Televised minority beauties: Ethnocultural mobility and femininity in Singapore’s television beauty contests

Liew Kai Khiun, Nidya Shanthini Manokara, Lizawati Mohd T’a’at

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Drawing on two beauty contests Ratu Suria (2012) and Miss Vasantham (2004–present) from the minority Malay and Tamil television stations in Singapore as case studies, this article seeks to map out the contours of ethnocultural scripting of gender and femininity. Rather than finding idealized beauties, these contests have brought to the surface anxieties of ethnocultural incompleteness. More importantly, they also reveal the extent of ethnocultural mobility in the contestants negotiating the ideological contours required by the state-supported minority television stations towards an idealized multicultural minority beauty.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)330-347
Number of pages18
JournalCritical Studies in Television
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Ethnocultural mobility
  • Minority television
  • Miss Vasantham
  • Positional femininity
  • Ratu Suria
  • Singapore

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