Sometimes I feel when I’m driving to work that I’m on auto pilot – I know the route so well. It takes a bit to capture my attention, but it happened this morning.
While doing my usual channel surfing, I heard Jo Stanley from Fox FM’s breakfast radio show mention that they were having a ‘True Beauty’ search during Melbourne’s Spring Fashion Week. I was about to flick the channel (not another banal beauty competition!) but Jo hooked me in, saying this was going to be a competition like no other & that the station were going to host a fashion parade where all of the models would have a physical disability or impairment that was visible to others.
The show invited women to call in telling them why they wanted to be in the parade. One woman explained she had only had one hand since birth & while she lead a very successful life, she would love to feel like a supermodel for a day. Another shy woman said she had been completely bald for a number of years & that she was “totally over” people treating her like she was a freak & that she would like to get a chance to show others she was beautiful. Another call came in from a man who said he wanted to nominate his wife for the parade as she had recently had a mastectomy & it was very evident, unless she was wearing very baggy clothing, that she had only one breast. He choked back tears saying that while she was incredibly beautiful to him, he felt she really needed a self esteem boost & that maybe being in this parade would help.
I was struck by what a wonderful idea this fashion parade was & how meaningful it could be to many women who must feel at times that they are dismissed by society & not seen as beautiful in any way. They are beautiful of course, in immeasurable ways, but in our perfection obsessed society, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to develop positive body image when missing a limb, confined to a wheelchair or having a facial disfigurement. I also thought it a great idea to give a good push along to wider society to develop an appreciation that you don’t need to be ‘perfect’ to be beautiful, fashionable, desirable or even sexy.
I wish all of the women who enter the very best. While there will be hundreds of fashion parades boasting beautiful clothes & pretty young models during Spring Fashion Week, I highly doubt that any parade will be as special as this one. May it be the first of many & the beginning of seeing more women with disabilities in the fashion & modelling world. Both sectors sorely need an injection of some diverse beauty that I have no doubt all of these women would bring.
