Queens in the Regime of Beauty Women and the post-socialist public sphere in Laos

Abstract

As the socialist regime that seized power in Laos in 1975 abandons its revolutionary ideals and moves to join the regional market economy, the search for new ideals legitimating the urban elite has led to a reemphasis of traditional culture. Once valorized as revolutionary comrades in the anti-colonial struggle, women are now increasingly the object of a new fetish for ‘cultural’ beauty. While they continue to be largely excluded from the political leadership and encouraged to take on domestic roles as ‘good wives and mothers’, young women are also achieving a much more prominent public role as pop singers, models and actresses in the commercial media. This media is central to the performances of a new generation of urban youth seeking greater participation in global culture but also finding themselves negotiating a heightened nationalist emphasis on the maintenance of ‘tradition’ in the face of social changes reflected in the regionally dominant Westernised Thai media. This article explores representations of women in Lao business calendars, beauty pageants, magazines and the fledgling pop music industry and identifies a struggle for cultural authority underlying the beautiful surface. It will show how women in particular are described and valued as objects of beauty in the Lao media and explores their resulting struggle to define beauty as both a representation of traditional culture and one of global connectedness.