Maria Cristina Caballero at PostGlobal

Maria Cristina Caballero

Bogota, Colombia

Maria Cristina Caballero was Director of Investigations at Semana, Colombia's main weekly news magazine, from (1998-2001). Previously she was also editor of investigations at Cambio news-magazine and El Tiempo, Colombia's main daily paper. She is currently a Fellow at Harvard University's Center for Public Leadership. She completed a master's degree in public administration at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Previously, Caballero completed a Communications and Journalism degree at Colombia's Javeriana University.Caballero was a 1993 Alfred Friendly Press Fellow at Time magazine's Washington, D.C. Bureau (a working fellowship) and a 1997 Lucius W. Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Caballero won a 1998 Simon Bolivar National Prize in Journalism (the Colombian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) for her exclusive interview with Carlos Castano, leader of Colombia's paramilitaries. She won the same award in 1991 for a series of investigative reports regarding corruption at Colombia's National Property Institute. Caballero also received the 1990 Inter American Press Association Human Rights Award. In 1999, she won a World Press Freedom Award from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, "In recognition of her commitment to the defense of press freedom in Colombia and throughout the world." Her articles and editorials about Latin American and human rights issues, the situation of countries in conflict, press freedom issues, and gender issues have appeared in, among others, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, CNN Interactive, the International Herald Tribune and the Miami Herald. While at the Center for Public Leadership, Caballero plans to write about the leadership challenges facing Colombia and other Latin American countries. Close.

Maria Cristina Caballero

Bogota, Colombia

Maria Cristina Caballero was Director of Investigations at Semana, Colombia's main weekly news magazine, from (1998-2001). Previously she was also editor of investigations at Cambio news-magazine and El Tiempo, Colombia's main daily paper. more »

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Beauty Contests and Busts

There should be international laws promoted to protect women from emotionally demeaning messages.

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All Comments (36)

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Solange:

The nature of human male sexuality is an unfortunate evolutionary fact. The extent to which women (or sadly, girls) feel pressure to conform to it, however, is a most illuminating indicator of how much economic, social, etc. power men continue to wield over women. Trends towards sexualizing the very young suggest the traditional social focus on male self-interest is alive and well; and proliferating into the global norm.

No benefit:

The final straw is that all this surgery, etc., doesn't translate into better genes for the next generation. Their kids will be as "ugly" and flat chested as ever...

cssch2:

Boobs of the world unite! Throw off the shackles of bra-dom and be free. (foward all pictures to this contributor)

C. Brown:

Maria,

You appear to be a woman of ample breast, judging from your beautiful and healthy full face, but your true value remains to be determined. Please permit us to properly judge you, through a pointed examination of your features. The submission of a full length photo in tight clothing will be required, so that we can determine if your article truly has merit. If your cup size is sufficiently adequate, (bodacious) we will give your opinion the careful consideration it may very well deserve.

J. Rhinehart:

Top-heavy women may have an attraction to certain types of men, but health-wise, they're at a disadvantage. Research says top-heavy leads to heart disease. It also leads to more falls, especially in later life.

There's also the factor of needing wide hips to healthily birth a baby. Women who are bigger on top are usually narrower in the hips (mesomorphs). Research also shows infertile women are more often smaller in the hips.

So genetically speaking, top-heavy women are not supposed to be desirable as mates. Bottom-heavy women are. Intelligent men should be able to figure that out.

Jack Inguoff:

Its not the size of the boobs that matters but the texture and hue of the aeriole!

darwinian:

People can be so stupid. Boobs, hips, none of it matter. The thing that makes a female beautiful is attitude. Confidence makes them sexy, no matter what the size of their bust. The media via television, advertising and the internet is creating a terrible culture of voyeurs who will judge a woman purely on looks. These poor pathetic people clicking away at mouses and keyboards, or drueling over magazines don't have the first clue about women. First of all, to know about them you need to be among them, not at a computer screen. So put your hands where they can be seen, head out to a pub, and go try to buy a beautiful woman a drink. You'll find out exactly what I mean about personality very quickly.

And to all those chauvenistic, redneck, pervert voyeurs.....get out of your chair and get a life. Its easy to type that crap here but go see how far it gets you with a true female instead of a bunch of electrons on a screen........

are you serious:

Sex Sells... as a women at times i feel trapped to look, act, be a certain way that is portayed by the media, however its my choice to act and be how i would like.

Ofcourse, it makes most women intimidated, unsatisfied with themselves when they see 36-32-34 women plaster all over the media and not to mention all of the eating disorders, body image issues, surgery addictions that contribute to the presence of such.

What's even more intersting is that these "sexy" big-boobed women are usually the victims of such disorders.

