Protest at Pageant : Miss California Crowned With Slurs by Angry Loser

Marlise Ricardos, a USC drama major, was crowned Miss California in a finale marred when another contestant pulled out a banner saying “Pageants Hurt All People” and yelled that the winner was anorexic.

Michelle Anderson, 21, who represented Santa Cruz County, was pulled from the stage by security guards Monday night as she shouted that the winner had bruises all over her body because she suffered from the weight-loss illness, anorexia.

The 26-year-old winner, who wore the banner of the city of Lomita, had little to say about the incident.

“There’s nothing I can really say at this moment that would be in good taste so I’d rather not comment, but she and I don’t see eye to eye,” Ricardos said.

Anderson, who wasn’t one of the 10 finalists among the pool of 42 entrants, said she had planned all year to stage the protest.

‘Hurt All Women’

“The whole point is that pageants hurt all women,” she said outside the San Diego Civic Center where she joined other protesters. “They hurt women who are on the inside because they are bruised psychologically and physically by what they must endure to become queens.

“Pageants hurt women on the outside because (the contestants) are an icon that we must all look up to and that we’re all supposed to emulate, but that makes us unhealthy and promotes anorexia and bulimia and cosmetic surgery.”

Ricardos will represent the state in the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City in September. She also won $20,000 in scholarships, wardrobe money and gifts.

Ricardos, first runner-up the last two years, said she would use the money to further her college education and career. She sang “I Dreamed a Dream” during the talent competition.

“It’s extremely exciting because I’ve been working on this for six years,” Ricardos said of the pageant. “It’s a wonderful way for women to pay for their education.”

In previous years, pageant protesters have focused on racism and sexism they say is promoted by the contest. But, with the contest itself 65 years old, protesters said they decided to focus on age discrimination.