Miss Lune 2022, but only for girls with high ‘moral character’

Currently, a post is doing rounds on social media. A highly "elite" post about the eligibility criteria of a famous beauty pageant. But what is catching the eyeballs is one of the points in the criteria. Which says, "Only a girl of good health and moral character can participate." Seeing these eligibility criteria the post is drawing attention. The pageant "Miss Lune" claims to be a "perfect blend" of modernity and tradition.

The Witches of Arunachal posted a poster on Instagram and wrote "Miss Lune is a beauty pageant of the Adi community held in Pasighat. The criteria of "only good health and moral character can participate " is quite baffling. Beauty pageants are considered to be "empowering" for women, and if at all they are, then they should challenge stereotypes associated with modelling, and beauty pageants which exist in our society. It is disheartening that they would rather internalise and promote such regressive criteria of morality. And this seems to be the case for only women. MR. LUTOR for Adi men was also conducted recently but there was no mention of good moral character, non drinker, good health etc as criteria.

They further wrote "This morality card prevents women from exercising agency right from their choice of clothing to their choice of partner. Shaming us for our choices is a easy tool for the gatekeepers of patriarchy to keep women in check."

A user wrote "In all honesty, I don't think they thought much about how heavy this 'simple' sentence is. Most probably a copy-paste thing from other pageants. I'm pretty sure I have seen those lines for other pageants outside as well. It's always for the women. It's always us"

Another user wrote "Yet the audacity of our people to consider these as equality and empowerment we are probably a community lead by clowns only money power and no brains"

What is Miss Lune 2022

Lune festival of the adis, popularly known simply as solung is the festival of the women, by the women and for the society as a whole. It is the festival in which the mother goddess of abundance and prosperity kine nane is worshipped besides other benovolent gods and goddesses.

The ritual dance called ponung, which is performed for three consecutive nights from dusk to dawn, has always been a litmus test for girls in terms of their patience, endurance, discipline, behaviour and, above all, leadership qualities.

As on other festive occasions, wearing their best clothes and those woven by themselves has also been a part that has raised their morale and self-esteem.

The Miss Lune pageant, therefore, is not just a modern idea. It is a perfect blend of tradition with modernity. This is also an innovative system for the continuity of that traditional competitive mentality of girls taking into account the need of time.

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