BS: Booby prize

Subject: BS: Booby prize
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 25 Jul 05 - 11:05 AM

Vancouver Sun, Page B04, 25-Jul-2005

Nightclub winner gets booby prize

By Amy Carmichael

PENTICTON -- Hours before a 22-year-old personal banker won a free set of breast implants, elderly churchgoers in this Okanagan Valley city did their bit to change the minds of 36 contestants in the controversial competition.

Mildred Wakefield and her Holiness Bible Movement supporters sang out to Jesus, beat a drum and danced on the sidewalk across from the Element Nightclub.

"We need to show these young girls there's something better out there for them, they don't need to be exploiting their sexuality," said Wakefield. "Why don't they come sing with us?"

She made her point as club manager Florio Vassilakakis stared on from the other side of the street, waiting for guests to start arriving to take in the Sextreme Makeover competition, an event that raised the ire of not just Wakefield, but women's groups and the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Vassilakakis wasn't worried by the small and loud group of about 15 protesters.

"They don't realize they're doing exactly the opposite from what they want to achieve. They're just giving me more publicity," he said.

Nonetheless a showdown between Wakefield, her band and the contestants was prevented by the gospel singers' early bed time. They packed it in long before the club got jumping at around midnight Saturday as about 100 people took in the competition.

Many of the contestants -- including the winner -- said they were offended by the protesters.

"They have their rights to believe whatever they want, but it's my body and I'm going to do whatever I want," said Tiffany Freisen. Between celebratory screams and gulps of champagne inside the club, Freisen danced all night and spun off against 35 other women for a brand new pair of breasts.

Names of all the contestants, most of whom were 19 or in their early 20s, were taped to a prize wheel for a chance at the $3,000 prize. One by one they filed up on stage in mini skirts and tight dresses to spin the wheel, eliminating the girl whose name it landed on. Freisen shrieked in disbelief when she was the last woman standing.

Other contestants, many from Edmonton, Calgary and the United States, sulked, soothing their disappointment at the bar. They lost a chance at gaining self-confidence, many of them said.

Men at the club were astounded at the competition.

"They're all so beautiful. Every single one of the contestants is really good-looking. I don't get it," said Steve Jones, 32, who was visiting from Calgary. "Natural is so much better. I want to tell all these girls, 'Don't do it!' "

Freisen, a slim, tanned woman from Fort St. John, said her good looks aren't enough for her.

"I was born really unlucky with this one part of my body. I've been wanting implants for five years and winning this is so amazing because I just recently went to a consultation. It's going to be great," said Freisen.

Women's groups are worried that contestants in the Sextreme Makeover competition aren't thinking about the possible health risks associated with breast implants.

The B.C. college has adopted strict guidelines barring doctors from doing plastic surgery on contest winners.

Subject: RE: BS: Booby prize
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 25 Jul 05 - 11:12 AM

The B.C. college has adopted strict guidelines barring doctors from doing plastic surgery on contest winners.

So it's okay to get implants if they're paid for by a seventy-year-old sugar daddy, but not if they're the prize in a contest? What's the difference?

Subject: RE: BS: Booby prize
From: Emma B
Date: 25 Jul 05 - 11:25 AM

I would hope that any self respecting surgeon would want to discuss the pros and cons of elective surgery with the patient and would advise against if the process was not suitable for any physical or psychological reason, irrespective of the ability to pay; or am I just being naive in failing to see a difference?
Personally I think it's all rather sad

Subject: RE: BS: Booby prize
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jul 05 - 11:31 AM

The US has a porn industry and a movie industry based on surgically enhanced females. Isn't this a bit hypocritical.

Subject: RE: BS: Booby prize
From: gnu
Date: 25 Jul 05 - 02:00 PM

You are not naive Emma. You are right on the money on all counts.

Subject: RE: BS: Booby prize
From: dianavan
Date: 26 Jul 05 - 12:03 AM

It is sad and whats worse is that the young women aren't at all prepared for the kind of attention they get after the surgery. In many countries, such an obvious enhancement means that you must be a 'bad' girl that is involved in the sex trade or porno or... You become the target of sexual slurs and/or sexual aggression.

I know a young woman that was raped twice on a visit to ****. Why? She was blonde and enhanced and considered to be "fair game". She was raped the second time by the hotel security guards that found her after the first rape. She is home now and recuperating. Some of her so-called friends even think she asked for it by having her breasts enlarged.

I was a young woman with large breasts and narrow hips. I can tell you that by age 14 onwards, the kind of attention I rcvd. nobody would want. Most of the time I just wanted to fade into the walls. I learned to walk with a slump. I became very self conscious. Its not easy to always be objectified and unless you've been there you just don't 'get it'. Unfortunately, many young women think they want this kind of attention but find out when its too late, what that kind of attention is really all about.

Subject: RE: BS: Booby prize
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Jul 05 - 08:25 PM

Amos, being Grand Poobah of the Temple of the Golden Globes, is the go-to authority on this subject. If he doesn't see this thread, PM him.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Booby prize
From: PoppaGator
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 02:18 PM

I've known women who had breast reduction surgery, including my mother as well as a contemporary or two.

Any young woman contemplating implants should be required to have a consultation with someone who had so much trouble living with big breasts that she had them surgically reduced. That should provide a whole new perspective.

Also, oversized fake boobs are so obvious, and they send out the message "I am trying really hard to turn myself into a sex object." Why would anyone not already committed to a porn-industry or "sex worker" lifestyle want that kind of attention????

Subject: RE: BS: Booby prize
From: Highlandman
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 03:59 PM

The US has a porn industry and a movie industry based on surgically enhanced females. Isn't this a bit hypocritical.
Guest, if an entire country had a single moral consciousness I suppose you could justify a comment like that; otherwise it doesn't make any sense. An individual who publicly denounces breast implants and privately supports the porn industry would be a hypocrite. I'm sure there are some of them in numerous countries. Try to confine your generalizations to at least the semantically meaningful.
As for the main topic, I'm with the majority here. Sad to see so many young ladies falling for the lie, looking for their self-worth in physical endowments. And sad to see sniggering adult males who should know better encouraging it.
-HM