Forget those pencil-thin model types. Italy has chosen a full-figured woman as the new beauty queen, proud of her ample body weighing in at 170kg.
Angela Scognamiglio said she was “very moved” when she was named on Saturday night as the new “Miss Chubby” at the complex-free contest held in the Tuscan village of Forcoli.
“I am very moved, I feel as if I’ve won the lottery,” the 33-year-old from Naples said after beating out 30 other contestants for the title.
As in all past 20 editions of the pageant, there is only one condition for entry: You have to weigh more than 100kg.
Contestants paraded before an audience of 2,500 at a local hotel on Saturday night, wearing gowns, or for those who cared to show more, undergarments. Some even dared a little glamor striptease.
However. the crucial moment in the contest was the weigh-in, stepping onto a huge red scale where everyone could see the result — with the roundest beauty clinching the title.
No big prize for the winner, just a huge cake to share around, and perhaps for all the contestants a boost in self-esteem in contrast to the mockery many obese face.
“When we get on a bus, people nudge each other, and whisper, making fun of us, and it’s the same on the beach,” redheaded Marilena Amato said.
“We are the victims of severe discrimination, it’s as if we are second-class citizens,” said another contestant, Antonia Bartolo, a 37-year-old nurse from the Milan region.
The contest is also about “entertainment, a chance to get to know people who face the same problems I do,” she said.
Contest founder Gianfranco Lazzereschi said the full-figure pageant was a way to send a different message about beauty.
“It is a showcase for full figures,” he said, flanked by two contestants. “Why can’t these two women show off? Why is it necessary to follow the dictates of what’s beautiful?”
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