Spanish TV beauty show raises a storm among Spaniards

2011-08-18 09:32:05 | Source

Ana Belen had a dream. The 30-year-old Spanish woman longed for nothing more fervently than life without big, thick- rimmed spectacles on the bridge of her nose.

However, the unemployed mother of two daughters could not afford an eye operation to correct her extreme short-sightedness of 14 dioptre. So to become one of the lucky few selected from 45,000 candidates for a new reality show seemed like a gift from heaven.

The show, similar to those in many other countries, is called Cambio radical or Radical Change and lures millions of Spaniards to their television screens by promising to transform ugly ducklings into beautiful, proud swans, if they go under the plastic surgeon's knife.

But the show by the private television channel, Antena 3, is highly controversial, and doctors' associations and women's groups are up in arms over it.

Meanwhile, Ana Belen has banded with the critics and started legal proceedings against the production company. She claims to have been duped and involuntarily subjected to a whole series of procedures. When she left the operating theatre, she had a new nose, a new chin and bigger breasts, yet she still could not distinguish a glass from a bottle without her spectacles.

'I needed none of what they did to me in the clinic,' she told the daily El Mundo, adding, 'I just wanted to see better.' She left the programme full of disappointment.

Yet, an eye operation on its own apparently is not enough to take part in the show. In two months, candidates not only go under the knife, but are also trimmed and shaped by top hair stylists, make-up artists, fashion designers and dieticians.

However, the production company has rejected Ana's accusations, saying she approved the medical procedures in a written contract and explicitly demanded breast enlargement. She would also have lost her shortsightedness, had she not given up.

The contract obliged those candidates to pay a fine of 120,000 euros (162,670 dollars), if they breached it, sources added.

The association of Spanish family doctors sees the programme in breach of medical ethics. 'Medicine is reduced to a spectacle which also violates human dignity,' it said. Apart from that, the risk that goes with plastic surgery was trivialized.

An organisation to protect patients asked the Chief Public Prosecutor to intervene and demanded the show be banned.

Women's associations meanwhile have accused the programme of being sexist: 'Recognition and the women's confidence is measured merely by appearance.'

Spaniards have also taken offence at advertising for the programme. 'My boyfriend will never leave me,' was the message of one spot, which met with so much criticism that Antena 3 was forced to withdraw it.

Nevertheless, there are satisfied show participants. Monica, 25, raves about her 'new life' after gaining a prettier nose, pearl-white teeth, fuller lips and a sexy cleavage through the show.

'It is not just physical change,' she says, adding, 'I am now far more self-confident and a completely different person.'

And 28-year-old Sandra was thrilled when her boyfriend Paco popped the question on live television after her successful lymph drainage procedure.

Meanwhile, Ana is still awaiting the outcome of her court case.

'I loved her the way she was. I never noticed all those alleged flaws,' says her husband Francisco, an unemployed bricklayer.

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