Miss Landmine
Apr. 20th, 2008 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elionwyr(swiped gleefully from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
varakesh516)
The Miss Landmine Project is a pretty amazing beauty pageant.
From an article this past November:
"The beauty pageant is the work of Morten Traavik, a Norwegian theatre and film director who sees it as a way of empowering disabled African women and delivering some much-needed attention to the land mine issue. Ten Angolan women are competing in the pageant for the grand prize: a leg prosthesis direct from Norway."
There is, of course, controversy about the pagent, which is in its first year.
But I encourage you to click through the photos of the contestants, and go through the varied articles.
These are women that have been disabled by weapons of war, and are being encouraged to remember that they are beautiful.
Their beauty is being used to remind us that Life goes on. As does war, even after the actual battles are over and the soldiers have gone. Landmines remain, and continue to work their destruction. We in America, who do not have to worry about losing a leg if we dare to go outside to our gardens, may not be able to relate to their lives. Projects like this remind us of how lucky indeed we are.
Check out the website. 'Meet' these ladies. Learn their stories. Celebrate their courage.
THE MISS LANDMINE MANIFESTO
(in no particular order)
* Female pride and empowerment.
* Disabled pride and empowerment.
* Global and local landmine awareness and information.
* Challenge inferiority and/or guilt complexes that hinder creativity-
historical, cultural, social, personal, African, European.
* Question established concepts of physical perfection.
* Challenge old and ingrown concepts of cultural cooperation.
* Celebrate true beauty.
* Replace the passive term 'Victim' with the active term 'Survivor'
And have a good time for all involved while doing so!
varakesh516)The Miss Landmine Project is a pretty amazing beauty pageant.
From an article this past November:
"The beauty pageant is the work of Morten Traavik, a Norwegian theatre and film director who sees it as a way of empowering disabled African women and delivering some much-needed attention to the land mine issue. Ten Angolan women are competing in the pageant for the grand prize: a leg prosthesis direct from Norway."
There is, of course, controversy about the pagent, which is in its first year.
But I encourage you to click through the photos of the contestants, and go through the varied articles.
These are women that have been disabled by weapons of war, and are being encouraged to remember that they are beautiful.
Their beauty is being used to remind us that Life goes on. As does war, even after the actual battles are over and the soldiers have gone. Landmines remain, and continue to work their destruction. We in America, who do not have to worry about losing a leg if we dare to go outside to our gardens, may not be able to relate to their lives. Projects like this remind us of how lucky indeed we are.
Check out the website. 'Meet' these ladies. Learn their stories. Celebrate their courage.
(in no particular order)
* Female pride and empowerment.
* Disabled pride and empowerment.
* Global and local landmine awareness and information.
* Challenge inferiority and/or guilt complexes that hinder creativity-
historical, cultural, social, personal, African, European.
* Question established concepts of physical perfection.
* Challenge old and ingrown concepts of cultural cooperation.
* Celebrate true beauty.
* Replace the passive term 'Victim' with the active term 'Survivor'
And have a good time for all involved while doing so!
