By Chris Cosci

Around the world, thousands of women compete each year in numerous beauty pageants, from state pageants to the Miss America and Miss Universe Pageants. These contests showcase some of the most beautiful people in the world.

But as our society's obsession with plastic surgery grows, natural beauty is getting harder to find. Why settle for being happy with who you are when you can spend thousands of dollars to make yourself look even better? Plastic surgery has become so prevalent that we rarely accept beauty as a natural feature anymore. You know there's a problem when we see a voluptuous woman and the first thought that enters our mind is, "Are they real?"

Despite this growing trend, most beauty pageants will not accept contestants who have bought their beauty. After all, entering a beauty pageant after having plastic surgery is kind of like entering a baking contest and submitting a batch of Mrs. Field's cookies.

Obviously, we need to have a pageant that doesn't discriminate against the synthetic. We need something that celebrates our vanity and rewards us for our ability to find the right doctor and pay the right amount of money. Enter the very first Miss Plastic Surgery contest, scheduled to take place this November in China.

Over 30 women from around the world have already signed up for their chance at the Miss Plastic Surgery title. To compete, contestants must provide a signed document from their doctor - one might call it a certificate of non-authenticity. Then, one person will be crowned the first Miss Plastic Surgery and walk home with the grand prize of $1,200. With that kind of money, you could put down a nice deposit on your next procedure.

Like other pageants, Miss Plastic Surgery will serve as an inspiration and role model for young women around the world. But unlike other pageant winners, they will not focus on such hackneyed issues as eliminating world hunger or developing educational programs. Instead, they will teach us the value and importance of looking good. Contestant Lu Xiaoyu's dream is that "this contest helps people learn about plastic surgery." She adds, "I hope to see a day when it's so commonly done, we'll no longer use the term 'artificial beauty.'" That's fine with me, as long as I can continue using the terms "shallow" and "narcissistic."

Medical professor Zhao Xiaozhong supports the contest, stating that "to us doctors, altering beauty is a very natural thing." That's odd. I always thought that by definition, something is considered natural if it appears as nature created it. Therefore, any alteration by man would, in effect, eliminate the naturalness. But I'm not a doctor, so what do I know?

As one would expect, there are some people who do not approve of the contest. Sociologist Li Lulu is concerned that "we're losing diversity in the rush for a global beauty standard. If everybody starts looking the same, it will be a pretty dull world." Unless everybody looks like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Then, things might not be so dull.

Of course, if everybody looked the same, this pageant would be really difficult to judge. One could argue that such a pageant would be pointless in this situation. Actually, one could probably argue that point now, but that's another story.

In essence, this pageant is really not about who the most beautiful person is. It's more about who had the best surgeon. It's practically a free promotional show for doctors. The pageant obviously avoids any mention of the possible side affects or complications of plastic surgery, but why dwell on such negative issues? After all, those are such petty concerns when you have $1,200 on the line.