Queen of the Virgins
224 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:29 Jan 2013
ISBN:9781617037184
CA$43.95 add to cart button Back Order
Ships in 4-6 weeks.
Hardcover
Release Date:03 Aug 2009
ISBN:9781604732429
CA$62.95 add to cart button Back Order
Ships in 4-6 weeks.
GO TO CART

Queen of the Virgins

Pageantry and Black Womanhood in the Caribbean

University Press of Mississippi

Beauty pageants are wildly popular in the U.S. Virgin Islands, outnumbering any other single performance event and capturing the attention of the local people from toddlers to seniors. Local beauty contests provide women opportunities to demonstrate talent, style, the values of black womanhood, and the territory’s social mores.

Queen of the Virgins: Pageantry and Black Womanhood in the Caribbean is a comprehensive look at the centuries-old tradition of these expressions in the Virgin Islands. M. Cynthia Oliver maps the trajectory of pageantry from its colonial precursors at tea meetings, dance dramas, and street festival parades to its current incarnation as the beauty pageant or “queen show.” For the author, pageantry becomes a lens through which to view the region’s understanding of gender, race, sexuality, class, and colonial power.

Focusing on the queen show, Oliver reveals its twin roots in slave celebrations that parodied white colonial behavior and created Creole royal rituals and celebrations heavily influenced by Africanist aesthetics. Using the U.S. Virgin Islands as an intriguing case study, Oliver shows how the pageant continues to reflect, reinforce, and challenge Caribbean cultural values concerning femininity. Queen of the Virgins examines the journey of the black woman from degraded body to vaunted queen and how this progression is marked by social unrest, growing middle-class sensibilities, and contemporary sexual and gender politics.

M. Cynthia Oliver is associate professor of dance at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an award-winning choreographer whose dances focus on women, Caribbean culture, and mythology. Her work has appeared in Women and Performance, Movement Research Journal, and other periodicals.

Find what you’re looking for...
Stay Informed

Receive the latest UBC Press news, including events, catalogues, and announcements.


Read past newsletters

Free shipping on online orders over $40

Publishers Represented
UBC Press is the Canadian agent for several international publishers. Visit our Publishers Represented page to learn more.