[ArticleImageHyperLink] Double standards exist for men and women in competition Friday, May 29, 2009 By Oriana Chacon/Staff Reporter/column Advertising Every single beauty pageant accepts breast augmentation, liposuctions, and buttock implants, to let the girls reach their prettiest potential…unnaturally.     Every professional sport bans the use of steroids because “those who use them are breaking the rules and getting an unfair advantage over others” (National Public Radio), yet it still is an external factor that aids the players in their game… much like plastic surgery and beauty pageants.     A class of hormones related to testosterone, Anabolic steroids or (AAS’s) work on increasing tissue, mostly muscles in the upper part of the body. These body builders however have adverse effects to people who consume them and abuse them.     Cosmetic Surgery on the other hand, poses dangers and complications and is being demanded even more as the years go by. People 18 years and younger are increasingly being patients to such procedures and the girls at beauty pageants are just the start.     What has America gotten to that now fake breasts are eligible for a Miss America contest yet fake muscles (worked for either way) are illegal when considered for sports?     Some gender issues might be influencing the situation in an unfair manner.     Beauty should be natural if the world is going to make a competition out of seeing who’s prettier because then any girl can just recreate her body to fit standards, or if we are going to allow this to be so, then we have to make it equal for men too.     Steroids are a way to boost muscle and aid the player’s game, thus it should be allowed just as much as surgery is on beauty pageants.     The light in which women are seen as: as dolls that can be painted, fixed, changed and meddled with to the person’s liking and yet for men, it is unacceptable to change themselves in such a way.     This gender issue should be resolved once and for all by letting men take the same steps as women when faced by fierce competition demanding a specific physical condition; men should be allowed to use steroids.

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