Tyra Banks and America's Next Top Model - where shallowness is always in fashion
For
anyone with dreams of becoming a Vogue cover
girl, here's a good tip: Don't count on Tyra
Banks and America's Next Top Model to make it
happen. America's
Next Top Model contenders may get an occasional cameo
on a CW network show and some can look forward to
exposure in magazines such as Psychology Today and
Arthritis Today. (This is not a joke - second
season winner Yoanna House made the cover of the
former and Mercedes Scelba-Shorte, a season two
runner-up, was on the latter.) House
also hosts a show on the Style network, so there's
that, plus fellow winner Eva Pigford fronted a
reality series for BET and Adrianne Curry
wrung two seasons out of a VH1 series by
pursuing Christopher Knight aka Peter Brady which only
proves one thing - that these girls have more of a shot
at being a recognizable has-been than joining the fashion
elite where Top Model host Tyra Banks rose
to fame. Dreams of
a career in high fashion grow ever dimmer with every
cycle of the show, hitting a new low this season. The two
hour premier begins with a stint in model boot camp, a
necessary endurance trial before the girls can meet
The Tyra. They display a general ignorance of the
fashion industry while marching about in high-heeled
combat boots, which gives the scene the air of a
MADtv skit or a Montel Williams special on
out-of-control teens. Not that
this will hurt the ratings. America's Next Top
Model continues to be the top-rated series on the
CW Television Network because for young girls
everywhere, it is the equivalent of Sunday service in the
Church of Tyra. Gushing
contestants, particularly the 13 finalists, play
her acolytes, eager to learn the ways of the fire-filled
gazes and luminescent makeup. Guys tune in to see them
run around in bikinis, and the first hour provides a
regular parade of G-strings and skin. Of all the reality
shows on TV, this one is the best at pandering to the
shallowest instincts of both sexes. Stomping
in to meet Banks and fellow judges Miss J
Alexander, Jay Manuel, Twiggy and Nigel
Barker, some of them poorly imitate the high-stepping
race horse fashion walk, hipbones jutting forward, lips
lacquered to a blinding sheen. In one
episode the task was to embody opposing political
viewpoints which sounds either boring or mildly
controversial, but ends up resembling a Mel Brooks
satire. One girl has to make supporting the death penalty
look fierce while her opponent has to bling up the
concept of life in prison. Two more are asked to give the
pro-choice vs. pro-life lobbies a dose of haute-couture
fabulousness. Another
good reason to keep watching this season? It features two
plus-size models, 21-year-olds Diana and
Whitney, whose progress will be particularly
interesting to watch in light of the tabloid attacks on
Banks' weight gain.
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