On a Quest for a Quest

Miss Australia image

A University of Queensland academic has spent four months on a national journey to collect reminiscences and memorabilia from people involved in the 46-year history of the Miss Australia Awards.

Professor Kay Saunders from UQ's School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics contacted entrants, family members, supporters, chaperones, sponsors or those associated with the Spastic Centres of Australia, who organised the annual event from 1954 to 2000.

Her findings and any donated memorabilia will be used as material for a book and academic journal articles and conference papers.

Professor Saunders' study is entitled Inventing Perfect Australian Womanhood: The Miss Australia Awards and the Role of Disability in Postwar Australia.

"An analysis of the awards will allow interrogation of the role of fundraising for charity, the construction of celebrity, the nature of idealised young womanhood and interstate rivalries," she said.

"The awards articulated the concept of a perfect white womanhood in the post-war area."

While the awards sought representatives of conventional womanhood with exemplary appearance, poise and moral virtue, this view of bodily perfection contradicted the work of the sponsor organisation, which assisted people with cerebral palsy, Professor Saunders said.

She said the award's history charted Australia's evolution to a more inclusive, multicultural nation.

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