Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T08:55:18.148Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beauty and the Bikini: Embodied Respectability in Nigerian Beauty Pageants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2019

Oluwakemi M. Balogun
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

In the world of Nigerian beauty pageants, the bikini remains a fraught embodied symbol and aesthetic practice. Pageant affiliates, critics, and fans alike strongly debate the question of whether to include bikinis in these events. This article draws primarily from nearly a year of ethnographic observations of two Nigerian national beauty contests in 2009-2010 to show how various stakeholders used personal, domestic, and international frames about women’s bodies, and the bikini in particular, to bolster respectability. Through embodied respectability, women’s figurative and literal bodies were used to strategically situate propriety, social acceptance, and reputability for the self and the nation.

Résumé:

Dans le monde des concours de beauté au Nigéria, le bikini reste un symbole corporel et une pratique esthétique pesante. Les affiliés des concours, les critiques et les supporters, tous contestent ardemment la question d’inclure les bikinis dans ces événements. Cet article s’inspire principalement de près d’un an d’observations ethnographiques de deux concours de beauté nationaux au Nigéria en 2009-2010 pour montrer comment diverses parties prenantes ont utilisé des cadres personnels, nationaux et internationaux sur le corps des femmes et le bikini en particulier, pour renforcer la respectabilité. Par le biais de la respectabilité conçue de sorte, le corps figuratif et littéral des femmes sert à situer stratégiquement la bienséance, l’acceptation sociale et la respectabilité de soi et de la nation.

Resumo:

No mundo dos concursos de beleza nigerianos, o biquíni continua a ser incorporado como um forte símbolo e uma prática estética. Participantes, críticos e fãs desses concursos, todos debatem acaloradamente sobre a questão de incluir ou não o biquíni nestes eventos. Partindo, fundamentalmente, da observação etnográfica realizada ao longo de quase um ano (2009-2010) de dois concursos nacionais de beleza na Nigéria, o presente artigo propõe-se demonstrar o modo como as várias partes envolvidas utilizaram os enquadramentos pessoais, nacionais e internacionais acerca do corpo da mulher, e do biquíni em particular, para reforçar a respeitabilidade. Através de uma respeitabilidade incorporada, os corpos femininos – tanto literais como figurativos – são utilizados para atribuir estrategicamente a propriedade, a aceitação e a reputação social à pessoa e à nação.

