Studies in Social & Cultural History
1 primary work
Book 6
In the summer of 1902, Miss Rose Bull posed in front of 2000 people at Zealandia Hall in Invercargill and won a gold watch and chain for first prize in one of New Zealand's first beauty contests. At the same venue, Mrs T. B. Mortimer's ten month-old child won a perambulator in the baby show. And just down the road, for a shilling, the people of Invercargill could see Lex McLean, 'the modern Hercules', show off his bulging muscles and lift a 200 lb weight with one hand. From these first beauty contests for men, women, and babies on through the enthusiasm for Miss New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s, Beauty Queens and Physique Kings tells a new story of New Zealand that changes how we see our past. New Zealand men, our history books tell us, were farmers, soldiers, and rugby players, not beauty contestants. Likewise, New Zealand women were farmers' wives, mothers and tireless community workers. The idea we have of colonial womanhood does not allow them to be in the audience at the Choral Hall, barracking for the man they considered most beautiful, nor on stage, competing for a prize. Yet some of them were.
Through the spectacle of beauty and physique contests, this book offers a new way to think about New Zealand's past.
Through the spectacle of beauty and physique contests, this book offers a new way to think about New Zealand's past.