意大利选美新规：禁穿比基尼

“意大利小姐”选美大赛今年推出新规，要求选手在泳装环节穿黑白色连体泳衣、禁穿比基尼，同时禁止有纹身、体环，以及做过整容手术的选手参赛。大赛组织者表示，她希望在选美大赛中让选手重现上世纪50年代的古典美，而连体泳衣能为大赛增添一丝素净的氛围。对这一系列新规的出台，意大利一家报纸表达了不同意见。该报纸称此举是由现任总理蒙蒂的紧缩政策导致的，并质问“你能想象出那些美女穿着她们祖母时代的衣服出场吗？”。该报纸表示，选美大赛的主题就是要选出曲线最性感、身材最完美、腿型最好看的意大利美女，新规禁穿比基尼把男人们的梦想都遮住了。对此，选美大赛主持人表示，新规后的选美大赛更优雅，仿佛回到了玛丽莲•梦露的时代。“意大利小姐”选美大赛每年9月初举办，今年将有230位选手参与角逐。组织方表示，今年参与选美大赛的选手将会与圣雄甘地的孙女会面，学习什么是“内在美和外在美”。

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.”