Disabled Beauty Pageant?

Over in the Netherlands, there's what's called the Miss Ability pageant; a contest in which 12 women with visible physical disabilities - ranging from amputees to women with MS - compete on the basis of charm nd beauty, nothing more. They even strip down to silver matching bikinis and prance, limp, and roll around on stage to be judged by the whole of the Netherlands (yes, you call in to vote). I'm all for beauty advice and looking good, but this pageant reeks of exploitation.

Now if you're interested, you can check out the pageant's site here: Miss Ability. It's all in Dutch so you'll have to use a website translation service like Altavista Babelfish to change it into English, but I guarantee it's worth it. It's like driving past a car wreck on the freeway. Now, on one hand I'm impressed by the country's interest and okayness (sp?) with the concept of disabled women being sexually attractive (jn fact that makes me have hope for a better world), because let's face it, there's nothing even remotely close to this on any US network; and it's a damn shame too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: I like the concept of the show, but the way it's executed seems exploitative. When I watched the swimsuit portion on YouTube today I cringed in embarrassment for the contestants. Did they know how ridiculous they all looked up there, clothed in next to nothing? Keep the evening gown portion in the contest, sure, and even the talent portion; but is the swimsuit portion really necessary? It feels like they only put it in the show to satisfy some morbid curiosity of the average AB Dutch viewer so they can see what a disabled woman looks like when she's almost naked. For shame.