miss asian oregon and anti-pageant programming

This is rather fascinating... The Miss Asian Oregon takes place this Saturday, October 10. The pageant is "a community-based organization which aims to identify and cultivate young Asian American women leaders and to provide them with a platform for visibility and growth."

It's all going down this Saturday at the Marco Polo Global Restaurant in Salem, with three contestants representing three different platforms: sustainable living, building communities across cultures, and inspiring Asian American achievement. Whoopeeeee.

To be honest, I could care less about an Asian beauty pageant, but here's the interesting part. The next day following the pageant, there will be anti-pageant movie screenings of The Year of the Ox: 1973 Chinatown Livestock Show and Making Up and a discussion with filmmaker Curtis Choy:

PAGEANT DEBRIEFING AND FREE FILM SCREENING WITH FILMMAKER CURTIS CHOY

October 11, 2009, 2:00 P.M.
Asian Family Center
4424 NE Glisan St. | Portland, Oregon | 97213o

Do you think pageants are sexist and degrading towards women? Or beneath the surface, do these events actually promote and provide opportunities for women?

Filmmaker Curtis Choy and The Miss Asian Oregon Pageant will sponsor free screenings of The Year of The Ox: The 1973 Chinatown Livestock Show (18 min.), a critique of beauty pageants, and Making Up (3 min.), a rarely-seen short satire based on Max Factor's written instructions on how Asian women can be made to look...western- eyezed.

Discussion of the movies and the previous day's pageant will follow. Filmmaker Curtis Choy will be present.

You can go to the pageant, I guess. But then be sure to get a balanced diet of anti-pageant. No food at the event, but it's sure to be a pretty interesting and lively discussion. For more information about the Miss Asian Oregon pageant, go here. And to learn more about the two anti-pageant films, visit Curtis Choy's website here.