The negotiation of gender within university beauty pageants

• Main Author: Check, Nicole Ann Jia Xuan
• Other Authors: Laavanya Kathiravelu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Campus pageants; Masculinity; Femininity; Heteronormativity; Subversion
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175728
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This research investigates campus beauty pageants, focusing on how gender is performed and reproduced within Singapore university undergraduate students. Through interviews and analysis, it explores how campus pageant structures perpetuate heteronormativity, while also provides opportunities for it for subversion. Male and female participants’ masculinity and femininity are explored, revealing the ways in which campus pageants uphold certain heteronormative assumptions. However, campus pageants are also a site for individual expression, allowing them to challenge certain norms. This study highlights the significance of campus pageants as sites for both the reproduction and contestation of gender norms, while acknowledging limitations in sample diversity.