Keywords

beauty pageantsembodimentgendernationalismNigeria
Type
Forum: Bodily Practices and Aesthetic Rituals in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Africa
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 80 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adebanwi, Wale, and Obadare, Ebenezer, eds. 2010. Encountering the Nigerian State. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adunbi, Omolade. 2011. “Oil and the Production of Competing Subjectivities in Nigeria: ‘Platforms of Possibilities’ and ‘Pipelines of Conflict.’” African Studies Review 54 (3): 101–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allman, Jean, ed. 2004. Fashioning Africa: Power and the Politics of Dress. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Apter, Andrew. 2005. The Pan African Nation: Oil and the Spectacle of Culture in Nigeria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnfred, Signe. 2015. “A Female Sexuality as Capacity and Power? Reconceptualizing Sexualities in Africa.” African Studies Review 58 (3): 149–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakare-Yusuf, Bibi. 2011. “Nudity and Morality: Legislating Women’s Bodies and Dress in Nigeria.” In African Sexualities: A Reader, edited by Tamale, Sylvia, 116–29. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press.Google Scholar
Balogun, Oluwakemi M. 2012. “Cultural and Cosmopolitan: Idealized Femininity and Embodied Nationalism in Nigerian Beauty Pageants.” Gender & Society 26 (3): 357–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banet-Weiser, Sarah. 1999. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Beauty Pageants and National Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Behrman, Carolyn. 1995. “‘The Fairest of Them All’: Gender, Ethnicity and a Beauty Pageant in the Kingdom of Swaziland.” In Dress and Ethnicity: Change Across Space and Time, edited by Eicher, Joanne Bubolz, 195–206. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Billings, Sabrina. 2013. Language, Globalization and the Making of a Tanzanian Beauty Queen. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, Timothy. 1996. Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification, Consumption, and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Clowes, Lindsay. 2001. “‘Are You Going to be MISS (or MR) Africa?’ Contesting Masculinity in Drum Magazine 1951–1953.” Gender & History 13 (1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Colleen Ballerion, Wilk, Richard, and Stoeltje, Beverly. 1995. Beauty Queens on the Global Stage: Gender, Contests, and Power. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Comaroff, John L. and Comaroff, Jean. 2009. Ethnicity Inc. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dosekun, Simidele. 2017. “The Risky Business of Postfeminist Beauty.” In Aesthetic Labour. Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism, edited by Elias, Ana Sofia, Gill, Rosalind, and Scharff, Christina, 167–81. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ebirim, Juliet. 2015. “Actress, Seyi Hunter, Set to Change Beach Culture with Miss Bikini Pageant.” https://www.vanguardngr.com.Google Scholar
Elusoji, Solomon. 2015. “Miss Nigeria has Come to Stay.” https://allafrica.com.Google Scholar
Falola, Toyin, and Heaton, Matthew M.. 2008. A History of Nigeria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Juliet. 2015. “‘Be Graceful, Patient, Ever Prayerful’: Negotiating Femininity, Respect, and the Religious Self in a Nigerian Beauty Pageant.” Africa 85 (3): 501–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haag, Matthew, and Buckley, Cara. 2018. “Miss America Ends Swimsuit Competition, Aiming to Evolve in ‘This Cultural Revolution.” https://www.nytimes.com.Google Scholar
Henrichsen, Dag. 1997. A Glance at our Africa: Facsimile Reprint of Southwest News—Suidwes Nuus, 1960. Basel, Switzerland: Basler Afrika Bibliographien.Google Scholar
Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. 1993. Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880–1920. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lutwama-Rukundo, Evelyn. 2016. “Skimpy Fashion and Sexuality in Sheebah Karungi’s Performances.” Feminist Africa 21: 52–61.Google Scholar
Mama, Amina. 1998. “Khaki in the Family: Gender Discourses and Militarism in Nigeria.” African Studies Review 41 (2): 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matebeni, Zethu. 2016. “Contesting Beauty: Black Lesbians on the Stage.” Feminist Africa 21: 23–36.Google Scholar
McClintock, Anne. 1991. “‘No Longer in a Future Heaven’: Women and Nationalism in South Africa.” Transition 51: 104–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mojola, Sanyu. 2014. Love, Money and HIV: Becoming a Modern African Woman in the Age of AIDS. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moran, Mary H. 1996. “Carrying the Queen: Identity and Nationalism in a Liberia Queen Rally.” In Beauty Queens on the Global Stage: Gender, Contests, and Power, edited by Cohen, Colleen Ballerino, Wilk, Richard, and Stoeltje, Beverly,147–60. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mougoué, Jacqueline-Bethel. 2016. “African Women Do Not Look Good in Wigs: Gender, Beauty Rituals and Cultural Identity in Anglophone Cameroon, 1961–1972.” Feminist Africa 21: 7–22.Google Scholar
Ogbonna, Amadi. 2011. “I Was Nervous Appearing Half Nude in the Final.” https://www.vanguardngr.comGoogle Scholar
Ogunyankin, Grace Adeniyi. 2016. “‘These Girls’ Fashion is Sick!’: An African City and the Geography of Sartorial Worldliness.” Feminist Africa 21: 37–51.Google Scholar
Okhomina, Osa. 2010. “Sylva’s Wife Mobilizes for Jonathan.” https://news2.onlinenigeria.com.Google Scholar
Oyěwùmí, Oyeronke, ed. 2005. African Gender Studies: A Reader. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.Google Scholar
Oza, Rupal. 2001. “Showcasing India: Gender, Geography, and Globalization.” Signs 26 (4): 1067–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberston, Roland. 1995. “Glocalization: Time-Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity.” In Global Modernities, edited by Featherstone, Mike, Lash, Scott, and Robertson, Roland, 25–44. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Schulz, Dorothea E. 2000. “Mesmerizing ‘Missis’, Nationalist Musings: Beauty Pageants and the Public Controversy over ‘Malian’ Womanhood.” Paideuma: Mitteilungen Zur Kulturkunde 46: 111–35.Google Scholar
Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2007. A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Spencer, Clare, and Chothia, Farouk. 2017. “Guinea bans ‘skimpy bikini’ pageants.” https://www.bbc.comGoogle Scholar
Tamale, Sylvia. 2014. “Exploring the Contours of African Sexualities: Religion, Law and Power.” African Human Rights Law Journal 14 (1): 150–77.Google Scholar
This Day. 2014. “Miss African Diamond Reality Show Debuts.” https://allafrica.com.Google Scholar
Thomas, Lynn. 2006. “The Modern Girl and Racial Respectability in 1930s South Africa.” The Journal of African History 47 (3): 461–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, Michael. 2003. “Development and Governmentality.” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 24 (1): 6–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuval-Davis, Nira. 1997. Gender & Nation. London: Sage.Google Scholar