We need to realize that media structures how women are portrayed and therfore create the mold for the perfect woman which is followed by all of us womanfolk.

In some ways we should promote media to use real-normal looking females in younger publications to promote self body image and esteem to these young girls who are sexualized in todays media.

We need to open our eyes to the root of the problem. And no, its not the fault of advertisers, media, since there whole notion is to SELL, rather the fault of culture itself whom declare what is sexy or not.

Kevin:

Dear Redneck

Big boobs are used to market more than NASCAR and beer. So climb down from your arrogant faux social criticism and look around. Everybody does this. Especially "socially conscious" advocates. Just look at the nude "real people don't wear furs" ads using young nubile actresses - not Jack Nicholson or other old uglies.

Thank goodness for boobs on display - big small or in-between (the place I like to be).

Kevin:

You are proposing that laws be enacted to prevent women from exercising their free will to put themselves on display?
"Classic" Denial
Women's magazines are full of provocative and sensual images (thank goodness)- but men don't read or buy these magazines - women do.

I heartily support any social behavior that puts more attractive people in my line of sight - however these people sell their souls by choice - not by coercion.

Bill Edwards:

I certainly don't agree with the rednecks who somehow feel Big Boobs are God's Creation. Diet and genetics play a bigger roll in that.
Nor do I totally agree with the author in her suggestion that laws need to be created in order to " Protect " these young women from the lechers who promote the adage, Sex Sells.
Why do these women need laws to protect them from such undue exposure? Isn't that tantamount to suggesting that women are too stupid to be able to judge the difference between write and wrong behaviour, and therefore require the force of law to guide them in the right direction?
The perentage of women who will subject themselves to such demeaning exposure is very small, which leads me to believe the majority are in favour of a more moral approach to life and the conduct of their own. They didn't need laws to tell them that.
Therefore, those who do participate are "Willing" participants, not forced labour.
Men are the same way. Some prefer a standard of living that adheres to a certain moral rightness, whereas others will bend the rules of morality until they break.
Referring to women as being the victims all the time is becoming a tired tactic amongst those of us who live in the real world. Check out Craigslist sometime and see the number of women who advertize themselves there. You can't tell me that they're all victims of a male dominated per-occupation with sex.
I know many very attractive women who have not been drawn into the sexualization of the female gender. Does that make them "Victims" of a moral majority?
It would seem that men are, and will forever be referred to as the lecherous bad guys in everything to do with female sexuality. The reality is these women have brains as well, and have every right to make their own decisions. Obviously they do just that as well, otherwise there would be no proliferation of beauty contests in Columbia, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.
As for men being always referred to as the victimizer, let's have a look at one of todays' headlines on CNN wherein it's reported that yet again, another "Female" school teacher has had sex with multiple teenage, male students at a middle school in Clinton, South Carolina. How many female teachers is that in the past couple of years now?
It's time to stop with the gender blame game, and accept the reality that both genders are equal participants in the sexualization of the other, with female participants having been just as capable of making the " Incorrect Moral Decision " as any number of males.
These young women who choose to be the big boobed stars of beauty contests and other performances have made their own choices. Whether it's for right or wrong is their own choice, not something we should be enacting laws to protect them from. What would be we protecting them from? Themselves?
Yes. By all means, let's protect our children from undue exposure to human sexuality, but tlet's leave adults alone to make their own choices, and stop protecting those who don't want to be protected.

Bob Miller:

How sad it is that women are forced to enhance (?) their breasts for a very short run in life. The average and petite woman remains beautiful for more than 50 years of maturity, the large breasted woman, either by nature or man-made additions, invariable changes from the 25 year old size 38-DD, that those men who were never weaned properly seem to desire, to the 35 year old with a breast size of 38-long. Its not a pretty sight to see so many over 40 y.o. latin TV personalities with breasts that seem to be tucked under the waistband. Big is not beautiful...It's only big

James Buchanan:

Seems the testosterone brigade still knows how to close ranks. Ah well, just makes'em easier targets to hit, I guess. Chris R raises a good point, though, do NOT surrender control of your body for any reason.

If there's control over material shown to ANYONE, it should be the images used to condition boys to idealized feminine beauty. Its more critical than protecting young girls from such images. While girls are conditioned to follow such examples, its the male dominated society that creates the market FOR those images. Control the problem at its source: the male libido.

paul:

biggest mistake made was allowing these crazy feminists to vote in 1913. be happy feminists or you might get an all-paid vacation to the middle east. you have no clue how good you got it

Pete Bogs:

The societal obsession with large breasts gives short shrift to women of more average sizes, as they can be just as beautiful and intelligent. I'd venture to say that those who refuse to get implants are smarter than other women. Natural beauty is the best beauty.

