Observations at fieldsite

1. What’s going on in the field site? A group of girl’s ages 5-7 years old are on break in between the swimsuit and formal wear preparing themselves for the next competition.
2. How do the members of the subculture interact with each other? The little girls are in different rooms getting ready for the next part of the pageant, mothers are either doing their daughters makeup and running through the routine with the girls.
3. Make a list of terminology used at the field site with which you might be unfamiliar. Crossover, meat market, falsies, extensions, and bear.
4. What details, behaviors, and surroundings did you have questions about? How much time the girls had to get ready, if their parents were allowed to direct them through their shows, what did the judges look at the most, was jealously a big part of the pageants, and did the girls really enjoy what they were doing.
5. Find at least one person at your field site you can speak to and ask them a question about something you observed that you didn't understand. I observed that there were books on a table showing all of the girl’s pictures and what they have won, so I asked one of the mothers and she said that I was so that the girls and the mothers could take a look at their competition.

Act V

What makes this a job fieldsite? It’s in prison where the inmates live, where they met, and where the play takes place.

What observations does the author make to give us a better understanding of the subculture? He talks to the inmates about their feelings toward the characters they play and how they relate to them, and about their crimes, and about their lives.

What interview techniques does the author use to understand the subculture? The author almost always uses the question and answer technique, as well as narrative technique

What are the norms and values of the subculture? We see a hierarchy as a value in the prison as one of the prisoners refers to himself as the blue whale and the others as guppies. Also as a norm of this subculture we see the inmates are checked every time they enter and leave practice. The education of the men is also a norm in the prison

Subculture: Child Pageants

Topic: Child pageants

Sources:
Banet-Weiser, Sarah. The most beautiful girl in the world; beauty pageants and national identity
Berkeley: University of California Press, c1999.


King O’ Riain, Rebecca Chiyoko. Pure beauty: judging race in Japanese American beauty pageants.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c2006.


Hilbodlt-Stolley, Lise. “Pretty Babies: EBSCOhost: Academic Search Complete. Feb99. March 13, 2008
< http://wfxsearchgalileo.webfeat.org/wfsearch/search?cid=11222 >

Living Dolls. Dir. Shari Cookson. Perf. Swan Bronner and Robin Browne.
HBO, 13 May 2001.


Crawford, Mary, Gregory Kerwin, Gurung Alka. “Globalizing Beauty: Attitudes of beauty pageants among
Nepali women. Volume 18. Issue 1. (Feb 2008). P61-86, p26

Reflection: I really liked the summary of the Living Dolls documentary that was shown on HBO. It seems like it will be quite interesting, because reading an article or a book is not the same thing as actually seeing it. By watching this film I can the interactions between the girls, mothers, judges, and outsiders and even their attitudes and behavior. Also this documentary will be useful to me in my research because I can observe the work that’s goes into these pageants, the preparations the make the girls look pretty and money spent on these pageants. This source could also be useful in the sense that I could learn a lot more about this subculture than I know right now.