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Using the tools of performance studies, gender theory, and cultural history, Brenda Foley explores the striking similarities between beauty pageantry and striptease. For example, women in both project a 'normal' femininity and adhere to a strict hierarchy (Miss America contestants look down upon Miss Universe contestants, while theatrical 'burlesque artists' saw themselves as far above mere carnival strippers). Undressed for Success collects extensive primary source research - newspapers, journals, trade publications, photography collections, press releases, memoirs, and interviews with both strippers and pageant contestants - and employs a wide array of gender, feminist, and performance theory to analyze them.

Undressed for Success: Beauty Contestants and Exotic Dancers as Merchants of Morality

Introduction 'Stripping the Light Fantastic': Historical Cross-Pollination in Staged Female Exposure 'It Ain't What You Do, It's The Way What You Do It': Segmenting Female Spectacle on the Basis of Constructed Morality Artifice and Authenticity: Parallels in Performance Approach Performing Normalcy Economics and Advancement: or, Flesh-for-Cash Transactions and the Cinderella Myth Naked Politics: Regulating and Legislating Female Display Afterword