I sashed Alicia Machado and she is a pawn in this political game

I don’t want to vote. Running for the highest office in the land is a bit like competing in a pageant — just hear me out. Some grow up participating from a young age, some do not. In both situations, the candidate works hard to prepare, she has to improve herself physically, work to increase her stamina, and participates in mock debates/interviews. She is then put on a stage to be judged by all. In the end there is only one winner.

Even with all my different experiences, being a titleholder and a director for the Miss Universe Organization, I never thought I would see myself in a news clip that is played at nauseam during an election year. Low and behold, there I am putting a sash on Miss Universe 1996 Alicia Machado, I am the one in the red dress with the elbow length red gloves. Don’t blink, you will miss me.

{mosads}This clip is being played to shine another negative light on the Republican Nominee, Donald Trump. He is the former owner of the Miss Universe Organization and Machado was one of his first titleholders. Did Mr. Trump call her names? I don’t know. Did Miss Machado gain weight? Yes, and this brings up a very delicate issue.

If you have ever been around pageant women then you know that girls are often at a low personal weight when it comes to competition. In the summer of 1995 while preparing for my pageant, I worked out harder than I ever had and ate the exact diet my nutritionist put me on down to the calorie, add stress and nerves on top of that and that is what is called pageant weight! My motivation was the knowing that I was going to be in a swimsuit on national network television. To say I was excited and nervous would be an understatement.

Machado was on an international stage and representing one of the most competitive countries in the game — Venezuela. Venezuela pageant contestants are as hardcore as it gets. They have been known to endure full or partial facial plastic surgery, liposuction, implants of all types, on top of the usual; spray tans, nails, tape, hair extensions, etc. To say the pressure is intense would be a grand understatement.

Let me be clear, no woman should ever be made to feel bad about her body. Period. Full stop.

However, when you put yourself in a beauty pageant you know what is expected of you. In the Miss Universe pageant, at that time, one-third of the score was swimsuit. You are being judged on your physical fitness. When I won Miss Teen USA I will admit it was hard to stay in shape; the travel, allowing myself to eat things I hadn’t in a year, my busy schedule of appearances, and eating out a lot — it was not easy. I gained weight after I won (probably 5 lbs), it was part of my job (yes, we are paid a salary) to stay in shape and I got myself back on a treadmill. Many jobs have physical requirements. If a professional athlete put on 60 lbs in the off season, it would be news; it’s their job to stay physically fit.

It is clear to me that someone from the Clinton campaign researched, found Alicia, knew about the scandal and got her to talk. I do not know for a fact, but I am guessing they sweetened the deal by letting her know that her face would be on every news station and her name on the lips of everyone in the media — if she told her story. Maybe it is true, maybe it is not, but I have seen it happen many times before.

Women and girls in pageants have been know to suck up the spotlight as much as they can, even if it isn’t in positive light. Who can blame them?

Does Miss South Carolina Teen 2007 ring any bells? Titleholders at this level are given tremendous opportunity if they play their cards right. Just this summer I judged the Miss Teen USA pageant and within hours the twitter world blew up because the newly crowned teen had tweet some not very nice things, racial slurs, three years prior.

I do not condone her choice of words I any way. What happened? Another former Miss Teen USA that had a television show premiering the next week, jumped on the chance to trash her new fellow sister and the organization that gave her the opportunity to even be someone that would be on TV. She went as far as to tweet her personal email, asking news sources to contact her for dirt on the story.

In my mind we all get to witness. Hillary is looking down her nose at pageant girls and pageant fans all the while she is using a pageant girl to boost her numbers. Pick a side, you either support women and their choices or don’t — you can’t pick and choose the topics you agree with. I think most pageant women are amazing, motivated, smart, charitable and talented but the fact that one is being used as fact speaker is ridiculous.

In addition, I worked with Donald Trump and never felt like he didn’t respect women or objectified — just saying. Yes, he likes pretty women — name one man on the planet that does not.

I do not know what others experienced, other than what I have heard since he decided to run for office. I never saw it first hand.

Last thing, Alicia is a beautiful woman and she was always sweet to me, I think she looks amazing no matter what she weighs.

Keylee Sanders was crowned Miss Teen USA 1995 and was the first national title holder to be given a state directorship with the Miss Universe Organization. Sanders is now the owner of Style Studio and lives in LA.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.