Miss Plastic Surgery: A Pageant for Surgically Enhanced Beauties

While watching the E! Channel the other day, I came across one news story that announced The winner for the first Miss Plastic Hungary 2009 pageant. According to the Huffington Post, " It was a night for unnatural beauties. Contestants showed off breast implants, nose jobs and face lifts as Miss Plastic Hungary 2009 strove to promote the benefits of plastic surgery in a country where artificial enhancements are viewed mostly with a wary eye." Despite Hungary's own economic crisis, the number of plastic surgeries has escalated in the past few years. Of course, in order to qualify for the pageant contestants needed to prove that they had plastic surgery, botox and injectables simply weren't what the judges were looking for. Unfortunately, one contestant was forced to leave the competition due to a torn ligament in her foot which happened while the judges were doing the breast examination stage of the competition! Alexandra Horvath tripped after this stage in the competition, one friend reported that, " She had not gotten used to the extra weight on top and her new hair extensions got in her eyes - she just lost her balance and tore a ligament in her foot badly.'' (Source:news) The Huffington Post also announced the winners in their story reporting, "Pageant queen Reka Urban, a 22-year-old hostess, won an apartment in Budapest, first runner-up Edina Kulcsar was given a new car and second runner-up Alexandra Horvath took home diamond jewelry worth 2 million forints ($10,800). The winners' plastic surgeons also received awards."

I find it interesting that even the winners' plastic surgeons received awards and it must have been even more rewarding knowing that others truly appreciated their work. This pageant was clearly aimed at trying to boost the acceptance of plastic surgery, however this idea isn't new. Back in 2004, China had its own artificial beauty pageant. BBC news reported that, "The idea for the contest took shape after a contestant was disqualified from a Chinese beauty pageant earlier this year because she had had plastic surgery."