{"product_id":"miss-communication-rebecca-j-meisenbach-9781978842243","title":"Mis(s) Communication: Stigma and the Miss America Organization","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMis(s) Communication: An Analysis of Stigma and the Miss America Organization\u003c\/i\u003e explores the 100-year history of the Miss America Organization (MAO) as a site of stigma management. Through five years of ethnographic, archival, and interview-based research, Rebecca J. Meisenbach shows how pageant participation is both valorized and stigmatized--making MAO a key lens for studying stigma as a dynamic, power-laden communication process. The book examines stigma across individual, organizational, and societal levels, focusing on moments like Rule Seven, which once barred nonwhite participants, and the 1968 protest by the New York Radical Women alongside the first Miss Black America pageant. Meisenbach also investigates how contestants navigate stigma tied to intelligence, body image, and the sexualization of women. She analyzes MAO's 2018 elimination of the swimsuit competition as a stigma management move and its recent shift to a for-profit model under Miss America Opportunity. The book ultimately argues for understanding stigma as communicative and deeply intersectional.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Rebecca J. Meisenbach\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1978842244\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781978842243\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Rutgers University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/08\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 206\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Rebecca J. Meisenbach","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48448693862655,"sku":"9781978842243","price":32.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_407fc770-eb51-4617-96f2-aaf28cacf0cf.jpg?v=1777260058","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/miss-communication-rebecca-j-meisenbach-9781978842243","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}