Ten types, One people: Colonial beauty in Jamaica

The history of beauty standards is deeply interwoven with global narratives of colonialism, cultural assimilation, and power. In examining the construction of ideals of beauty in Jamaica, we witness the intersection of local identity and global histories of race, class, and empire. Colonial beauty pageants, such as Jamaica’s “Ten Types – One People” contest, exemplify how Eurocentric standards of femininity were exported and localized, shaping cultural practices in colonized societies.

Celebrating the nation – Jamaica 300 (1955)

In 1955, after three hundred years of British colonisation, the Caribbean Island of Jamaica acknowledged the period of colonisation with a celebration that had three elements: sport, theatre and pageantry. It is the issue of pageantry that this blog will focus on in exploring ideas of beauty. Since their formation in 1929, beauty contests in Jamaica were heavily dominated by White creoles. The competition winners were representative of the colonial patronage that favoured Whiteness and showcased the lighter natural features that were deemed to be an ideal of beauty. Miss Jamaica became professionalised within the role of pageantry by allowing the winners to become national representatives and in turn cultural ambassadors, even though they were usually light-skinned. This type of visibility was celebrated in a year-long anniversary in 1955, in which the government sponsored an island-wide commemorative activity to celebrate Jamaica’s tercentenary as a British colony. Initially announced as marking ‘the three hundredth anniversary of British rule in Jamaica’ was later described as marking ‘three centuries of Jamaican history’ and ‘three hundred years of association’ with Britain. These changes in the description of the celebrations reflected the public debate about what should be commemorated.

The ‘Jamaica 300’ celebration was designed to prioritise several principles such as helping to attract tourists to the island and to ensure the population was involved in all the festivities. Such festivities were marked with sports, national depictions in theatre and the ‘Ten Types – One People’ beauty contest that was staged in May 1955, showcasing the history of Jamaica as a British territory. Specifically, 1955 was identified as marking three hundred years since 1655, when Britain first captured the island. A competition that drew three thousand eager participants from all the parishes of the island was advertised in The Star from May to December 1955. The new-found competition comprised ten separate competitions, each representing a category for a specific skin tone and ethnicity. This fascination with skin tone was not a new narrative to an island steeped in colonialism.

‘Ten types – One people’: whiteness, Jamaican identity and beauty standards

As a form of entertainment imported and repurposed from the United States, beauty pageants distinguished between ‘high’ (Anglo-European) and ‘low’ (African creole) culture that have been a persistent feature of modern Caribbean cultural debate. This analogy of class was prevalent in the construction of the newly formulated beauty pageant. Contestants did not need to be qualified, be in training or have any talents to be considered. Instead, they should merely resemble a culturally acceptable representation in their skin hue. They were judged and awarded for their physical levels of attractiveness based on their face, figure, poise and personality, opinions on all of which were constructed by the judges and the public. This matter of judgement was displayed in Hue magazine’s double-page spread on the ‘Miss Jamaica’ 1954 winner, Judith Verity, in Figure 1.

At the tender age of 17, Verity is highlighted for her long-limbed, neat figure and her ability to outshine the 15 other entrants to be crowned the contest winner. Despite the general depiction of contest winners being talentless, Judith, on the other hand, is praised for her work as a sales lady, her floristry hobby and her love of reading. The image of Whiteness displayed by Verity equated to an idealised image of beauty in the line ‘God-given beauty’, indicating that her beauty needs no adjustment, and she is acceptable merely as she is: a longstanding historically shared view in the colonial perception of Jamaican society.

In the following year, however, 'Ten Types – One People' attempted to demonstrate a universal depiction of standards of female beauty by showcasing women from different ethnic groups conforming to Eurocentric standards of beauty. In this manner, the 'Ten Types– One People' beauty contest provided an opportunity for Jamaica to examine the spectacles of the female body through the gaze of a multiracial modern society.[1] The lineup for the Ten Types replicated, however, the social hierarchy within enslavement. The outcome was ten individual beauty queens, crowned alongside each other as a national representative:

• Miss Ebony – A Jamaican girl of Black Complexion
• Miss Mahogany – A Jamaican Girl of Cocoa-brown Complexion
• Miss Satinwood – A Jamaican Girl of Coffee-and-Milk Complexion
• Miss Golden Apple – A Jamaican Girl of Peaches and Cream Complexion
• Miss Apple Blossom – A Jamaican Girl of European Parentage
• Miss Pomegranate – A Jamaican Girl of White-Mediterranean Parentage
• Miss Sandalwood- A Jamaican Girl of Pure Indian Parentage
• Miss Lotus – A Jamaican Girl of Pure Chinese Parentage
• Miss Jasmine – A Jamaican Girl of Part Chinese Parentage
• Miss Allspice – A Jamaican Girl of Part Indian Parentage

Figure 2 embodies an attempt to universalise a feminine standard by featuring women who are slim and petite in frame. Their slim figures and identical posture and pose reframed discourses of racialised othering. Here, in their shade-specific categories, they represented the ‘Jamaica 300’ a celebration of three hundred years of British colonisation, described as an achievement. The only striking difference is the radiating lightness of skin tone from left to right of the photograph, assimilating the personification of femininity, slim figure and beauty. This image is important as it speculates on Jamaica’s ability to operate within modernity.

The double-page spread suggested a universal understanding of beauty to which all Jamaican women could conform. It cleverly highlighted from left to right, with pointed toes, the shade variations that disseminated the idea that Blackness was limited to a parade of feminine beauty, appearing as a scale of brownness. This brownness was imagined expansively and occupied several of the categories. Furthermore, the image in Figure 2 signified the differently raced ethnic groups of Jamaica who were capable of assimilation to modernity. Within these logics, Caribbean beauty could only be understood through the spectrum of the White female body, a body idealised and strategically deployed as a tool to mark the Caribbean as a realm of civilisation, whilst the blackened body represented the very opposite.

Rochelle Rowe’s examination of the 'Ten Types – One People' beauty contest in Imagining Caribbean Womanhood (2013) reveals that the light-brown beauty contestants correlated with the Jamaican social landscape, encouraging the image of light-skinned brownness as a social category worthy of national representation. Rowe argues that despite the various categories of Jamaican identity that were displayed, the most striking component of the Ten Types – One People contest for its contemporary audience was the novelty of a category available to the dark-skinned Afro-Jamaican women. However, what was evident was the colonial impact of racial views on beauty standards across the island of Jamaica. This was demonstrated by the differences in beauty contestants seen in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

By exploring the development of beauty contests within the broader context of colonial and postcolonial histories, we can better understand how these spectacles became tools of cultural negotiation and societal representation in Jamaica and beyond. This analysis connects the Caribbean's experiences to wider conversations about global imperialism and modernity, illustrating how Jamaica's colonial history contributed to global narratives of racialized aesthetics and identity.