Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Miss Gulag- Who's the sexiest inmate?

Continuing Russia's obsession with beauty pageants (see earlier postings), this week brings us the "Miss Gulag" competition, a pageant for inmates in a Siberian women's prison, where the winner of the annual pageant has the chance to win early parole (doesn't that sound better than a job with Donald Trump)?

One inmate contestant states that "A woman should always be beautiful, not just outside the fence. A woman is everything gentle and wonderful - or she should be."

"We wanted to find ways to occupy convicts' free time," says Natalya Baulina, the prison's administrative head (presumably not a contestant herself).

The prison decided to invent its own rules with three categories - "Greek Goddesses", "Flower Gowns", and "Imaginary Uniforms", which lets inmates design their ideal prison uniforms of the future. Many women have never heard of the Greek myths or exotic flowers they portray onstage, but they learn from books provided by the staff.

When the contest first began in 1990, supplies were non-existent. The winner made her dress out of plastic bags from the prison kitchen, but these days the women have access to hairspray, lipstick, nail polish, and all manner of female accoutrements not normally allowed in the prison (although presumably not stiletto's).

Source: BBC News