With her generous form Alyona Pisklova is an unlikely poster girl for Russia, a country which prides itself on its rather skeletal Slavic body. But she became the runaway favorite to enter the Miss Universe contest when it was decided to drop the traditional selection jury and rely on Internet voting.
Designers, photographers and chauvinists began to wonder if their standard image of female beauty -- an angular frame, protruding hips and visible ribs -- had finally been rejected.
Some began to wonder if Russia was not even able to hold a fair vote for a beauty pageant.
But now she has been disqualified by the organizing company on suspicion that her candidacy was hijacked by anti-globalizationists intent on getting her into the competition as an "anti-Barbie." It has become a national scandal in a country which treats beauty contests with undue gravity.
To the bewilderment of traditionalists Alyona was among the 100 girls to reach the Russian play-off, with 39,000 votes, at least twice that of her nearest competitor. If she won, the organizers knew, they would have a problem selling her to advertisers.
"It was going to take a lot of skill to present this girl as a typical example of Russian beauty," one said.
And some began to suspect that her rise was politically motivated. Ivan Zassoursky, the Russian pageant's producer, said it was a Web site, stopbarbie.org.ru, drumming up votes.
The Web site calls a vote for Alyona a vote against "beauties who do not look natural and who cannot be distinguished from each other" and rails against the "imposed standards" of 90-60-90cm vital statistics, and "cigarettes without nicotine and coffee without caffeine."
"She was not winning because she was beautiful but because she was symbolic," Zassoursky said, adding that things were threatening to turn nasty for Alyona.
"People were not being positive about her. There were 998 other girls who thought they were more beautiful," he said.
Alyona was becoming ubiquitous in the Russian media when she was suddenly disqualified, days before this week's final vote.
The organizers had a stroke of luck: competitors were required to present their passports to show they were over 18, Russian and not married. Alyona's showed that she was only 15.
She was disqualified on April 5 -- her birthday -- and offered the compensation of being named the "voter's sympathy choice."
It later transpired that she had been entered by a schoolfriend who had given her the false name Pisklova, that of a boy upon whom Alyona had an unrequited crush at school.
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