This article ties in with a recent MSNBC story about the sexualization of girls, where thongs and fishnet stockings are deemed to be "harmful." I don't know if that is true or not, but since when do young girls belong in stripper clothes?

Chris R.:

"There should be international laws promoted to protect the women from such emotionally demeaning coverage and messages."

I promise, you would regret giving censors the keys to your body. Once you've acknowledged that you, as a women, feel that women cannot make decisions for themselves without coercion from the state -- including decisions about their sexual behavior on television and elsewhere -- how will you stop your new censors from taking too much? You cannot object when the law goes to far; you can't say "no" when they swallow your cherished liberties; you cannot say "enough", because you've already admitted that you're incapable of making decisions about your own self interest. You will beg for liberty and self-determination, and they will hold your hand, force you to stand on a pedestal, drape their clothing over your body, and then whisper into your ears “poor girl, you don’t know what’s good for you.”

If you invite paternalism into your house and into your body, you can never evict it. I promise, you would regret this.

Mario:

Dear Maria,

I am a married to a beautiful petite woman. She is not large breasted however; she is beautiful in my eyes. I treat her as a girlfriend. I prefer my women not to top heavy.

Feliz en California

not one of you:

To the redneck and all those in agreement,

Please don't invoke the name of God in your ravings. The heart of God is not what you speak. Mankind was not created for the purpose that you contend. Jesus said that if you lust after someone, you have already committed adultery in your heart. And adulterers will in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Great...:

More morons have invaded this thread, too.

student:

I totally agree with the redneck. God created Big Boobs for a purpose and denying it is a heresy. Beauty contests and boobs competitions are the way to praise God and should be viewed as a progressive religion.

Redneck in Corn Belt:

There is nothing wrong with appreciating God's creation and the beauty of nature. And this domination by males over females goes back to the Roman times, the period that we all wish to reenact in the West.

And, without big-boobed beautiful women, how else can you market beer any way? Especially at truck pull events and NASCAR races?

God bless Colombia.

torweez@yahoo.com:

Dear Maria,

but the Europe has been dictating Women's liberation to the entire world. i respect your feelings as a woman, but if women's liberation is the liberation from moral values, then let it be. why are you getting frustrated. come over to Saudi Arabia, i will show you how a women is content with her life.

With Regards
Sajad Malik

student:

The best thing about the article is that feminists can't do a damn thing about the beauty contests. I also find it entertaining that the US with their free market religion is plagued so much with the feminists who rumble about inequality, endorsing a law to ban this or that... Makes me feel nostalgia about the Soviet times. "It's economics, stupid" (c). Someone should tell them this.

ORL:

"There should be international laws promoted to protect the women from such emotionally demeaning coverage and messages. An organization like UNIFEM, the United Nations Fund for Women, could certainly lead a campaign toward a more dignifying treatment of women by the media. International and national associations -- which consider themselves as serious -- could also do their part."

I have nothing against such laws and campaigns led by international organizations, associations etc. But why wait for that? Can't women (and men) protect themselves? Can't women (and men) impose their dignity to the world?

I do not understand why there are always people to be found, prepared to all too willingly play the part of the exploited creature.

I happen to believe that for human beings (men and women), self-respect is first of all a personal matter. Seems to me most people are not forced to participate, to lend themselves to that orgy of sexual display, exclusively for marketing purposes. Why don't women refuse en masse to participate? Why do they not mobilize to boycott all such events and make it loud and clear that "enough is enough", that they themselves all have got beyond that by now? Honestly, I do not understand that they don't. And beginning with the new generations. Why not starve those exploiters? Why not say "NO!"

If I can reassure you. In this country (Canada), the same permanent orgy prevails, of course. I will never be part of it, will have nothing to do with it, will forever remain totally outside that circuit. Just can't stand it.

Emjoyed reading what you wrote. It is very lively. Makes one almost feel one is in Columbia.

James Buchanan:

Tragic that your colleague suffered that...beyond tragic. For you, my congratulations on breaking the mold, hopefully your homeland might someday be proud to have produced you. Yeah, ok, even men have the occassional idealistic dream, now back to reality.

There are two sides to this issue, one you've made very clear is the rampaging hormonality of the average Colombian male with respect to women, but there's a side you missed. Gotta ask this bluntly, but why in Hell's Dark Heart are you ladies feeding the wolves? Why do these beauty pageants have so many willing participants? Why aren't women getting themselves out of these rotten domestic situations. Someone should establish a means for these women to escape the nightmare. On the one hand, yes, it shouldn't happen at all, but cripes, if it does, get away from it. Walk if you have to, run if necessary, but they stop being a victim the minute they make the choice to survive.

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