| Ilena Rose 2005-07-20, 5:52 pm |
| http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNe...1140123-cp.html
EXCERPT: "The way this contest presents breast implants is that this
is a one-time surgery and all your concerns about the size and shape
of your breasts will be taken care of," she said.
"But there are many side effects of breast implants. Forty per cent of
women who get them have them removed because something goes wrong and
that's something the women individually have to pay for. It's not
covered."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VANCOUVER (CP) - Women in an Okanagan city will be vying for free
breast implants this weekend in a nightclub contest that's drawn a
gospel music protest.
Mildred Wakefield, of the Penticton Bible Holiness Movement, hopes to
stage a protest concert bigger than the one she organized to decry the
Girls Gone Wild tour that touched down at Penticton's Element
nightclub in February. "We are just sending the message that the old
ways of morality and faith in God are better than new ways that take
young people away from the basics. There's so little to inspire them
to better things"
The Element hopes the breast implant giveaway inspires some business.
"Any business in any community has the right, within the law, to do
what has to be done for the survival of their business," said part
owner of the Element and Penticton city Coun. John Vassilaki.
"We live in a democracy and that's how it is."
The Element's "Sextreme Makeover" contest was inspired by reality TV
shows like The Swan where men and women win plastic surgery.
One worker at the Element, who didn't want to be named, said managers
had considered giving away a full package, including cosmetic
dentistry and nose jobs. But he said women of all ages filled out
comment cards in the bar saying the thing they wanted most was breast
implants.
The bar decided on a prize of $3,000 to be put toward implants by a
doctor of the winner's choice.
Forty contestants will be picked from the nightclub floor on Saturday.
The women's names will be lit up on a spinning wheel and one will be
eliminated per spin.
The winner will be announced before the bar closes Saturday night.
The contest has been in the works for a couple of months.
Christine Schwarz, executive director of the Penticton and Area
Women's Centre, saw a poster for Sextreme Makeover on a phone poll
from the window of her doctor's waiting room.
"It showed a woman lifting her shirt and exposing her naked breast."
While she's personally disgusted, she said women are free to make
their own choices.
So she won't protest at the club but she is doing what she can to
inform contestants about the health risks of breast implants.
"The way this contest presents breast implants is that this is a
one-time surgery and all your concerns about the size and shape of
your breasts will be taken care of," she said.
"But there are many side effects of breast implants. Forty per cent of
women who get them have them removed because something goes wrong and
that's something the women individually have to pay for. It's not
covered."
Wakefield of the Bible Holiness movement isn't taking the doom-gloom
approach. Her protest will be fun just like the one she organized for
the Girls Gone Wild tour.
"The Salvation Army came down with four of their biggest instruments.
Three euphoniums and a huge drum and we sang the old songs, the gospel
songs. There was a big lineup of people so we had a captive audience
for two hours.
"I just hope one young girl listened to us and thought to herself
'there's something better I could be doing with my time.' "
She was making calls Wednesday to set up a similar show for people
waiting to get into the Sextreme Makeover competition, complete with
coffee and cookies for the performers.
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www.BreastImplantAwareness.org
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