Uganda’s Miss Curvy Contest – Body Positivity Or Exploitation?

It was always obvious that this story about Miss Curvy Uganda was going to make it into The Guardian. It was also equally obvious what the line was going to be. That this is exploitation, a horror unworthy of a civilised country. Which is odd really because the paper routinely insists that fat people are beautiful too. They’ve even been known to run pieces on body positivity. To the extent that the Miss Chubby contest in Paraguay got an approving write up:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]’Not your typical pageant’: Miss Chubby contest embraces plus-size beauty[/perfectpullquote]

No, really:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] As the lights fades away, ecstatic Luis Colman keeps taking pictures of his wife, who is posing in front of the cameras. “I am very proud of her,” he says. The body builder encouraged her to participate in Miss Chubby to boost her self-confidence. “We are all equals. My faith makes me look at people and not at their look nor what capitalism and the consumer society impose you,” he says. [/perfectpullquote]

But The Guardian’s view on rather the same in Uganda?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Uganda has ambitious development goals, including becoming a middle-income country by 2020. Attracting revenue at the expense of women’s dignity is perhaps part of the plan. The women who turned up for Miss Curvy say they are happy to be tourist attractions and make money at the same time. What they do not realise is that the system will be designed so that they receive only crumbs. And, once again, the only winners will be the men who think a woman’s body is a source of vulgarity and distraction – unless, of course, that body is being used for the benefit of a man, whether it be the man holding political office, the man grappling her on the street, or the abusive man in her home. [/perfectpullquote]

So there we have it. The Guardian, not just wrong about everything all the time but objectively racist too. When Caucasians do something it’s one thing, when Black Africans the same thing it’s another.

But, you know, The Guardian, both woke and progressive.