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April 23, 2008
Posted: 1732 GMT
LONDON, England – For our profile story on a 176-pound British “size 16″ teenager slated to compete in the Miss England pageant, we needed to see how a real-life beauty pageant works… so we checked out the Miss Bath competition at the Bath Race Course and Conference center in Bath, south-west England. 
Samantha Del Greco, Miss Bath '07 and judge (center), award the tiara to 2008 winner Katya Floyd-Sanchez.
 Putting aside the irony that segments of the Miss Bath beauty pageant were held between horse races, my cameraman and I entered a world where perhaps, only the bravest of girls should dare compete. The climate of nervousness is not necessarily induced by their fellow competitors — we witnessed no ganging up on contestants, as in the movie “Carrie”, or catfights backstage. The harshest judges weren’t the judges. The only thing to fear was the audience itself. I loved the idea that there was a diversity of contestants on stage: different heights, hair colors (not all of them natural), ethnicities, body shapes and degrees to what they dared-to-bare. But what was disconcerting were some of the petty comments about the ladies we heard from those who came to watch the competition unfold. It takes a lot of chutzpah for these teens and twentysomethings to get up in front of a crowd, strutting in heels, evening gowns, sports/swimwear and bizarre outfits for the “Eco-Fashion Round” — clothes inspired by the contestants’ concern for the environment (plastic garbage bag dress, anyone?). So it is not cool to overhear some of the spectators — who needed to hit the Stairmaster themselves — whisper the word ‘heifer’ as the heavier contestants worked the pageant catwalk. Not classy. Then again, perhaps one contestant should have expected to be mocked when the pageant host asked her: “If you could be a Disney character, what would you be? And why?” The contestant answered — and remember, this is a beauty pageant: “Miss Piggy. Because she is an international superstar and a household name.” That contestant didn’t win. Posted by: Alphonso Van Marsh, CNN Correspondent
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