Anti-Barbie wins beauty contest in Russia
From the Beeb
An unglamorous schoolgirl has become a feminist icon in Russia after she was entered for an online beauty pageant. <She> got at least 40,000 votes, making her the runaway favourite to represent Russia in June’s Miss Universe contest.
Why?
“(She) submitted for the competition usual photos, made by unprofessional photographers, without make-up, with a natural smile and expression of the eyes.”
“The appearance of a common, real-life girl caused an enormous wave of support”.
The vote for Alyona was “against unnatural beauties who cannot be distinguished from each other, fake emotions, smiles and gazes reflected in the lenses of professional photographers”
But Alyona, 15, was disqualified ahead of the finals because of her age.
Her supporters hit back with a website called “Say No To Barbie Dolls“.
The site is in Russian, however, they have this to say this in English
The appearance of a common, real-life girl caused an enormous wave of support for Alena, since Alena submitted for the competition usual photos, made by unprofessional photographers, without make-up, with a natural smile and expression of the eyes. At first, everyone perceived it as a mockery, some sort of joke, but after making an analysis of all the recent events, people realized that the origins of Alena’s success have much deeper roots.
The radical site Globalnaya Alternativa saw the support for Pisklova as evidence of mounting social protest.
“In this spontaneous protest the denizens of the Russian Internet — bored office workers, secretaries fed up with work and sexual harrassment, middle management with its permanent attitude problem, journalists sick to death of their own cynicism — have all come into their own.”
The movement’s organizers published a manifesto on the web declaring their opposition to:
- Unnatural cookie-cutter beauties; sham emotions, smiles and poses caught by the lenses of professional photographers
- The standard measurements 90-60-90
- The mass media and the standards they impose; one-size-fits-all products and brands which the big corporations make into the objects of cult worship
- Nicotine-free cigarettes and decaffeinated coffee.
Next came a revolutionary appeal:
“Our strategy must be to defend our position and to get it across to the public, the government and to major corporations. Our goal is to draw attention not to the needs of the average person but to the needs of individuals.”
The Moscow Times concludes with –
“It’s not hard to see that what we’re dealing with here is Russia’s first homegrown anti-globalist initiative.”