Fat, gay and proud: a new kind of Venezuelan beauty queen

[Shana A]

Fat, gay and proud: a new kind of Venezuelan beauty queen

    * Rory Carroll in Caracas
    * guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 December 2009 23.06 GMT
   
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/06/venezuela-gay-beauty-pageant

Music swells, lights flash and the contestants strut on to the stage, waving and blowing kisses. All wear high heels, bikinis and wide smiles.

It is another beauty pageant in Venezuela, a self-styled "beauty superpower" which worships physical perfection and has won the two most recent Miss Universe titles. But this show in Caracas is different. Even from the back of the theatre you noticesomething striking about the contestants. They are men. Large, chubby men.

Welcome to Miss Fat Gay Venezuela, a pageant with a new type of queen. The contest, the first of its kind, smashes taboos in a society that equates beauty with svelte, cosmetically enhanced women.

[gennee]

Very good video. I feel so happy for my Venezuelan sisters that they are defying what their society says that they are to be. I wish them the best.

Gennee