Folklore and Beauty Queens: Functions of Folklore and Reflection of Thai Society

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the folklore in a beauty pageant industry. The main objectives are to study the folklore in a beauty pageant industry, and to study the roles and image reflections of Thai society from the folklore in the beauty pageant industry. In this study, the data were collected from interviews with beauty pageant contestants in five media sources: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram online newspapers, and online magazines, focusing on contestants from six major beauty contests in Thailand, namely Miss Universe Thailand, Miss Grand Thailand, Miss Supranational Thailand, Miss Earth Thailand, Miss Tiffany Universe and Miss Thailand World. This research employed the concepts of beliefs and functions of Folklore for data analysis. According to the findings, there were three types of folklore that appeared in the beauty pageant industry: ritual folklore, folklore beliefs, and folklore amulets. As for the roles of folklore in the beauty industry, there appeared two types including the role of folklore in meeting the spiritual needs and creating hope for beauty queens and their supporters. Another role of folklore was to strengthen the beauty pageant industry. As for the image reflections of Thai society from folklore, they appeared that there were two aspects including a reflection of the existence of folklore in Thai society and an image reflection of the diversity of beliefs that exist in Thai society.