Here she is, Miss Homeless Belgium
Can a pageant put a face on a tragic problem?
By Lynn HarrisTopics: Global Warming, Broadsheet, Love and Sex, Life News
This week in iffy pageants: Miss Homeless Belgium. The prize — won by 58-year-old Therese Van Belle, is … a home. One year, anyway, in a rent-free apartment. (What’d the others get? Turtle Wax?)
The pageant’s goal, as reported, was to bring attention to the plight of the country’s homeless. But — really? Contestants were required to give a talk about the importance of ending homelessness demonstrating their “will to get themselves out of a difficult situation.” And, as pageant organizer Aline Duportail said, “It was about the contestants’ inner strength and determination to get themselves out of their old life and on a new path.”
Irony can be a stinging gadfly, for sure. The idea here could be pretty clever, to the degree that this pageant might — by putting real, live faces on the problem — spur Belgians, and the powers that be, to take up the cause. Especially given that — despite the fact that the right to shelter is “enshrined in the [country's] constitution” — the problem of homelessness is reportedly taken up in the Belgian media only cursorily (around Christmas), any off-season attention to it is likely a good thing.
So I’m sure the organizers’ hearts are in the right place, but their message is a little off. (Unless I’m missing some complex meta-irony, in which case their message is still off.) Rewarding the individuals’ “will” and “determination,” while nice, pretty much leaves “the system” off the hook. (Analog: Coaching women, rather than businesses, on “work-life” balance.) “Inner strength”? These people need a fucking house.
Award-winning journalist Lynn Harris is author of the comic novel "Death by Chick Lit" and co-creator of BreakupGirl.net. She also writes for the New York Times, Glamour, and many others. More Lynn Harris.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
The best of Tumblr porn
-
From global warming to fluoride: Why do people deny science?
-
What does it really feel like to fall out of a building?
-
How Dan Savage lost it
-
Will U.S. amphibians become endangered species?
-
I don't hate millennials anymore!
-
Developers evict historic women's shelter to build luxury hotel
-
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship
-
The secrets of cicada survival
-
Nobody "needs" to rape
-
Catholic Church in market for more exorcists
-
Report: Nearly a quarter of all Americans struggle to afford food
-
Louie Gohmert: Women should be forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term
-
This is what Guy Fieri looks like as a balloon
-
Boy Scouts to members: Just don't be a gay adult
-
Anonymous rallies behind Kaitlyn Hunt
-
Mistrial in penalty phase of Arias case
-
My text blew up in my face
-
Boy Scouts end ban on openly gay boys
-
Mississippi could begin prosecuting women for miscarriages
-
Teenage girl claims she was beaten up for looking like Taylor Swift
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Judge tells lesbian couple to separate -- or lose kids
Irin Carmon
-
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship
Katie Mcdonough
-
GOP: Party of crybabies
Jonathan Bernstein
-
Ted Cruz against the world
Joan Walsh
-
I don't hate millennials anymore!
Jennie-Rebecca Falcetta
-
Bush cancels Europe trip amid calls for his arrest
Justin Elliott
-
How Dan Savage lost it
Mark Oppenheimer
-
Tornado survivor to Wolf Blitzer: Sorry, I'm an atheist. I don't have to thank the Lord
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
Mariah Carey's rambling, cursing, dress-popping "Good Morning America" concert
Daniel D'Addario
-
Greek yogurt, toxic waste hazard?
Kristen Gwynne, AlterNet
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

47 points48 points49 points | 61 comments

37 points38 points39 points | 2 comments

21 points22 points23 points | comment
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
-
Diane Gilman: Baby Boomers: A New Life-Construct -- From "Invisible to Invincible!" -
Susan Gregory Thomas: Why Divorced Boomer Moms Don't Deserve The Bad Rap -
British Nanny Offered An Annual Salary Of $200,000 -
Arianna Huffington: What I Did (and Didn't Do) On My Summer Vacation -
Vivian Diller, Ph.D.: Maybe Happiness Begins At 50



36 Utterly Charming Nautical DIYs
These 3D Bags Will Put Your Backpack To Shame
22 Dreamy Art Installations You Want To Live In
Comments
12 Comments