TOW #2- Non-fiction Text

    Gerald Early's expository essay on the viewpoints of beauty pageants challenges the standard image of the ideal American woman, with the help of the Barbie doll.  In his account, Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant found in The Best American Essays of the Century, Early describes his experiences in watching the annual Miss America pageant with his wife and daughters; he also describes the effects it has not only on his own family, but the nation as a whole.  The first Miss America pageant took place in Atlantic City, 1921, with the main intention of crowning the most attractive woman.  At that time, no blacks were allowed to enter the competition.  

    Written in 1990, Gerald Early takes a unique approach in Life with Daughters, explaining his opinon on beauty standards from the perspective of a black father with a family.  Early shares his opinion to a nation where we strive to behold the "perfect", American image.  There are times in the essay where he reflects on small anecdotes from his childhood in the 1960s, a time where the rights between blacks and whites were still struggling to become equal.  He remembers clearly a family photo that was taken from his little sister's confirmation, and the white colored doll she was holding in her hand.  Early explains that she was "proud of the moment and wanted to share it with her favorite toy" (Early 535).  Back then, white dolls were the only option for little girls to play with.  Also, at this time it had not yet been made possible for a black woman to win a Miss America contest.  This created a false portrayal to the nation that the ideal beauty were to be white.  Early later connects this memory to the current day, and how his two daughters often "play Barbies" (Early 546).  His wife is not fond of the girls owning white Barbie dolls due to the stereotypical idea of white being the only color used to represent beauty.  In the end of his essay, Early retells what happened when he joined his daughters to play Barbie and they showed him the white "child" of a Barbie and Ken doll, who both happened to be black.  Early's daughter explains her reasoning with "'we're not racial. That's old-fashioned'" (Early 547).  By 1990, two black woman had won in the Miss America Beauty Pageant, and general beauty standards had finally shifted.  By sharing these experiences, Gerald Early is not only establishing an appeal to ethos and his personal credibility on the situation regarding race and beauty, but he is also conveying his message through the use of an extended metaphor.  Using two stories pertaining to dolls, both from different time periods, Early is able to connect it with the Miss America pageant and convey the overall message that beauty standards were once, and still may be, controlled by racial discrimination.