Fine-Tuning Beauty Pageant Contestants in Thailand
KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCHOR: Beauty pageants have in some countries been consigned to a less politically correct past. But it's still alive and well in Thailand. And as Ginny Stein discovers in this week's postcards, beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, but in the fine tuning of the contestants.</s>GINNY STEIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside this nondescript house in suburban Bangkok, a group of young women are working toward their futurism. This is a beauty boot camp. It's not for faint hearted. There is a strict physical routine set by the camp's instructor, Trudiyang Tenshei (ph), that has to be followed. Chom Qui Migang (ph) have come to this beauty school in the City of Angels, as Bangkok is known, to work toward their future.</s>CHOMKWAN, BEAUTY CONTESTANT (through translator): I took this job to earn money for my education. If I can't be a teacher, I can save money to set up my own business, maybe as a trader.</s>STEIN: But</s>CHOMKWAN (through translator): Before I wasn't not beautiful. I had small eyes and had them double-lidded. My lower facial structure was too big. I could see my nose when I smiled so I had to fix it. I had to improve my weak points to look better.</s>STEIN: Even with the help of plastic surgery, you have to have more than a pretty face to succeed in this business. You have to be trained in the science of pageants. Most grueling of all is learning how to keep that certain smile. "Smiles are weapons to win people's hearts. It's the first window for people to see and know you." In between pageants, these women survive by putting their modeling skills to work and honing the skills necessary to succeed as a all-around competitor. But for most girls of the school, it is not just their future they are working towards. Their families depend on their success.</s>ANN, BEAUTY CONTESTANT (through translator): Now I'm studying. This is my part-time job to earn money to take care of myself. I think I am luckier than many girls my age. Most are still asking their parents for money, while I can help mine out.</s>STEIN: On any day in Thailand, a pageant takes place. Tonight, Trudiyang Tenshei class of 2000 is getting ready for the real thing. In a hotel room, near the tourist town of Patia, they are putting on the finishing touches for a regional beauty contest. Nothing is left to chance. The school has brought in two transvestite consultants. In Thailand, they are considered the beauty heavyweights when it comes to hair and makeup.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We know how men want to see women. We can make them more beautiful than real women could. That's why they will look to transvestite, makeup artists, and I love it. And I am a good makeup artist, because I like to criticize things. We can turn faults into beauty better than real women can.</s>STEIN: Tonight's compassion is not just for size 8s. Anne is preparing for a small but important part of the Thai pageant scene, Ms. Ocean Butterfly. Tonight, she and 13 other women will be competing in a parallel contest.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This is good, because it gives fat people a chance to be outgoing, to show that fat people can live happily and be more accepted in the society.</s>STEIN: As the contest approaches, the atmosphere grows tense. It may be a small-town competition, but on the beauty calendar, it is a big event. Among the crowd, dozens of modeling agents and fashion gurus. Michael, a California-based model explains what's at stake.</s>MICHAEL, MODEL: In Thailand, it kind of gives you a upper. Like some people have a degree, in Thailand, they like beauty. They look at women as like a figure of beauty. If you are smart, you are strong, if you have everything complete, it gives you a better status.</s>STEIN: This school has three entrants in tonight's contest, and Chomkwan is a hot favorite. Her costume, poise, and above all, smile, seem to go down with the hardened judges. But it's a business where disaster can strike at any time. Just three hours into the pageant, Chomwkan starts to suffer the number one enemy of beauty queens -- mouth cramps. There are no such problems for the parallel contestant. Ms. Ocean Butterfly turns in to be the real crowd favorite. In this event, It seems bigger is definitely better.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It is such good fun I did not expect too much whether I win or lose; all I want to do is have fun,</s>STEIN: but it all hangs on the judge's reaction. As the contestants continue to radiate backstage, the judges clinically decimate their ranks. And by the final round, Chomkwan she is the only one of the school's entrants still standing. Then the moment of truth, not first prize, but a respectable third and a cash reward of a few hundred dollars, but tomorrow is another day. Smiles can be sharpened and bodies firmed. In Thailand, there will always be another pageant.