The “Miss Curvy Uganda” pageant

Representation, commodification and exploitation of women’s bodies

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12346185
AutoresFrancis Akena Adyanga (0000-0002-5277-7175, Kabale University, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume32
Fascículo2
Páginas224-239
Data de publicação2020-03-23
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Semiotics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1035-0330 • E-ISSN: 1470-1219
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10350330.2020.1743524
OpenAlexW3013322196
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas16

In early February 2019, Godfrey Kiwanda, a Uganda Junior Minister of Tourism proposed a beauty pageant dubbed, “Miss Curvy Uganda,” to publicly showcase voluptuous Ugandan women as means of attracting foreign tourists to generate more foreign currency earnings. The proposal drew sharp criticisms that appeared in the national media, ecumenical community gatherings, and public forums across the country. Feminists, ecumenical and cultural communities reviled the expressed opinion of the Junior Minister to commodify human bodies in the twenty-first century world. All the critics, motivated by moral and cultural arguments, agree that exploiting human, particularly female bodies, for generating revenue is reprehensible as the practice denigrates and debases humanity. This paper presents the paradox of the pageantry within the politics of patriarchy that exploits showcasing female bodies for generating revenue as well as the transformation of contemporary conscience in a neoliberal post-colonial economy

Beauty · Colonialism · Commodification · Conscience · Currency · Economics · Economy · Humanity · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Xenophobia · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Law