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©2008 Pottle Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Photo: Girl, best get out of my shot. McKey tries to look unbothered as Tyra tries to outsmize her from behind. Creepiness Factor: 6
Tyra Banks is getting slammed in a new book entitled Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV. Penned by feminist media critic Jennifer L. Pozner, the book dedicates a whole chapter to the "cultural crimes" committed by Tyra Banks on ANTM. More than 150 other reality shows are named as well, but only ANTM gets its own chapter. Pozner claims Tyra grew up "mentally colonized by fashion and beauty advertisers." Translation: Tyra's been so conditioned by the norms of the fashion industry that, even though she claims to promote diversifying the concept of beauty, she can't help but sabotage her cause.
"I think Tyra really does believe she's helping these girls, and wants to break beauty open for a wider range of ethnicities and appearance types. But she doesn't know how to do it in a way that isn't exploitative," says Pozner. To back up her argument, she cites an episode in which a girl with an eating disorder has her thighs measured, and then is forced to watch the judges critique, "She's not exactly a size 2." In a later cycle, Pozner notes, a contestant who has gained weight during filming has to portray gluttony in one photoshoot, and is asked to pretend she's an elephant in another.
"So many of the messages on Top Model have to do with reinforcing eating-disordered thinking, despite all their lip service to eating disorders being bad," says Pozner. "Girls immediately defend Tyra Banks as being empowering, even as they say to me that they feel bad about their bodies after watching the show." Pozner criticizes Tyra for bringing girls of diverse body types, ethnicities, sexualities, and gender identities to Top Model in an attempt to diversify the fashion world, only to focus "unrelentingly on their difference."
Obviously trans-girls, plus-size models, and eating disorders are hyped on the show to spike ratings. Critics watch with bated breath for the merest mention of an eating disorder on a modeling competition series. But, if Tyra didn't focus on the differences between the girls she's trying to usher into the fashion world and the modeling world as it is, the show would lose all appeal. We also feel like all the really harsh comments are probably dramatized through editing; we're sure the girls don't all feel super-traumatized after they get cut.
Props to Pozner, though, for having the chutzpah to stick up for the girls who had it rough on ANTM.
Source: Vancouver Sun
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"I think Tyra really does believe she's helping these girls, and wants to break beauty open for a wider range of ethnicities and appearance types. But she doesn't know how to do it in a way that isn't exploitative," says Pozner. To back up her argument, she cites an episode in which a girl with an eating disorder has her thighs measured, and then is forced to watch the judges critique, "She's not exactly a size 2." In a later cycle, Pozner notes, a contestant who has gained weight during filming has to portray gluttony in one photoshoot, and is asked to pretend she's an elephant in another.
"So many of the messages on Top Model have to do with reinforcing eating-disordered thinking, despite all their lip service to eating disorders being bad," says Pozner. "Girls immediately defend Tyra Banks as being empowering, even as they say to me that they feel bad about their bodies after watching the show." Pozner criticizes Tyra for bringing girls of diverse body types, ethnicities, sexualities, and gender identities to Top Model in an attempt to diversify the fashion world, only to focus "unrelentingly on their difference."
Obviously trans-girls, plus-size models, and eating disorders are hyped on the show to spike ratings. Critics watch with bated breath for the merest mention of an eating disorder on a modeling competition series. But, if Tyra didn't focus on the differences between the girls she's trying to usher into the fashion world and the modeling world as it is, the show would lose all appeal. We also feel like all the really harsh comments are probably dramatized through editing; we're sure the girls don't all feel super-traumatized after they get cut.
Props to Pozner, though, for having the chutzpah to stick up for the girls who had it rough on ANTM.
Source: Vancouver Sun
RELATED FEATURES:
ANTM Guest Demi Lovato Quits Tour, Enters Treatment Center
Inspired by ANTM and Lady Gaga: Meat Dresses Make a Comeback
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