There She Is, or Can the Master's Tools Dismantle the Master's House?

Recently, the Thymos organization of Portland, Oregon created a bit of controversy when two of its members organized an event that caused activists as far as way as California to protest.

What was this event?

A beauty pageant.

In particular, Miss Asian Oregon.

This event was a relatively minor affair in that it only had three contestants and was the first Miss Asian Oregon ever. That said, you wouldn't necessarily know this from the response (both pro and con) to it.

The pageant was publicized on Angry Asian Man and had some Asian Americans from around the USA protesting it.

There was also an event the following day in which perspectives opposing the pageant were voiced, including a screening of two films by pioneer filmmaker Curtis Choy that addressed this issue from the perspective of the 1970s: Making Up and Year of The Ox: The 1973 Chinatown Livestock Show.

Both these events are significant in that they raise broader issues of Asian American activism and empowerment.

- For the pro-pageant side, the organizers held this event as a form of empowerment by redefining the image of Asian women. The Miss Asian Oregon pageant thus did not have a traditional swimsuit competition but instead focused on the political causes that all the contestants promoted. The contestants were ostensibly judged primarily on their ability to present and advocate for their particular causes instead of their physical beauty.

- For the anti-pageant side, the protestors believed that Miss Asian Oregon was in fact disempowering because it reinforced the sexism of mainstream beauty pageants by implicitly promoting the physical appearance of the women albeit without a swimsuit competition.

Opposition to beauty pageants in general have a long history in the USA dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, with feminist protests against the Miss America contest.  A couple of interesting links to these historical protests are found on the Redstockings site and Jo Freeman's website.

Some of the questions that come to my mind with the Miss Asian Oregon pageant in particular are:

• What is the definition of Asian American empowerment?
• How should Asian Americans take control and define our image/identity in a way that challenges mainstream stereotypes?
• Is it possible to take a mainstream institution like beauty pageants and use them for activist ends?
• In short, can the Master's tools be used to dismantle the Master's house?

These issues were addressed in a podcast conducted by Byron Wong, Michelle Vlach-Ing (the two pageant organizers) and Christina Fa, an activist from California. The topic of male pageants (such as Hyphen Magazine's Mr. Hyphen) has even been brought up.

You can make a decision about the Miss Asian Oregon pageant itself by viewing it at this link.