Pageantry Discussion

As you know, we will be reading Beth Henley's play The Miss Firecracker Contest. 

The Miss Firecracker Contest is a Southern literature play written by Beth Henley. It was originally produced in Los Angeles in 1980 at the Victory Theater directed by Maria Gobetti. It got a production at the Manhattan Theatre Club off-Broadway in 1984 directed by Stephen Tobolowsky, who was Henley's romantic partner at the time. It moved to a larger off-Broadway house, the Westbank Theater, where it ran for a year. Although not as popular as Henley's Crimes of the Heart, The Miss Firecracker Contest has been generally well received among critics. Set in Brookhaven, Mississippi, the play explores the themes of femininity, beauty, and the need to be accepted.

Bell Work: Before looking at any articles and reading the play, what are your thoughts on beauty pageants? Do you support them? 


Additional Questions: What is your take on Donald Trump's history with pageants? (He owned the Miss USA pageant up until recently.) Did anyone march this weekend? What about pageants for children? What message does that send? What are your thoughts on Barbie and the message she sends? Would you let your child play with Barbies? Did you play with them when you were young?



Resources on Pageantry

NY Times Opinion Section

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/09/12/is-the-miss-america-pageant-bad-for-women/beauty-pageants-like-the-miss-america-contest-should-die

New Republic

https://newrepublic.com/article/117025/beauty-pageants-have-become-way-begin-career-politics

Washington Post Miss World

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/miss-world-is-the-biggest-beauty-pageant-youve-never-heard-of-whats-it-doing-in-washington/2016/12/16/d7c9a46a-c150-11e6-9578-0054287507db_story.html?utm_term=.8bce214cef56

PBS-race

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/missamerica/peopleevents/e_inclusion.html

PBS History of pageants

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/missamerica/peopleevents/e_origins.html

PBS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/missamerica/peopleevents/e_beauty.html

Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDPCmmZifE8

You tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYjY2eEc9KI

Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias is a play written by American Author,  Robert Harling in 1987. The play is about the bond a group of women share in a small-town southern community and how they cope with the death of one of their own. This play addresses many important feminist themes, which we will discuss in class.


The story is based on Harling's real life experience of the death of his sister, Susan Harling Robinson, in 1985 due to complications from Type 1 diabetes. He changed his sister's name in the story from Susan to Shelby Eatenton-Latcherie.


The title suggests the main female characters can be both as delicate as the magnolia flower, and as tough as steel.

Some of the names of people and places in the play may be difficult to pronounce. Here is a link that has most of the pronunciations as they are intended to sound: http://dialectsarchive.com/steel-magnolias