Thread by @EngagedPureLand

This is a Buddhist image. It might not look that way to you at first. Can you guess how it is Buddhist?
@BodiesBuddhist #BuddhistStudies #gender #ritual #amrel #visualculture #Buddhism

It doesn't LOOK Buddhist according to how we imagine Buddhist images should look. They should depict placid buddhas, wise monks, or dazzling mandalas.

But Buddhistness arises not from inherent properties in images themselves--it arises from use and context. What was the context and purpose of this image, therefore?

It's a photo of a Buddhist ritual. But how is it a Buddhist ritual? Where are the monks? The robes? The shaved heads? The altar? The cushions? The men?

It's the crowning of a beauty pageant winner, in 1966.

Such contests were common (here is Miss Teenage America 1966)

So how are the image and ritual Buddhist? Many see a beauty pageant as a secular activity, or even actively anti-Buddhist in spirit. The image lacks "Buddhist" content and the ritual is not clearly a Buddhist "practice." Its motifs are American, not "Asian." What's going on?

It's the crowning of Miss Bussei 1966, held as part of the 24th Annual Western Young Buddhist League Convention. The venue was the Sacramento Buddhist Church and the Hotel Eldorado. 800 people, including dozens of Buddhist ministers, attended.

Most of what we think of as “Buddhist” imagery and ritual is monastic, and directed at adults. This image helps us notice that we've overlooked a whole realm of non-monastic, youth-directed imagery that's partially produced by Buddhist youth themselves, for their own consumption.

It violates dualisms of religion/culture, spiritual/secular, renunciatory/sensual, ascetic/social, Buddhist/non-Buddhist, mental/embodied, elite/popular, transcending-gender/gendered, no-self/ego-assertion, feminist/sexist, surfacing the (often Protestant) nature of assumptions.

What work did this pageant do for the Jodo Shinshu Buddhists of the 1960s West Coast? It drew young Buddhists to a major annual Buddhist gathering. Young women competed for status within their in-group and heightened feelings of self-worth. Friends supported each other and bonded

Young Buddhist women practiced becoming ideal females in a gendered culture (20th century USA), demonstrating the tactics and boundaries to others. Young Buddhist men watched appreciatively and tried to be worthy male partners/potential partners for these idealized women.

The relentless cisgendered heteronormativity of this era's American Buddhist spaces was reinforced--not to exclude queer people (there was no fear of homosexuality) but as part of the adults' concern that minority youth find appropriate marriage partners and carry on the lineage.

The Miss Bussei beauty pageant helped Buddhists display their Americanness: this population had been in US concentration camps 21 years earlier. It went along with Buddhist basketball leagues, Buddhist boy scout troops, and other activities that mirrored popular white activities.

Before and after the camps, Japanese-American Buddhists were excluded from white beauty pageants, white basketball leagues, white boy scout troups, and white social activities in general. Buddhist versions had to be created in order to provide refuge, meaning, fun, and training.

Miss Bussei ("Bussei" means Buddhist student or young Buddhist) provided a public role for women at Buddhist conferences, which otherwise presented a solidly male face. It was a way for young women to be visibly present and claim their own forms of virtue and Buddhist worth.

In crowning Miss Bussei 1966, Miss Bussei 1965 passes the lineage of young Buddhist women public figures (all candidates were local leaders in their social circles) on to the next person. It parallels the transmission of the monastic lineage from (male) teacher to (male) disciple

The panel of judges (including a married woman, a male doctor, and a Buddhist monk) had to discern what it meant to be a proper young Buddhist woman. The right mix of personality, confidence, charm, kindness, poise, community service, Dharma knowledge, and humility was required.

So this ritual did a LOT of work: it asserted identity, provided refuge in a prejudiced society, instructed youth, assured adults, reinforced gender norms, cultivated leaders, expressed Dharma concepts, claimed presence, excited hormones, welded social bonds, and created fun.

For previous threads in this series on gender and Buddhist material and visual culture, see:
1.

https://twitter.com/EngagedPureLand/status/1438862439785828358

2.

https://twitter.com/EngagedPureLand/status/1441428079151173657