A Beijing court has rejected a lawsuit filed by a "man-made beauty" against a pageant organizer for barring her from a beauty contest after learning that she had spent 110,000 yuan (US$13,250) on cosmetic surgery.
The Beijing Dongcheng District People's Court ruled on Tuesday that the plaintiff, 18-year-old model Yang Yuan, did not have adequate grounds for suing Beijing Tianjiu Weiye Culture and Media Company, a beauty pageant organizer, for infringing upon her rights and dignity.
Whether a person's rights and dignity have been trampled must be judged according to objective facts and consequences, not the person's feelings, said the court.
The court also rejected Yang's request for a public apology and 50,000 yuan (US$6,024) in compensation from the defendant for her emotional damages.
In May, 2004, Yang applied for the Miss Beijing competition of the 2004 Miss Intercontinental Competition. She passed the first and second rounds, but when she was preparing for the final round,she received a notice from the organizer saying her candidacy had been revoked because she was a "man-made beauty."
Yang said the company had infringed upon her legal rights by rejecting her and using the biased term, "man-made beauty." Besides, the girl argued, the organizer did not ban those who had cosmetic surgery from applying for the competition in the first place.
The organizer argued that the wording it had used was neutral and that the aim of the pageant was to promote natural beauty.
The Beijing Dongcheng District People's Court opened a court session to hear the case at the end of June.
The court held that "man-made beauty" was a widely accepted phrase that was frequently used by Chinese media. By using the term, the organizer did not deprecate the plaintiff, it said.
Besides, as the organizer of the event, the defendant was responsible for the impartiality and good order of the competition,the court said. Whether the plaintiff was qualified to participatein the contest is irrelevant to the present suit, which was lodgedfor rights infringement, the court said.
The plaintiff and the pageant organizer were not available for comments.
(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2004)
