Thursday, September 10, 2009

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP WINNER OF AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL: I don't plan on blogging, or even watching, much of ANTM this season, but I couldn't let last night go without comment. Since about Season 3, the show has basically operated under an uneasy agreement with its contestants and audience: the latter won't make too big of a deal about how success on the show has nothing to do with success in modeling (beyond giving the contestants some professional shots to stick in their portfolios), and the show will go on promoting its participants as superstars in the hope that that hype would be self-fulfilling. So I was wondering how the show would deal with the 5'7" height limitation this season, which to me seemed like an admission of fashion irrelevance.

I expected some spin, but really -- well, let's let Tyra say it: "When I announced my intention to change the standards in the fashion industry ...." On its face, the statement is breathtakingly self-aggrandizing, but then the vehicle of change turned out to be 14 more-anorexic-than-usual waifs being lauded for looking taller than they are. If the median weight for the remaining contestants is over 90 pounds, I'll eat my weave. I guess that's a fresh approach to attacking unrealistic beauty standards (hey, remember how enthusiastically Tyra patted herself on the back for picking a plus-sized winner a couple of seasons back?). How can it possibly be that people don't loathe this woman?

Incidentally, last night featured the return of a recurring ANTM feature: Tyra adopting a terrible French accent for entire segments without purpose or explanation.

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