意大利選美新規：禁穿比基尼

“意大利小姐”選美大賽今年推出新規，要求選手在泳裝環節穿黑白色連體泳衣、禁穿比基尼，同時禁止有紋身、體環，以及做過整容手術的選手參賽。大賽組織者表示，她希望在選美大賽中讓選手重現上世紀50年代的古典美，而連體泳衣能爲大賽增添一絲素淨的氛圍。對這一系列新規的出臺，意大利一家報紙表達了不同意見。該報紙稱此舉是由現任總理蒙蒂的緊縮政策導致的，並質問“你能想象出那些美女穿着她們祖母時代的衣服出場嗎？”。該報紙表示，選美大賽的主題就是要選出曲線最性感、身材最完美、腿型最好看的意大利美女，新規禁穿比基尼把男人們的夢想都遮住了。對此，選美大賽主持人表示，新規後的選美大賽更優雅，彷彿回到了瑪麗蓮•夢露的時代。“意大利小姐”選美大賽每年9月初舉辦，今年將有230位選手參與角逐。組織方表示，今年參與選美大賽的選手將會與聖雄甘地的孫女會面，學習什麼是“內在美和外在美”。

It is one of the country’s most celebrated institutions and has often been at the centre of controversy, but now the Miss Italia beauty contest is raising eyebrows again by banning bikinis in favor of more modest attire.

The competition’s swimwear section will no longer allow the two-piece outfits, with contestants asked instead to wear more sober all-in-one costumes.

Only old fashioned, black and white one-piece bathing suits will be allowed in next month’s contest in an attempt to recreate the more restrained style of the post-war era.

Tattoos and body piercings will also be banned, as will any contestants who have had plastic surgery.

Patrizia Mirigliani, the pageant's organizer, said she wanted to return the style of the competition to the “classical beauty of the 1950s” and that dropping bikinis for one-piece swimming costumes would “add a sober element to the contest”.

“The competition has always been a show case for feminine beauty and as a result this year more than ever it was decided there would be no bikini section,” she said.

The Miss Italia beauty contest is a national institution, with heats being held across the country in the run up to the main televised spectacle, which is broadcast live over two nights in early September, with each show lasting for three hours.

A total of 230 women will take part, before being whittled down to just one winner at the final in the Tuscan spa town of Montecatini Terme.

Each year there is always a special guest with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Andy Garcia being among the past members of the jury panel.

Before this year’s show, however, contestants will meet Mahatma Gandhi’s granddaughter, which will help them learn about the “concept of interior, as well as exterior” beauty, Miss Mirigliani said.

Not everyone is happy with the contest’s new rules however, with Il Giornale newspaper, owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s family, claiming that the new regulations were inspired by the austerity campaign of the current Italian prime minister, Mario Monti.

“Can you imagine these little darlings dressed in clothes their grandmothers would have worn?” its report on the changes said.

“Surely the point of Miss Italia is that it is a beauty contest. The idea being to pick a beautiful Italian with the best legs, the sexiest curves and the perfect figure.

“If we are to cover the bottom, the object of male dreams, with centimeters of cloth what sense does the competition have?”

Fabrizo Frizzi, the host of the show, said: “Patrizia made her decision after some hints from minister (Elsa) Fornero over the standards that RAI (the broadcaster) have to keep.

“But this is a beauty contest and the physical figure of the contestants has to be uppermost. I think it is an elegant solution. A one piece swimsuit is a throw back to the era of Marilyn Monroe.”