who consume images of varying degrees of undress without Utilizing a rhetoric of the pageant as well. attracting much attention, the protection, the chaperone Even the allotted one hour visits average man on the street would not from family members, held between be able to take his eyes off a underscores the sharp nine and ten p.m. every night glamorous woman in a mini skirt, division between the world in the hotel’s coffee shop, simply because it is something that of Miss India and the were supervised by chaperones. he would usually see only on TV, as reality that is India. The coffee shop was rather he is unable to frequent the kind of

No.143 23 I have to be cautious about what I domination at a macro level, they can say and do. But as Miss India, I’ll Contestants need to also be spaces of relative female never be able to relax. Here, they act sexy, yet non- empowerment and social mobility. As turn you into a complete lady, but threatening, and also such, it is useful to examine the Miss when people watch you more and calm, but still in India pageant with a view informed more, your concept of individuality control. by an understanding of a real world just goes.” feminism which pays as much Shonal’s assertion that she feminine, women’s work in the space attention to individual women’s would “never be able to relax” of the pageant is so profoundly motivations for participating in points to the kind of constant public devalued. However, given the patriarchy as it does to the flawed scrutiny that the contestants are chance to be looked at via the institutions that patriarchy subjected to, and how it increases opportunities made possible by the perpetuates. tenfold if they win. When she training programme, the strain of While it is self-evident that insists that “people watch you more being observed may very well be women are embodied subjects (Butler and more”, the metaphor of the seen as worth the effort by many 1993), there is a dearth of literature Panopticon, as well as the two-sided young women. that addresses how women compliment of the gaze become Throughout the training, successfully navigate the space of the especially clear given her matter-of- contestants learned how to cultivate body in order to achieve a version of femininity which is discursively factness: being watched, it seems, themselves in such a way that they constructed as beautiful. It is is simply a part of life as a beauty fit into norms surrounding gender, dangerous to label such women as queen. class and beauty. What they were mere victims of male domination, as Indeed, numerous sessions at doing, in short, was forming to do so serves to deny them agency, the training programme were relationships both with themselves as well as the intelligence to negotiate designed to prepare the contestants and positioning those brand new their social worlds. to be watched. For several hours selves in the world simultaneously. As representatives of what is one afternoon, diction expert Sabira References discursively constructed by many Merchant led the contestants Sarah Banet-Weiser, The Most Beautiful urban Indians as a brand new, post- through an exercise designed to Girl in the World, University of California liberalization India, Miss India Press, Berkeley, 1999. prepare them to be on television, contestants, quite literally, serve as Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter, perhaps the ultimate instrument of embodiments of the nation. Routledge, New York, 1993. the gaze. One by one, each Indeed, what is lacking in the Colleen Cohen, Richard Wilk and Stoeltje contestant came to the podium, discourse of contemporary feminist Beverly, eds Beauty Queens on the Global where Sabira advised them that: Stage: Gender, Contests and Power, approaches is an understanding of Routledge, New York, 1995. Everyone is watching you. Hold the way in which women negotiate a Kathy Davis, Embodied Practices, the mike level to your chest, make gendered universe in order to meet Routledge, New York, 1997. sure it’s an extension of yourself. their own needs. Although beauty Kathy Davis, Reshaping the Female You’ll sound sexy that way, well- pageants such as Miss India are Body:The Dilemma of Cosmetic modulated. You’ve got to sex up the certainly instruments of male Surgery,Routledge, New York, 1995. audience, let’s be honest. Everyone Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish Vintage, New York, 1975. will be watching you, so be breezy, Although beauty happy and in control, cool. Keith Lovegrove, Pageant: The Beauty pageants such as Miss Culture, te Neues Publishing Company, New Route to Upward Mobility India are certainly York, 2002 . In a few brief sentences, Sabira AR Riverol, Live from Atlantic City: The sums up the need for contestants to instruments of male History of Before, After And domination at a macro In Spite of Television, Popular Press New act sexy, yet non-threatening, and York, 1992. also calm, but still in control. The level, they can also be more I learned about how difficult it spaces of relative The author is a PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology at Syracuse is to present oneself as a beauty female empowerment University. This work is based on more queen, the more I realized that it is and social mobility. than a year of intensive research into the incredibly sad that, like most things nascent beauty industry in South Asia. 

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