Officials in Russia were surprised when Alyona Pisklova won an online voting contest to decide the Russian representative for the Miss Universe Pageant. The fifteen year old--who has been disqualified due to age--garnered over 60,000 internet votes, upstaging other, more conventional pageant contendors.
What's surprising is that Ms Pisklova is not what one would typically consider as a beauty pageant contendor--5'6", 130 pounds-- with no real professional training or experience. Originally thought of as a prank, Ms Pisklova gathered much support and attention from Russian fans glad to finally see "one of them" in the running. Also bolstering support for her was a Live Journal campaign as well as a the website Stop Barbie which had this to say:
The appearance made by Alena Pisklova in the preliminary round of the beauty contest «Miss Universe», conducted by the company Rambler, evoked an unexpected reaction on behalf of Internet society. Alena, not having the physical attributes of a model, was courageous enough to run for the title of Miss Universe. The appearance of a common, real-life girl caused an enormous wave of support for Alena, since Alena submitted for the competition usual photos, made by unprofessional photographers, without make-up, with a natural smile and expression of the eyes. At first, everyone perceived it as a mockery, some sort of joke, but after making an analysis of all the recent events, people realized that the origins of Alena's success have much deeper roots
Those deeper roots may be an indication that people are finally becoming fed up with the unattainable, unrealistic, airbrushed beauties gracing most of today's magazines. Perhaps this means the future of beauty will be less plastic and more real. Time will tell, but this contributer thinks it is pretty cool to see a normal looking girl get such support.
Ms Pasklova while being disqualified for age will still receive a consolation cash prize as well as the "granting of a wish".
Max16Characters
Korea, Republic Of
March 2003
APR 15, 2004 02:53 PM