Pageant WinnerPlastic Surgery Pageants Take Center Stage
Published: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 - 18:55
Imagine THIS new category at the next Academy Awards: "Best performance by an actress with Botox." And the nominees are... You may snigger at the idea (even though you have an idea who should be nominated) but awards and pageants proudly touting who's been snipped, suctioned, resurfaced and injected may soon be commonplace.
62-year-old Liu Yulan (top)22-year-old Feng Qian Who knows when (or if) they'll do it again, but China has already crowned one "Miss Artificial Beauty" in a 2004 pageant in which nineteen finalists aged 17 to 62 competed. Contestants were required to present certification from their doctors to prove they had indeed been surgically altered.
Entering the competition as "the top man-made sunset rose of Hebei province," 62-year-old Liu Yulan said she cherished the chance to show off her wrinkle-free face and larger, more defined eyes.
"I want to send a message to society that the love of beauty is not limited by age," she said on the contest website.
That may well be true, but the crown belonged to 22-year-old Feng Qian, a student at Jilin Plastic Surgery Hospital. Feng said she had the surgery to enhance her appearance, but also to see what it was like as she planned a career in the field. (I wonder how many dental students have root canals for the same reason?)
runner-up Liu XiaojingOne of the most popular contestants was third runner-up Liu Xiaojing, who had possibly the most dramatic transformation with plastic surgery. Liu started life as a male.
"My whole body, apart from my face, has undergone operations," said Liu, who was a man until three years ago. "The operations have brought me a lot of (physical) pain, but I'm a girl at last. I have fulfilled my dream, I've become the person I wanted to be, that's my biggest reward."
Cosmetic surgery is booming in China, with billions being spent annually on hundreds of thousands of operations, and clinics opening all over the country.
Along with the increase in plastic surgery, beauty contests have also enjoyed a boom as China shakes off its Communist past.
In 1949, beauty pageants were outlawed as yet another decadent, bourgeois practice, but 54 years later, the government had a change of heart and hosted the Miss World Competition on Hainan island in southern China.
The idea for "Miss Artificial Beauty" came when 18-year-old Yang Yuan, an aspiring model, was cut from the Miss Beijing Beauty contest, part of the 2004 Miss Intercontinental Competition. Yang easily made it through the first two rounds but once the judges found out about her $13,250-worth of eleven separate cosmetic surgeries, she was disqualified, and declared a (gasp!) "man-made beauty." Yang later sued but her case was thrown out. Nonetheless, an enterprising Chinese businessman read the news and organized the first Miss Plastic Surgery Beauty contest.
Before and After Plastic SurgeryBut what if you haven't yet been under the knife? Never fear. China has a competition for you too. According to the newspaper, China Daily, hundreds of beauty-challenged hopefuls entered the "Miss Ugly competition." The prize, $16,500 worth of facial rejuvenation, went to a 26-year-old woman who judges decided had the face that could be most improved through surgery - or a paper bag.
Western Values
Although beauty pageants overall may be declining in popularity in the West, cosmetic surgery competitions and contest prizes are popping up more and more on our shores.
A US website called makemeheal.com has launched its own "Beauty Enhancement Awards." Details of the contest seem a bit sketchy, but it is open to any age or gender, and offers a wide variety of categories including Best Makeover, Best Butt and Best Celebrity Look-Alike.
In the UK, men's magazine, Zoo, recently offered readers the chance to win a "new set of rib lamps for their lady." Readers were asked to send in a photo of their partner's breasts (presumably with their partner's consent) and the name of the celebrity's pair they would like substituted.
Twelve people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority, which then launched an investigation. No word on what they discovered (other than a pile of really embarrassing photos).
And the winner is...Another UK publication, Top Sante magazine, recently ran a competition with the prize of an extreme makeover, awarding the winner an operation by a private cosmetic surgery company.
Adam Searle, president of The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons condemned the contests, saying it was unethical and dangerous to offer such prizes.
"The decision to perform any surgical procedure must be based on common sense, case selection, good surgical decision making and patient safety. The offer of a cosmetic surgery procedure as a prize is an awful manifestation of the trivialization of medical care in general, and aesthetic surgery in particular." Ya think?
Drink up!
I'm not sure you can get much more trivial than a bar prize. In British Columbia, Canada, the Element Nightclub awarded a breast augmentation prize as part of its makeover contest despite protests from plastic surgeons and some church groups.
In Maryland, the Party Block planned to give away $5,000 towards plastic surgery in a contest at the bar. After protests from several groups, the award was changed to a cash prize. There was no obligation to use it for surgery, but the winner, Beth Thompson from Baltimore, said she planned to have liposuction and her teeth straightened.
In a slightly more tasteful approach, a clinic in Toronto recently concluded its "Beauty and Brains" contest in which visitors to the company website were invited to contribute new ideas on how to improve it. The person with the best new idea received a $1000 gift certificate for any product or service offered at the clinic.
Chicagoland Cosmetics and Top Surgeons in Southern California both offer regular makeover contests with grand prizes of $4000 or $5000, but then they're just trying to drum up business for their clinics. Is it any different than Brite Smile offering special promotions?
It's a business, after all.
We like to pretend beauty isn't important - and yet we spend billions of dollars each year on lotions, creams, powders, serums, and scrubs. We also like to pretend we're naturally fabulous - but there is no shame in hair color, fake tans, push-up bras or teeth whitening. We simply want to have our procedures, and move on. Indeed, (thankfully) the recent morbid fascination of watching others transform seems to be waning.
ABC recently cancelled the fourth season of Extreme Makeover, the original plastic surgery reality show, after just one episode. The show was watched by an average of just 4.8 million viewers during its hour, while old repeats of Grey's Anatomy pulled in more viewers in the same timeslot. In a somewhat ironic twist, it appears we prefer to watch beautiful unreal people performing fake operations, rather than watch real people becoming beautiful.
In reality, cosmetic surgeons are in the same business as the gals behind the Clinique counter: selling dreams. The fact that so many people are now willing to have their bodies sliced, nipped and implanted, endure painful recoveries and even risk death shows how deeply-rooted those dreams are. The problem with plastic surgery prizes is not that they exist, but that there are people who will actively compete for them.
Well that was fun but the
By glamgeorge - Thursday, October 4, 2007 - 11:40Well that was fun but the beauty pageant is a bit unfair. Even with plastic surgery a 62 yr old woman will find it hard to win out against a 22 yr old girl. They should have age categories.