One Handed Model Sensation: Hint, Hint Victoria’s Secret

A one-handed model who posed in a bra for a European charity ad campaign to raise awareness of disability issues has become an overnight sensation.

Thirty-five-year-old Tanja Kiewitz has become an overnight sensation thanks to the recreation of Eva Herzigova's famous Wonderbra ad, only instead of selling lingerie, it's for a campaign for CAP48, a nonprofit organization that raises awareness about disabilities.
The "groundbreaking" ad reads in French, "Look me in the eyes ... I said the eyes."

Yes, I think that this photo is beautiful, and this woman is ridiculously gorgeous, but I just don't get what all the fuss is about. Because she has one arm on a disabilities ad? Really?

I'd much rather see a handicapped person strutting her sexy stuff on the runway -- that's what's going to catch my attention. A handicapped person on an ad for disabilities is expected ... maybe not in a bra, but nonetheless. This advertisement looks like it should belong in a Victoria's Secret catalog, and if that's where I had spotted it, then I would have been like Wow, that's f'n amazing.

Granted, I can only imagine how much guts (and glasses of wine) it had to take to pull off this shoot, and I give major props to Tanja for opening up this door. I can only hope that in opening that door, it also opens up people's minds that beauty comes in all forms -- regardless of color, size, or disability. Our society shuns anything that's not deemed "the norm," and, with it being 2010, that's just insulting.

Take for example the recent ESPN photo of Esther Vergeer. The magazine had images of the paraplegic posing nude and, instead of being the fresh air that it should have been, it was hit with negative feedback, going as far as being called "vomit-inspiring."

Clearly, our narrow-minded society isn't ready to see nude photos of beautiful women who just happen to have disabilities, so perhaps photos like Tanja's are the small steps that we have to take to get there.

Hopefully, thanks to Tanja's courage, we'll see more photos like this -- but in our favorite fashion mags, not charity ads.

The advertisement states: “Look me in the eyes ... I said the eyes” This advertising picture started out in Belgian newspapers and on postcards distributed in cafes and restaurants around Brussels – now it is becoming famous throughout all of Europe.

The advert has been so successful that the charity has raised more than €4million from an annual telethon – 10% more than the previous year.

The Global Post states that Kiewitz has become an overnight star ever since the photograph appeared late last month with magazines and TV crews all across Europe clambering to interview her.

“There’s been a huge reaction,” Kiewitz told the Global Post.

“I’ve been besieged on Facebook. Mostly the reactions have been great, really positive feedback. I’ve got journalists from around the world calling; it’s been a bit crazy”, she said.

“People often think that handicapped people don’t have a personality, that they are strange people,” explained Tanja Kiewitz, whose image adorns the ad. “They have to see that I’m a woman above all and that I can be beautiful and sexy, and the handicap is secondary.”