Smile With Your Eyes!!! : America's Next Plus Top Model

America's Next Top Model is my reality TV guilty pleasure. I've never been particularly into reality TV but this show appeals to my inner masochist. There is something about a good bit of bad television. Anyone who has watched ANTM (or any of its global counterparts) knows that the show has little to do with fashion and much more to do with the kind of catty high school-esque drama depicted in films like Mean Girls and Heathers. Its less about who will win and more about who is getting on whose nerves within the walls of the house. The winners almost never attain any level of fashion cred and are much more likely to move on to another reality show than they are to appear between the pages of W or Bazaar. In short, its a weekly soapy opera set amidst the already melodramatic backdrop of the fashion world. And its a good excuse to watch Tyra Banks in full on fierce mode.


The Original Miss J and Tyra Getting Fierce With Nigel

With that in mind I have always been confused by Top Model's rejection of its plus size competitors. Almost every season Tyra selects one or two girls who are either plus sized or just more curvaceous than the standard ANTM contestant in general. And every season there comes a point wherein one of the judges (particularly Janice back in the day) says "You just don't have a models body." This aggravates me to no end. Most models working today in high fashion are over 5'10, under 18 and Eastern European, the odds of any ANTM girl having a legitimate shot are null and void. Who besides Elyse Sewell has ever left that show and found high fashion success? No one. In the end the girls wind up being reality stars, tv hosts and Brady wives, not supermodels and yet they are still judged on their weight negatively. Other physical atributes are rarely if ever brought up as discussion, occassionally a girl is labeled "too commercial" (too commercial for a Cover Girl contract and a spread in Seventeen, the irony abounds) but those traits are never nitpicked and judged the way a girls weight is. Never mind the fact that Cassandra at 24 would be considered a tad long in the tooth to begin a modeling career or that Brittany has exactly one facial expression. Its all good, because they "look like models".


This Cycle's Curvy Competition: Whitney & Diana

Add to this the snide commentary the girls face away from the judges. Remember the season when Toccara (who I love) couldn't find anything to fit her at a photoshoot and the stylists said "How could she ever expect to find anything." Or this season when Diana and Whitney crossed their fingers with the hope that the stock sundresses for their shoot might fit? Or when Renee, one of the nastiest humans to ever grace that show, told Whitney "Do you honestly ever think there will be a plus sized model on the cover of Vogue?"

Can it Renee. No one asked your bitter ass. And by the way Jennifer Hudson called, she's got a magazine cover to show you.

While I know the shows producers are aiming for high drama I really wish they'd give these girls a fair shot. They're plus sized girls, of course they're going to have different bodies, let the stylists know that. Don't judge them based on what is on the runway or in magazines if your goal, as you say is to change all that. Look at their pictures, look at the energy they bring forth and then make your choice.

Oh yeah and kick Renee off the show already.

What do you guys think, are we ever going to have a plus sized America's Next Top Model? Or does Tyra just like getting our hopes up?