Article originally published December 6, 2021.
Remember the reality show America’s next top model (abbreviated as ANTM), created, produced, hosted and chaired by former supermodel Tyra Banks?
From 2003 to 2015, this competition sought to elect the next US flagship model through increasingly grotesque challenges based on unlikely photo shoots and podiums full of obstacles.
Except from the end of the show, some models reveal the behind the scenes of the show on social media and reveal even darker corners.
Tyra Banks’s belated apology won’t undo years of glamorous abuse at ANTM
Already, in May 2020, Tyra Banks publicly apologized for the revolting insensitivity of some events, such as photo shoots in black face or homelessness, or inappropriate comments on transgender candidates.
As I told you recently in episode # 169 of Let me love you, I grew up with a certain fascination for this show. But I know very well that she has aged very badly!
Because seeing it again today allows us to realize how much it has been reproduced, trivialized, even has enchanted the worst of some sexist, racist and classist violence on the air.
Even today, many candidates take the floor on YouTube and TikTok to talk about other violence that took place behind the scenes, off-air.
The media Stunned summary. They were paid only $ 40 per day (including food). The incentives to shower naked together. Or the intimidation of so-called lawyers who threatened them with a $ 10 million lawsuit if they broke their nondisclosure agreement (confidentiality clause in a contract).
5 “cult” moments from ANTM that illustrate sacred violence
While many of these challenges, deliberations, and verdicts have become pop culture cult moments and even memes, seeing them again today sheds a different light on them. That of a change of mentality, helped in particular by #MeToo, in this regard harassment at work, gender-based and sexual violence, as well as racism and classism.
Here are some of the most obvious examples of the memification of humiliation.
The racism of a blackface, glamor
In the 2005 season a challenge consisted in the exchange of social races, heavily made up, giving birth in particular to certain ones black faces.
A completely banal and glamorous approach in the show, but that would never pass today. Because it’s racist, black faces, yes.
Body changes under threat and coercion
The show was also customary for beauty and makeover discounts. This involved in particular appointments with dentists and surgeons, to restore the smile to some …
In 2006, candidate Danielle refused to erase her teeth of happiness that Tyra Banks deemed impossible to commercialize (it’s not that Vanessa Paradis with her diastema had been Chanel’s muse since 1991, but nonetheless). And this, in degrading terms, accompanied by a grimace, before threatening to fire her from the show.
It was then under the influence of fear that Danielle ended up agreeing to reduce the space between her front teeth.
Dangerous and humiliating podium
Another recurring humiliation of the show: the catwalks increasingly unlikely and impossible.
Having to go down the stairs and avoid the giant pendulums, smiling at the camera, walking along a semblance of an unstable alley on stilts over the water still looking elegant and serene, not to mention parading in a giant hamster with air bubbles, on a lake, without being destabilized by the jets of water as a bonus … Stop!
Unpunished sexual violence
In season 15, during a particularly exotic photo shoot, contestant Keenyah repeatedly expressed her discomfort at the pressing demands of a photographer who wanted men to be closer and closer to her. One of them was even moaning in her ear, which only added to her discomfort.
The candidate ended up leaving the set in tears, explicitly saying: ” My limit has been exceeded. »How to trivialize the culture of rape and mock the consent on the air, but do it in fashion.
Moral harassment at work
Finally, probably ANTM’s most famous session precisely because it became a meme, is definitely the elimination of Tiffany in season 4.
What we often forget is the reason for the screaming match: seeing Tiffany take the time to kiss other candidates smiling to greet them, Tyra Banks thinks she doesn’t seem “sad enough” to leave the adventure. She then gives him a completely inappropriate speech in the professional sphere, which could be legally qualified as moral harassment, with the aggravating circumstance of the abuse of authority as a superior:
“Shut up, Tiffany. Shut up ! What’s wrong with you? QUIT ! I’ve never screamed at such a girl in my life. When my mother screams like that, it’s because she loves me. I supported you, we all supported you! How dare you !
Learn something from this! When you come home in the evening and lie down in bed, you take responsibility. Because no one will be responsible for you. You roll your eyes … Is it because you’ve heard it all before?
Far from finished totally excessive and unwarranted soap, Tyra Banks then he ensures his personal impunity and overturns the guilt by posing as the person offended by the behavior of the eliminated candidate who has not cried enough for his tastes:
You don’t know where from I to come. You have no idea what Ithey lived, but I I am not a victim. I grow and Ilearn. Take your responsibilities. “
Imagine your boss yelling at you like that. Publicly. Let it be filmed, broadcast on television and for eternity as a meme on social networks.
In fact, it is one of the sequences of trivialization of humiliations at work and overturning of guilt the most flagrant and violent. In short, Tyra Banks is far from being a model, and ever since America’s next top model, the company has come a long way. Still happy.
Une Photo Credit: YouTube screenshot of an excerpt from ANTM.
Source: Madmoizelle
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
