Speech, Gender, and the Performance of Culture: Native American “Princesses”

Abstract

Communication scholars have fared well in their pursuit of feminist theory, especially as it applies to women in mass media and public culture. Conspicuously absent, however, are studies of local rituals such as community beauty contests. The issues surrounding portrayals of women in the mass media are intensified in community beauty pageants, where the authors are not nameless, faceless producers of media, but local individuals and contestants. This essay examines the “life-cycle” of a princess in the Native American festival of powwow—from the contest that crowns her to the gift exchange ritual that concludes her reign. Both these events give us hope, showing that the princess becomes a sign of reciprocity and a subject of meaning. They also indicate that there is much more research needed in the study of the cultural processes that objectify women.

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