Carrie Prejean, the controversial anti-gay contestant in the recent Miss USA pageant got a little “lift” in the competition.
Prejean got breast implants weeks before the national pageant to increase her chances of winning, and Keith Lewis, the co-Director of the Miss California Pageant, admitted paying for the boob job on CBS’s “The Early Show” this morning (May 1).
"We assisted when Carrie came to us and voiced the interest in having the procedure done," Lewis told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "We want to put her in the best possible confidence in order to present herself in the best possible light on a national stage."
That may be taking competition a little too far. But the pageant contestants have been known for years to use all sorts of “enhancements” to get an edge in the contest, which begs the question: If these are beauty pageants and the beauty is anything less than natural, what’s the point?
In before and after photos, the enhancement is obvious. “It's not something that we endorse, nor is it something that we suggest,” said Lewis trying to explain.
“But when we meet with the titleholder when she's crowned Miss California, we put to her a litany of questions about how she feels about herself, what she feels she needs to work on, what she may need to change, what is good, what is not good. We want to put her in the best possible confidence in order to present herself in the best possible light on a national stage.”
In the end, Lewis said it came down to a personal choice. “It's about how a woman feels about herself. In terms of, for me, it's not a personal choice that I would recommend. But at the same time, I know so many women that have done the procedure and feel better about themselves and the way they present themselves.”
Body image is a controversial subject, and many health professionals are critical of the way the entertainment industry promotes unrealistic standards for beauty, especially when they rely on artificial enhancements. Miss USA contestants are supposed to be role models, so what kind of signal does this send to young teens, and what does it say about beauty pageants?
It’s a lose-lose proposition no matter how much Lewis tries to justify the pageant’s decision to pay for a contestants breast implants. It’s very likely other contestants have implants as well, but if the pageant is ever going to have any credibility at all – and at this point it has very little – then artificial enhancements should be banned, and Miss California should be stripped of her crown.
Since the pageant Prejean has joined a television ad campaign against gay marriage, upsetting homosexual rights advocates, including a head of the Miss California pageant.
In the commercial from the National Organization for Marriage, Prejean is shown at the Miss USA competition last month where she answered a question about same-sex marriage by saying she opposed it, drawing both boos and cheers and setting off a raucous debate.
After providing that answer, Prejean was named runner-up to Miss USA. She later said her view on marriage cost her the crown, a small price to pay for free breast implants.
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