Fashion Sweeps Nunnery
Lucio Mascarenhas.
Orthopapism II/Michaelinum | Index of Articles
Mid-Day, Bombay Edition, 1st Feb., 1995. Report by Darlene Fernandes. Re-Edited.
The beauty pageant craze which has caught on since Aiswarya Rai and Sushmita Sen won the Miss World and Miss Universe crowns, has actually broken throught the conservative walls of the nunneries.
For the second consecutive year, the nuns at the Auxilium Convent, Wadala, affiliated to the Salesian organisation founded by St. John Bosco ("Don Bosco"), bid adieu to the traditional 'four inches below the knee' dress code to make way for a beauty contest, that saw students of the eight and ninth standards parade clothes that were a designer's delight.
The contest which featured secondary school girls in six categories of Ms. Catwalk, Ms. Smile, Ms. Personality, Ms. Glamour, Ms. Intelligence and Ms. Hostess was part of the Media Expo '95, a media festival held by the school, said Sr. Phyllis Fernandes, the motivating force behind the festival.
The 12 and 13-year-old students who swung hips and shoulders to popular English music on the ramp, also confidently answered questions ranging from the importance of educating a woman, Medha Patkar's campaign against mega dams, to how Shekhar Kapoor fared at the Cannes film festival.
When quizzed about the factor behind the revolutionary change, Sr. Phyllis said the change from a rigid to a more flexible approach follows after getting a nod from Mother Graziella Culti, general councillor, media and communication of the Salesian organisation in Rome.
Having identified the need to move with the times, the Salesian nuns have come a long way.
"We could not ignore the media impact on the lives of our girls and so we decided to spend time educating the students of standard 1 to 9 on the various facets of the media," said Sr. Phyllis.
The festival was a culmination of the media oriented activities held by the school throughout the year.
Also featured were ad games, quizzes, TV and radio presentations, story-telling or yarn spinning, and a panel discussion on issues in the media.
The winners in each category of the beauty contests were made to participate in the panel discussion held at the end of the day, where they had to quiz experts on changing trends in the media and related professions.
The festival also witnessed active participation of parents in group discussions and a chat show.
Lucio Comments: Give Us Our Daily Fornications...?
Wow! And what is next? Cha-Cha dancers? Belly dances? Why not convert the nunneries into Las Vegas style bordellos?
It is these moral (?) values that cause the rampant sexual rot in the New Church. These have not been as much exposed in India as they have been in the West, nevertheless, they are, I believe, just as rampant here as they are there. The only difference is that the campaign of exposure that sweeps the West is not seen here. One day, that too will come...
©Lucio Mascarenhas.
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