Winners of pageants are often seen as the ideal images of perfection.

They have the smallest waist sizes, the skinniest legs, the hour-glass figure and the face of charisma.

When you look at the winner of a beauty pageant, you are looking at society’s image of the perfect female body.

This is why nobody comments on how much weight she has gained or how much she has eaten.

That is, until Miss Universe Alicia Machado, a 19-year-old from Venezuela, gained 18 pounds since she won her title in May. Her 5-foot 7-inch figure now weighs 130 pounds.

From most people’s point of view, this is a fairly normal shape of a female.

For some, it almost could be considered underweight.

But her new body shape has pageant officials grumbling.

Although Machado has gained a substantial amount by anyone’s standards, her body image should not be tarnished or ridiculed because of it.

Her 130 pounds may look bad in the eyes of pageant officials, but she looks like a much healthier person because of it.

Machado should not lose her crown because of her weight gain.

Image is always important in beauty pageants, but they are also contests of intelligence, something that should be placed with greater emphasis than any swim suit competition.

If pageant officials truly desire for their contest to be viewed as anything more than a superficial beauty contest, they should consider the entire worth of Machado’s being, and not just her measurements.

Although beauty pageants have been around a long time, its contestants have all been carbon copies of this ideal female body image.

Never have beauty pageants been representative of the women in this world. There are women of color, handicapped women and women in all shapes and sizes. In reality, there is no ideal of the perfect woman — there are several.

Society knows this, but it just needs to accept it wholeheartedly and make it known that all women have their own unique beauty, whether they weigh 130 pounds or 230 pounds.

Machado may not be the image of beauty for pageant officials, but she is taking the look of Miss Universe to a new level.